Auction Item Details
Lot 310
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Lot Number: 310
Description: The African American Sport Tributary: A School Marm's Dream, consists of more than 1,800 sports related items from the collection of Elizabeth Meaders. It has been assembled to document the glorious story of African American Sports participation. That participation is a poignant and inspiring story that has never previously been told through the medium of sports memorabilia. When Ms. Meaders, a school teacher, created her collection, she started right off by making the bold statement that, "American Sports history itself starts with an African American sports hero!" She then proceeds to tell the story of a slave whose pugilistic feats caught the eye of a sports loving British nobleman who purchased this slave, named Bill Richmond, and then took him to England where his abilities thrilled the boxing public. Further down the sports history timeline, our new Nation embraced the spectator sport of horse racing, which was dramatically dominated by African American jockeys until racism closed the door to their participation. Another little known gem of sports history is that in the year 1902, the richest sports personality in the world was an African American named Major Taylor. He was the fastest bicycle-riding man in the world, the sport of choice in the year 1902. Various items in the Meaders Collection document these stories and highlight other little-known African American sports tidbits. The remarkable story of the Harlem Renaissance basketball team is important because they were the seed from which all subsequent Black basketball teams modeled themselves. Thus creating a new brand of fast-paced, entertainment-laden basketball with winning results. Their style of play was exported to Europe through the Harlem Globetrotters and other Harlem-named basketball ambassadors where an eager sports marketplace embraced them in an arena devoid of racism based on color. The African American Sports Tributary: A School Marm's Dream, consists of letters, documents, awards, equipment, original art, commemoratives and photos, many of which are historically significant. The collection is unique in many ways. In a hobby dominated by male participants, the Meader's Collection might well be the first large serious sports collection ever conceived and assembled by a female. Auction records seem to suggest that no African American sports collection covering the full range of diversified American Sports relics has ever been previously offered at auction. In order to keep this "wisp of a dream" collection intact, the entire collection is being offered as an unprecedented single auction lot. Serendipity aside, what we have in this quite special sport collection is a story of doors closed and doors opened. "Closed doors" is the sad story of the Negro Leagues and other missed opportunities for glory on the world sports stage. "Opened doors" is the story of today's African American athletes who have welcomed the opportunity to compete in sports, especially since sports "rule" our nation's interest. These African American athletes have broadened the playing standards, quickened the game pace, and added drama to the sports scene while playing with their whole heart. They have effectively given a gift to American sports by providing something that was previously profoundly missing: the ingredient known as soul.
Estimated Price: (Estimate On Request)
