TIM GALLAGHER – COLLECTOR & BASKETBALL HISTORIAN – EPISODE 659

Website – loveofthegameauctions.com

Email – timgall@gmail.com

Twitter – @TimGall13

Tim Gallagher is a collector and basketball historian.  Tim continues to build and grow his collection of sports cards and autographs, which started when he was a 10-year-old growing up in Dayton, Ohio.  In the late 1960’s nearby Dayton Flyers basketball, Cincinnati Royals NBA basketball with Oscar Robertson, the Bench-Rose Cincinnati Reds, and the expansion Cincinnati Bengals under Coach Paul Brown sparked Tim’s passion for sports and collecting.

Tim’s collection has been featured in Sports Collectors Daily, Sports Collectors Digest, The Dayton Daily News, and as a guest on podcast interviews including Wax Museum: A Basketball Card Podcast. 

Tim graduated from Bowling Green State University with a degree in Business Administration. He is a life-long student of former UCLA Basketball Coach John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success.

If you’re looking to improve your coaching please consider joining the Hoop Heads Mentorship Program.  We believe that having a mentor is the best way to maximize your potential and become a transformational coach. By matching you up with one of our experienced mentors you’ll develop a one on one relationship that will help your coaching, your team, your program, and your mindset.  The Hoop Heads Mentorship Program delivers mentoring services to basketball coaches at all levels through our team of experienced Head Coaches. Find out more at hoopheadspod.com or shoot me an email directly mike@hoopheadspod.com

Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram @hoopheadspod for the latest updates on episodes, guests, and events from the Hoop Heads Pod and check out the Hoop Heads Podcast Network for more great basketball content including The Green Light, Courtside Culture and our team focused NBA Podcasts:  Knuck if you Buck, The 305 Culture, & Lakers Fast Break We’re looking for more NBA podcasters interested in hosting their own show centered on a particular team. Email us info@hoopheadspod.com if you’re interested in learning more and bringing your talent to our network.

Please enjoy this episode with Tim Gallagher, collector and basketball historian. 

What We Discuss with Tim Gallagher

• Growing up with University of Dayton Basketball
• Learning about autograph collecting from an older cousin – using index cards, waiting in team hotels, and mailing to players
• The thrill of getting an autograph that he still gets today
• His Dad, himself, and a few friends driving Campy Russell and a Michigan teammate back to the team hotel after they played against Dayton
• How he got Larry Bird’s autograph before Bird’s first season at Indiana State
• His method for keeping his collection organized when he was a kid
• Getting Magic Johnson’s autograph outside of Dr. Jerry Buss’s Hotel before a game in Phoenix
• How access to players has changed throughout his time collecting from the late 60’s until now
• His experiences getting Michael Jordan’s autograph and eventually selling a signed Jordan rookie card for over $40,000
• The process for getting a signature authenticated
• Getting a job with SCP Auctions after selling a few items with the company
• The beauty of five players coming together in a pick up game
• His top 5 players of all-time
• Comparing players across eras and appreciating their skills
• Al McGuire, Weinermobiles, & 7 Up spots

Like this show? Please leave us a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

Become a Patron!

We’re excited to partner with Dr. Dish, the world’s best shooting machine! Mention the Hoop Heads Podcast when you place your order and get $300 off a brand new state of the art Dr. Dish Shooting Machine!

Prepare like the pros with the all new FastDraw and FastScout. FastDraw has been the number one play diagramming software for coaches for years, and now with it’s integrated web platform, coaches have the ability to add video to plays and share them directly to their players Android and iPhones via their mobile app. Coaches can also create customized scouting reports,  upload and send game and practice film straight to the mobile app. Your players and staff have never been as prepared for games as they will after using FastDraw & FastScout. You’ll see quickly why FastModel Sports has the most compelling and intuitive basketball software out there! In addition to a great product, they also provide basketball coaching content and resources through their blog and playbank, which features over 8,000 free plays and drills from their online coaching community. For access to these plays and more information, visit fastmodelsports.com or follow them on Twitter @FastModel.  Use Promo code HHP15 to save 15%

Your first impression is everything when applying for a new coaching job.  A professional coaching portfolio is the tool that highlights your coaching achievements and philosophies and, most of all, helps separate you and your abilities from the other applicants.

The key to landing a new coaching job is to demonstrate to the hiring committee your attention to detail, level of preparedness, and your professionalism.  Not only does a coaching portfolio allow you to exhibit these qualities, it also allows you to present your personal philosophies on coaching, leadership, and program development in an organized manner.

The Coaching Portfolio Guide is an instructional, membership-based website that helps you develop a personalized portfolio.  Each section of the portfolio guide provides detailed instructions on how to organize your portfolio in a professional manner.  The guide also provides sample documents for each section of your portfolio that you can copy, modify, and add to your personal portfolio.

THANKS TIM GALLAGHER

If you enjoyed this episode with Tim Gallagher let him know by clicking on the link below and sending him a quick shout out on Twitter:

Click here to thank Tim Gallagher on Twitter!

Click here to let Mike & Jason know about your number one takeaway from this episode!

And if you want us to answer your questions on one of our upcoming weekly NBA episodes, drop us a line at mike@hoopheadspod.com.

TRANSCRIPT FOR TIM GALLAGHER – COLLECTOR & BASKETBALL HISTORIAN – EPISODE 659

[00:00:00] Mike Klinzing: Hello and welcome to the Hoop heads Podcast. It’s Mike Klinzing here without my co-host Jason Sunkle tonight, but I am pleased to be joined by Tim Gallagher, basketball historian and collector, Tim. Welcome to the Hoop Heads Pod.

[00:00:12] Tim Gallagher: Thank you, Mike. Great to talk with you. And I’m a native Ohioan, although I’ve lived out west for many years, but always good to connect with a basketball friend in Ohio.

[00:00:22] Mike Klinzing: Excited to have you on, looking forward to diving into all the things that you have been a part of through your memorabilia collection, chasing down autographs and your story’s kind of a remarkable one. So I’m looking forward to, it’s going to be kind of a little bit of a different episode for us, but there’s a lot of great stories that you have to tell.

And we’re going to start out by going back in time to, as you mentioned, you’re an Ohio kid grew up with Ohio basketball with at near the University of Dayton. So just talk a little bit about your earliest experiences with the game of basketball. What made you fall in love with it.

[00:00:58] Tim Gallagher: Sure. Well when I was a young kid about eight years old Dayton made it to the NCAA finals.

So final four championship game. They ended up losing the UCLA Coach Wooden, Lou Alcindor, as he was known. Then now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of course. So, so those were kind of my first basketball memories. And even though the media and awareness was different than it is these days I definitely sensed even at a young age that something special was going on in the community just the, the general interest and excitement about Dayton getting that far in the tournament.

And I followed the game. Some my dad had been lucky enough to score some tickets on occasion to the UD field house. This was before UD arena was built several years later. So it was a tough, tough ticket because of the tradition that Dayton had built up in the fifties and into the sixties.

 having success in, in the post season and, and when the N it was, was almost on equal footing with NCAA tournament, believe it or not Dayton had some real success there as well. So that kind of opened my eyes to the excitement that basketball could generate. And the house we lived in in Centerville was there, there was a hoop on the, the side of the garage.

So there was a little paved to the east side of the garage, a little paved lane where you could park a car, but generally there wasn’t a car there. The, the hoop was against that that side of the wall. And so kind of the convergence of dating Dayton, having that success and the, the excitement built around basketball.

A lot more hours were spent out dribbling and shooting on that garage hoop. And so that’s really where it kind of all got started. And then Dayton had a couple of star players at the time a guy named Don may who was a first team, all American and just one of those kind of guys that just carried himself with a certain kind of class and, and style and, and not intentional, right.

He just had it, right. You you’ve been around different athletes, right. That just, they walk into a room. And even if you don’t know who it is, it’s like that, that guy’s somebody, right. So Don May and I didn’t, of course didn’t have that awareness of all this as a kid, but I knew that when you waited after a game and got Don May’s autograph, when he came walking out of the locker room with his Letterman jacket on, it was like can life get any more cool than this for a young kid right.

This meeting you’re hero. Right. And so that really got everything going. And then Dayton, the very next year had had a great season as well. So I kind of gotten on the bandwagon, obviously still a very young kid, but getting older and more aware of what was going on Dayton goes on to win the nit the next year at Madison square garden, they beat Kansas with Jo Jo White, which was obviously a big deal, right, where you’re playing some of the powerhouses in college basketball and beating them.

So and then a number of my friends at school that was something we talked about. We  enjoyed all the sports at the time, but basketball and in particular basketball and Dayton was, was quite exciting. And at recess in almost any kind of weather you could be outdoors and you know how that is in Ohio.

I’ve lived out in Arizona and San Diego the last 40 years, basically. So I don’t, you’ve been spoiled. You’ve been spoiled. I’ve gotten spoiled. I can basically go out and shoot in my driveway court 365 days a year for the most part. But you we’d always at lunchtime, whatever time we had to get out on the playground, we’d play basketball.

Right. That was our sport of choice. So that, that really got it all going.

[00:04:44] Mike Klinzing: When did you start the collection process? Who was the first athlete that you said, boy, I really like to get that autograph. Was it organic? Was it something that just sort of happened or was it more of a plan? Just describe how you first got into the collection business.

[00:05:01] Tim Gallagher: Sure. Well, and I’d started collecting sports cards. Actually the first basketball cards, at least for someone my age didn’t really come out until 1969. There were a couple of sets.  in the forties and fifties and early sixties, but I would’ve been way too young for that, but bought baseball and football cards and followed all the sports as a kid.

So the first thing was just kind of collecting cards and and, and athletes, and again, my dad thankfully exposed me to a lot of sports, took me to a lot of games. We lived near Cincinnati as well. So I think the first autographs I got were at a reds game. I remember getting a game program signed down by the dugout.

 we’d gotten there early enough before the game for some of batting practice. And you could just walk down by the field and try to get a player to come over and sign. I, I wasn’t really going after anyone in particular, just anyone in uniform that was nearby, that it was a thrill to get an autograph that way.

But some of those rare chances I got to go see Dayton play. And again, my dad. Didn’t have season tickets. They were very, there was a long waiting list for tickets. And again, especially when they played in the smaller UD field house now, after they had that tournament run university of date and got built and opened about 1970 and basically more than doubled the size of, of the arena.

And we were finally able to get a share of season tickets with some other people, but waiting after those games to get  program signed, I wasn’t sophisticated enough to know about getting index cards or photos.  there was kind of limited availability of that kind of material at those at those times.

Anyway. But so those were kind of the first experience of meeting the athletes, getting the autograph and, and definitely there was. A certain little charger spark that gave you to have that encounter that was kind of fun. And the players that were nice and signed it kind of gave you an additional  connection to them, so to speak.

And we kind of pulled for them a little more potentially, but I had an older cousin in Chicago about five years older than me, bill baker. And, and he, he was kind of way ahead of the game with collecting and, and kind of showed me the ropes about getting autographs on baseball cards, getting them on magazine pictures like a tear out of a full page picture from sports illustrated or sports illustrated cover.

And then index cards were kind of handy just because. They were generic, right? They’re just three by five white pieces of of paper. But pretty handy for getting autographs on, especially if the player wasn’t on a card or that was all there was to get of them. So that, that was kind of the foundation of it was him visiting from Chicago in the summers we were cousins and would, would do things together, go to a Redgate, go down to the ballpark.

But also he kind of opened up the other aspects of you could wait at the team hotels and get autographs in the lobby or down in front of the hotel where the team bus was, he showed how you could send to the teams through the mail.  send individual players through the mail and send a stamp return envelope.

And there was some risk involved there, right. If you’re sending a baseball card that was  one of your favorites, there’s a chance they might not sign in and send it back. Right. So, right. So, so there was kind of a risk reward there, but fortunately, most players answered in those days and I kind of tested the waters kind of carefully early on where I’d maybe just send to players where I had doubles of that card or something.

And but that, that really got it going in terms of the in person autographs, both at the, the stadiums or the ballparks at the hotels, as well as through the mail. So  quite exciting as a young kid to kind of have that whole world opened up in terms of access and and sending the athletes.

[00:08:50] Mike Klinzing: Absolutely. So when you’re sending these requests to athletes, how are you finding. The address is pre-internet obviously right. Where are you sending them? What does that process look like? Are you sending ’em to the basketball office? If you’re trying to get a basketball player, are you sending them in care of the Cincinnati reds?

How are you going about just getting those where they’re actually going to get to the players?

[00:09:12] Tim Gallagher: Right. Well, you, you mentioned Mike, no internet, right? So just think of how limited the resources were you technically at the time and I guess I owe a big thank you to the post and post office and postal workers back in the day.

Right? Because I don’t think I was very sophisticated initially. In terms of mailing out, I might have sent Mr. Pete Rose, Cincinnati reds Crosley field, Cincinnati, Ohio no zip code, no street address, nothing. And somehow I think they figured it out because a lot of those letters did get answered and but  we got a little more sophisticated in terms of in those days there were different.

 baseball guides, basketball guides, like the NBA guide used to be published and they’d have each of the teams and their addresses. In fact, I still have some copies of ’em on my bookshelf right here from back in those days like from the, the late sixties, early seventies. So, so those had addresses in them as well, but gosh I, I don’t even really remember how we kind of knew zip codes.

Again, we were starting some of this before  zip codes were, were kind of required or standard for mailing, but but we, we got things caught up in and figured out addresses, but yes, Kara, the major league teams, if it was a college athlete, we’d send it care of the, of the college and then put athletic department or basketball office.

And  generally, like I said, we had very good success when I say we, I once I started Collecting and not just collecting the cards, but then pursuing the whole autograph angle.  I of course shared it with my friends at school and we were all enjoying playing sports together and following sports, talking sports.

And so when I would come to school and say, Hey, I got so, and so back in the mail yesterday, that, what are you talking about? How you got the autograph, how’d you do that? And so  a couple it’s funny, there was probably anywhere from 10 to 15 guys who, who gave it a try, right?

Who got into it for a while, but  not many of them kind of stuck with it. Right. I mean, most all of them had some success, but either just were not as interested as we were, or not as determined. But there were three of us in particular and there were stories written about us later in the date and paper when we were in high school.

And then actually not that long ago, they did kind of a 50 years later look, these guys are still messing with a hobby. So that, that was kind of fun and interesting, but yeah, a couple of us really took it seriously and devoted a lot of time and energy into it.

[00:11:48] Mike Klinzing: How far into it were you before you knew it was going to be a thing?

[00:11:52] Tim Gallagher: Well it was really addicting.  just again, I kind of talked already about the excitement and I’m sure you’ve had the same thing. Right. Be it someone in basketball, if you meet a notable basketball player or a coach there there’s a certain excitement to meeting them.

Right. And then getting their autograph. I don’t know if it might not be your thing to get the autograph, but just that engagement, I guess you’d say with some of these notable athletes and players that we’d seen on television or read about in the magazines. And then now here they are in the lobby of the hotel and we’re standing right next to ’em having them sign autographs for us or outside the locker room at, at the stadium.

It was really quite exciting and new pictures, new cards, new players, I mean, that’s still part of the fun of, of sports. And following basketball is every year there’s a new wave of, of new players just like tonight as we’re recording this, the NBA draft’s going on, right. So it’s going to be fun to see who emerges and who the next stars are and who, who we’re talking about as, as favorite players.

So that. Churn of, of new talent and, and new players to pursue, to collect  every year also kind of kept kept it going. So, yeah, we got into it pretty heavily. And and again, other than a few gaps maybe during high school and college where it was probably on the side or back burner for me, but never totally out of, out of my mind.

But  just fewer opportunities to, to collect things, but always, always kind of head in the back of my mind, but during the course of my life, there’s been times where it’s been much more of a focal point, but it’s always kind of been there. And, and even to this day I still mail out mostly to older retired NBA players and  kind of back filling some things for my collection or things like that.

But it’s still a treat to go to the mailbox and see, sees, see one of my return envelopes And the postmark from wherever it’s, it still gives me a little charge.

[00:13:53] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. I can imagine when you think about it as a kid and you think about the connection that we all have as kids to athletes and the people that you look up to that you hear hear ’em on the radio back then you see ’em on TV.

Maybe you’re lucky enough, like you were with players at the university of Dayton to be able to go and actually see them in person. And then to have that personal connection, I could see where that could very, very quickly be addicting and gives you an opportunity to interact in, in, in some small way with those athletes that are sort of part of your childhood that you looked up to.

And I know one of the stories that you sent me was an opportunity you had after the university of Michigan played against Dayton, and you actually had, you had actually had a chance to give a couple players a ride. Yeah. After after the game.

[00:14:46] Tim Gallagher: So tell us that one. Sure. Well, your, your Cleveland listeners obviously know the name Campy Russell

I know he is still involved with the organization, so I’ve kind of hinted. So two of my other buddies Jack Zimmerman and Vince Martin kind of shared my appetite, let’s say for collecting. And as an example, when the new college basketball magazines would come out at the time, there was something called street and Smiths, and there were other publications that came out, but they’d rank who, who the top, all Americans were the top incoming freshman or  newcomers to the scene.

And so we would divide and conquer to mail to those players.  we’d each kind of take a third of the list and send three index cards. And so if a player would answer, I’d keep one and then give one each to Jack and Vincent, same thing when they heard from another player. They’d  they’d share the wealth and that way we got many, many more of the players and  just kind of  literally just took the, the names and divided in thirds and went for it.

Well, some of the players, when they responded, not only did they comply and signed our cards, but they might write a letter or  write, write to us almost like to become a pen pal. Right. They, they were happy to have a fan following them from somewhere maybe in another part of the country.

And it was kind of cool to them as well. And so it just so happened that one of those players that answered Vince was campy Russell. Again, this is early in his Michigan career and as fate would have it, Michigan played at Dayton  during later that season. So campy Russell wrote that, Hey, we’re going to be playing Dayton and maybe I’ll see you there kind of thing.

And so we. Put that in the back of our minds that, well, Vince kind of has a connection with this guy. Maybe we can we can get to meet him beyond just get his autograph. We can talk to him and meet some of the other players. Now we, we kind of have a, an insider connection there to Michigan basketball.

Right. So. I remember when Michigan came into town, Vince was a little shy to call. We somehow we figured out what hotel they were coming to. Again, things were a lot less sophisticated 50 or so years ago. So one of our other friends Paul Donaher, who was coach Don Donna, her son, who was our age and kind of along for the ride for a lot of this fun, he, he was pretty pretty bold.

And so he said, I’ll, I’ll call I’ll call camp. And I’ll just say, I’m you and tell him we’ll, we’ll meet you after the game. And  we’ll talk to you then. And sure enough, he called and campy agreed. And we would’ve been waiting after photographs anyway, but we kind of had a a plan now, so sure enough, after the game I went back actually not too long ago and looked, and it was a pretty tight game.

Michigan ended up winning in a close game. So we’re waiting afterwards and. The players came out, we talked to, ’em got some things signed well as unbelievably Michigan’s team bus had broken down. And so they were kind of scrambling. And again, this was long before Uber or Lyft or other, other ways to get people around.

Right. It was pretty much taxi cabs, I guess, or, or the team bus. And so we, we knew where the team was staying, because my buddy had already called there and it was kind of on our way home.  my dad was patiently waiting as we  visited with the players. And so long story short, we ended up giving campy Russell and another player, Ken Brady who was a, a Michigan star, six, 10.

He ended up playing overseas. He didn’t play in the NBA, Ken Brady, but played overseas for a long time. And then campy Russ of course, was a star for the calves and played for the kn some as well. And. Went onto a great career, but my dad had a big old giant Oldsmobile. So somehow we got like four or five kids and those two players and my dad somehow  who knows about safety and seat belts and yeah, no,

[00:18:38] Mike Klinzing: That was not a factor in that era.

[00:18:41] Tim Gallagher: No, and people don’t realize how big some of those big Oldsmobiles were. Right. I mean so we ended up driving those guys back to their hotel which you, we were just out of our minds that we had Campy Russell and Ken Brady in my dad’s car. And so that was yeah, a, a fun and memorable experience.

And, and thank goodness the Michigan team bus had mechanical problems and it opened the door for us for a, yeah. For a story. We never, never forgotten the right place right time. Yep. For sure.

[00:19:11] Mike Klinzing: And yet another story like that, right place, right time with a guy that eventually became famous. But when you met him, Was not famous Larry Bird.

So tell that story.

[00:19:19] Tim Gallagher: Sure. Well over the years getting autographs at different games I know we were all heartbroken when the Cincinnati Royals moved to Kansas city in the early seventies. So the closest place, even though we were Ohio natives and as  just from the geography of Ohio, Dayton to Cleveland is, is a longer drive than to go to Indianapolis.

So the closest place where pro basketball then became Indiana Indiana Pacers who were still in the ABA, at least initially. And then after the merger, of course were part of the NBA. But yeah, during the high school and college years, I was busy doing other things. I played high school basketball.

And then in college, just being a college student and collecting sports cards and autographs wasn’t necessarily  the highest thing on my list, although it was always kind of there. But if there were certain Times when the schedule aligned right where the Pacers were playing maybe the jazz with pistol Pete or they’re playing the Knicks with Earl Pearl Monroe and Spencer Haywood, Bob McAdoo so we would make the trip over there for those games obviously to see the players of course, but also to get autographs too.

So, and again, back in those days, it was much, much easier than it would be now to get autographs where you could essentially walk down by where the locker rooms were. There might be one security guard standing by the door of the locker room. But everything was pretty relaxed and and players were pretty accessible.

So I was waiting by the locker room for the players to come out and a security guard. Older gentleman came over to me and said, well, if you’re getting autographs, you should get that blonde headed boy leaning against the wall over there. And I, I looked at the player and didn’t really recognize who it was and.

He said, I said, well, who is he? And he said, well, his name’s Larry Bird and he’s going to play for Indiana state next year. So you should go get him. Well, I had index cards with me as well as some photos, not photos of him, of course, but I had an index cards, always a good all-purpose thing to get signed.

And so not knowing who Larry Bird was. And again, the age of information and the in, in, in, let’s say, let’s say this was probably 1976 or 77 timeframe maybe. And the time where he had left after his brief stay at Indiana. And sat out before Indiana state convinced him to come back and give playing college basketball, a try.

But  he’d had some success with Indiana high school basketball, but again, with the recruiting and all the information, even for somebody like me, who’s scouring. Street and Smiths and who were the top high school players and all of it. I had no idea who Larry Bird was, but took the advice of that security guard and, and had Larry sign an index card and just kind of tucked it away.

And lo and behold the next season you start reading about this guy at Indiana state putting up these 35, 30, 8, 40, like, who is this guy? Larry Bird and . And so that was, yeah, a lot of fun to have gotten him.  when he was mostly unknown and had not really emerged onto the scene at all yet

[00:22:24] Mike Klinzing: Before we get into his partner in crime that he was linked with over time magic Johnson.

And I’ll let you tell that story, but how’d you keep all this stuff organized as you were collecting it, especially as a young kid, what’d you do? Where’d you put it how’d you make sure that you had it cataloged, so you didn’t lose all this stuff that you were putting together.

[00:22:44] Tim Gallagher: Sure. Yeah. And thankfully I’ve always been pretty detail oriented and organized and and my mom was the same way and and knew enough to not toss out my card.

Right, right. Or, or whatever. She knew they were quite important to me and but the tools of the trade, so to speak of being a collector are nothing like they are now, right now, there’s protective sheets and binders and sleeves. And  for almost any size of card or photo back in those days, it was just I, I kept things in a folder I I’d kind of check my dad’s  office supplies at the desk.

He used at home to pay bills and things. Right. Like what kind of filing system did he have or use? And, and so the, the magazine pictures  sports illustrated covers and things like that, I essentially just put in a Manila folder and keep them neatly placed in there and.

The sports cards kind of the old school shoe boxes and  just neatly stack them in shoe boxes and index cards. I try to find maybe another type of a box that were more conducive to keeping the index cards and kind of had, ’em filed a to Z, but again, this was long before there were the sleeves and binders and things like they have today, but always kept them preserved.

And to this day I have a lot of those items and yeah, before we hang, hang up and finish this I do post something for my collection every day on Twitter. I call it today’s treasure for my collection. So some of these items I’ve had for over 50 years in, in my collection. So I’ll, I’ll post some things like that.

And usually put a little brief story about some of the context, but  before we, we wrap up, I’ll let the listeners know where they can find that.

[00:24:31] Mike Klinzing: That’s really cool. I went on and over the last day or two kind of looked at what you have on there. And there’s definitely some things that jog memories for me.

When you think for the, the first sort of basketball cards that were out there, because when I was a kid, so I was born in 1970, and most of what I remember collecting when I was younger was baseball and football card. So even though basketball was my number, one thing, football and baseball cards were just so much more accessible at that time, but they were the big, tall, like oversized basketball carts.

And those are the ones that I remembered. I still have one set of those rubber banded. I probably have maybe I bet I have 35 to 40 of those cards. At some point, I feel like I had a Dr. J. But I don’t know, but I don’t, I don’t, it’s not in my, it’s not in my pile now. So maybe it’s in one of the many, many, many boxes of childhood junk that I have that I might have to go through someday and, and look through, but it’s not in my, my pile of those oversized basketball coach, but those were really unique and, and very cool.

Cause there was nothing else out there like that at the time, for sure, just from the uniqueness of the size, but then also there just wasn’t much basketball product out there at all.

[00:25:46] Tim Gallagher: Right. I think you’re talking about the 1976 top set. Yeah. Which had NBA and ABA players. Yes, yes. And those cards I liked, especially because they, it had had their college statistics on the back too.

So since they were kind of oversized there was room for a little more information. And so I have such an appetite for learning about every detail of these players. We, it, it was cool to see their college stats as well as their NBA stats up to that point of their career. But yeah, that’s a really cool set.

Because of the size of them too. They were really nice for getting autographs. Right. Cause there was just more space right. For the guy to sign. So, yep. I know those cards quite well and and despite how cool they are, they’re pretty available and accessible at reasonable fees now autograph ones are a different story, but just right.

Getting those cards, I would say they’re very undervalued in terms of their level of coolness and some of the legends that are in that, that set.

[00:26:47] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. I really like those. I remember those are some amongst some of my favorite cards as a kid, and it’s just, you look back on some of the stuff that you had, and most of my stuff was still just like you.

I didn’t do, I’m sure as good of a job of taking care of it as you did. Because mine were rubber banded and thrown in boxes and whatever. But I had, I remember, as you were talking about finding boxes for your index cards, I had. Two boxes that I used. One was like, I think, designed for recipes, Uhhuh. Yeah. So it was a recipe box.

And then I had another one that was, I had gotten that held like wild animal cards from maybe national geographic . Yep. And I, I took all the wild animal cards out at some point and replace that with, I think I had my NFL cards in there, so I had, ’em organized by teams and stuffed them in there to make ’em all fit.

And it’s funny just when you look back at it as kids and you collected those for the, for the fun of it and not ever thinking that there would necessarily be any value in it, at least that’s the way I looked at it

[00:27:47] Tim Gallagher:. Well, you just triggered a memory the, with the recipe PO recipe boxes reference, because come to think of it, my mom.

 those recipe boxes were really good for holding signed index cards. right. So I think my mom might’ve wondered what happened in my recipe box were and, and same with my dad with office supplies and yeah. And again is, is my buddies and I kind of took this from just what my parents thought might be a passing phase to  kind of back to your original question.

Like, how did you know that you were all in on this, right. And when did that really take off? And I think my parents thought it would be a passing phase, right. That posted stamps that were rapidly disappearing from their stash and envelopes and stationary and, and things to write with  they, they started realizing, wait a minute, this this isn’t just a passing phase.

These, these guys are all in on this. So Hey, Money that you’re earning for cutting the grass or your allowance or running errands or things like that. You need to start buying some of this yourself

[00:28:59] Mike Klinzing: so there you go. That’s right. Sorry. Start to get some skin in, get some skin in the game, right?

[00:29:02] Tim Gallagher: Yeah. Well, and then by then we were becoming teenagers and a little more  able to do that kind of stuff. And so  so the timing actually kind of aligned pretty well and again, a lot of good life lessons learned from it, along with the joy of, of collecting.

[00:29:17] Mike Klinzing: No question. So we mentioned earlier that you were able to get Larry Bird pre Larry Bird becoming the player that he eventually became and as well known as he eventually became.

The guy that he’s forever linked with in basketball history is Magic Johnson. And that one didn’t come to you quite as easily. So tell the story of chasing down Magic Johnson’s autograph.

[00:29:38] Tim Gallagher: Sure. Well, in, in my high school and college years, again, the collecting was especially, I’d say later in high school because I was playing varsity basketball at alter high school, which is a school, a lot of the Ohios back there might know.

And  it was, it was quite a feat just to, to earn a uniform on the varsity in that program. But so I had a lot of dedication and time devoted to that. And then of course being in college too, just having part-time jobs and going to school and all all the things that go with it.

So there was not as much time to invest in the hobby, but certainly would, as I mentioned, go to Indiana to see games on occasion. When I was at bowling green, we’d go to Cleveland or up to Detroit to see a game on occasion as. And then Dayton arena has hosted more NCAA tournament games than any other venue.

And, and so when it was built in the 1970 Dayton was very on the the leading edge, the athletic director at the time got in top fors was way ahead of his time in terms of actively pursuing, having NCAA games played in, in Dayton’s arena. Now, of course, it’s almost like you bidding for the Olympics, right?

Anytime, anytime your city can be a host city for any round of the tournament  not just the final four, right? Just any, any of the first and second rounds. And I’m sure you’ve probably seen it in Cleveland and  other cities it’s, it’s it’s quite an exciting event to host, but Dayton was kind of ahead of its time in a lot of ways in hosting games.

So of course I was right there to see them all as well. And so.  it certainly became a little bit of aware of who magic Johnson was. And again, the information flow wasn’t anything like it is today, even for somebody as devoted to the game as I was. But so magic’s freshman year at Michigan state, they played in Dayton in the NCAA tournament.

They played Western Kentucky in the, the semifinals of the regional semifinals, and then they played Kentucky in the regional finals. And so I’d gone to those games. I think I was home from bowling green during spring break and coincided with when those games were played. And so I’d seen magic play against Western Kentucky.

First time I’d seen him play in person and thought, wow, this this guy is electric, right? There’s not many players I’ve ever seen in person. I I’d seen Dr. Jay play. I’d seen.  wilt Jerry West, Walt Frazier, Oscar, Kareem those kind of players earlier on in the early seventies play in Cincinnati, but  very few players that kind of generated the buzz like magic did as a freshman at Michigan state.

So I thought, well, this is an autograph I probably should have. Right. This would be a fun guy to get and add to the collection so that didn’t get him that night after Western Kentucky. I didn’t, didn’t try I just didn’t see him play and kind of thought, well, since they won, I’ll see him after the game on the weekend.

And then, and get him then just, just presumed I would get ’em right. I I, I was pretty determined and organized and thought I’d find a way. Well after they lost to Kentucky and that Kentucky team went on to win the NCAA championship not long after that that was 1978 though.

The Kentucky with Joe B. Hall, Kyle Macy Jackie then said really good Kentucky team. That’s the first,

[00:33:00] Mike Klinzing: That’s the first sports illustrated cover that I remember is “the goose was golden”

[00:33:06] Tim Gallagher: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Shooting that lefthanded jumper. Yep. But anyway, so that was the game and tight game went down to the last seconds and Kyle Macy hit some clutch free throws to kind of seal it.

And, and so I was familiar with the Dayton arena from getting autographs there throughout the years. And so kind of waited by the ramp or the players would walk out to get to the bus and it just presumed that I’d be able to get magic. And he had a teammate on that team, Greg counselor, who was a very high draft pick and ended up playing on the pistons, had some injuries.

So his pro career never really took off, but he still does the color commentating for the pistons to this day. But. At that time, he was pretty much on equal par with, with magic in terms of a, a star and a, and a talent and the next year they would go on and win the NCAA championship themselves.

But this, this is after they just got knocked off by Kentucky. So I waited afterwards, Kelser came out, I was able to get him on an index card. But by then there was a little more of a, a crowd and kind of was realizing, oh, that magic is, he’s already kind of like a pied Piper, right. There’s people, the people that want a piece of them.

Right. So this is going to be harder than I thought. And, and even instead of getting on the T bus, he kind of got whisked away into a private car and their season had just ended. So I don’t know if he was going back to the hotel or going all the way back to east laning, who knows. But it, it kind of all happened in a, in a blur and, and he was gone and I didn’t get his signature.

So, so that kind of stuck with me. I mean, I was disappointed I didn’t get him because I saw that he was going to be quite a, quite a star in the future. And so just kind of thought, well, someday I’ll get him, but it, it wasn’t that day and that kind of stuck in the back of my mind. And so fast forward, graduated from bowling green, moved out west to the Phoenix area.

I was working for a bank in downtown Phoenix and a couple blocks from the bank’s headquarters was a hotel called Jerry Buss’s, Camelback, Sahara, which AARA, which Jerry Buss was the owner of the Lakers, of course. And a lot of people who maybe saw or heard about the winning time series that was just on HBO, not long ago kind of brought Jerry Buss his.

Legendary status as a Laker owner  to a lot of people’s attention, right. Anyway, but in those days, again, most fans didn’t even know who the owners of the teams were.  it wasn’t like it is now where kind of the owners are also celebrities, but I’d still, hadn’t gotten magic’s autograph.

I hadn’t really aggressively gotten back into collecting or getting autographs, but I was living in NBA city in Phoenix. So certainly the, the teams were there. So it crossed my mind that, well, if Jerry bus owns the Lakers, the team is probably going to stay at the hotel that he owns as well.  and his name was literally on the marquee of the hotel so I kind of checked the, the calendar and looked for the next time the Lakers were going to be coming in to play the suns.

And again, my office was maybe two blocks from that hotel. So got outta the office a few minutes early just to get myself a little extra time and kind of turned the, the corner of the block where the hotel was and sure enough, there’s a, a bus idling out front, but no one else around it was almost eerily quiet and I thought, Hmm.

I, I mean, I assume that must be the team bus. And so I had my folder with my photos and index cards and lo and behold, a couple minutes later here comes some players in their purple warmup gear road, Lakers warmups, and Jamal Wilkes, norm Nixon Kareem, and then sure enough here’s magic and all smiles.

 I had some old sports illustrated pictures of him for him to sign. In ballpoint pen, by the way, I hadn’t quite figured out Sharpie markers yet that, that kind of was just on the horizon. So some of these vintage autographs that were gotten in ballpoint pen, because that’s really all there was.

Right. But so magic signed you. I think he signed three or four different things for me an index card in three different photos was very nice about it. And I also kind of got that energy rush of  the excitement of, of meeting the players and having that kind of interaction.

So combination of how easy it was that magic was very compliant and I kind of had that that little adrenaline rush of  mission accomplished, right. So I thought, wow that, that was pretty easy and it might be fun to get some of the other teams when they start coming in.

right. And  there were a few guys that. You kind of had my on that I, that I would like to add my collection. I remember Bernard king getting some more things that David Thompson some of the other stars that were emerging or in the league at the time. And so going back to get magic, which had been kind of that voided my collection basically re lit the spark and basically for the next  six years or so in Phoenix, I was quite prolific and, and collecting.

And then also that kind of sparked getting back into mailing out to players again as well, which I didn’t do do that basically at all during my college years. So so that would’ve been in the early eighties and really from that point on  I, I didn’t slow down much in terms of collecting.

[00:38:43] Mike Klinzing: When did it get more difficult to at cult to access the players? Is there a. time that you remember where suddenly it changed. Was it more gradual? Just obviously now it’s, it’s more difficult than it was during the stories that we’ve been talking about. You’re not going to be hanging out at the Lakers hotel and just be able to walk up to players on their way to the bus.

It just doesn’t happen that same way today with the extra security and everything else that’s going on. So do you remember when it flipped?

[00:39:15] Tim Gallagher: Well, I think kind of the business of collecting started to change in the eighties more so with baseball cards and  where  collecting became much more formal and the Beck price guides came out right.

And people started looking at cards beyond just collecting them for fun and for their own personal enjoyment, it, it started to become I’d say more of a, a business, right. Where some collectors were buying more for. Investment potential than, than just loving the game and loving the sport.  in terms of when things changed.

Well, when I moved from Phoenix to San Diego in 1987, obviously I wasn’t in an NBA city anymore. And so I didn’t really have access to the hotels. And I mean, here and there I would, or we’d get college players at hotels, but yeah, I would say kind of coinciding with, as, as Jordan became a rock star and and, and basketball players went from more to celebrity status, I would say.

So probably in, into the early to mid nineties, things started to change and and now it’s not, not that easy at all.  just. A couple months ago, my son goes, just had graduated from college actually last month, but he was still a student up in Northern California and went up to see him.

And we went to see the Mavericks play the warriors in San Francisco on a Sunday afternoon. And just for fun, we went by the the team hotel in San Francisco where the Mavericks were staying kind of knowing that it was probably going to be a unlikely chance to get Luca Doncic to sign something.

But nonetheless, we had a little more sophisticated folders than I had 50 years ago that kind of kind of were prepared the key is preparation and while we got there and of course there’s, you can’t get anywhere near the lobby of the hotel. You’re behind these barriers with hotel security, probably 20 or 30 feet from the bus.

So if a player is going to sign it all, they really have to make the effort to come over. And with someone like Luca, it, it it’s like he’s a rock star, right. So back in the days when I was getting autographs in Phoenix, there might be two or three of us at the most. And that day in San Francisco, there were probably 150 people behind these barricades.

 again, it was, it would be like if a rock star or movie star was there, right. Or, or whatever celebrity fill in the blank of, of today. And so we knew it was probably a unlikely chance that we would get anything. And, and we didn’t, a couple players did come over and sign a few things and, and actually Luca even came over and signed maybe two or three things.

But  but just kind of more A quick, quick obligation and then got on the bus. So maybe three out of 150 people got a signature that day so kind of where I am at this stage of life, it’s not really worth the time and investment for, for what the potential payoff could be, but, but  there’s other alternatives I well, prior to the pandemic, I would always go to Vegas for the summer league.

And there were a lot of players available and accessible there. And all the teams are there, right? So, I mean, you’re not going to get current active players that are stars in the league, but although sometimes they’re around they’re, they’re coming to watch their team practice or they’re  Darius Garland and Evan Mobley are, are not going to be playing on the calf summer league team, but they might be over there or they might.

Work out with them, if they have some practices and kind of help integrate with the young players. So, so I’ve gotten a few guys in recent years that way as well. But yeah, it, it definitely has changed and, and, and much more difficult. And and I would say too early on when I was collecting, if somebody would’ve told me someday I’d be getting high school players autographs, I would’ve, I would’ve told them there’s just no way.

I’m trying to remember the first high school players I got, I want to say it was Tyson Chandler.  so however many years ago he was emerging as a high school star. And there was a big Nike tournament here in San Diego and, and he was getting a lot of publicity. And so I remember getting him that day and a couple other guys that became NBA players.

I thought, well, if I’m getting Tyson Chandler, maybe there’s some other players. And I remember Jason Capon was, was playing. Casey Jacobson was on a team. UCLA. Stanford. Yep. Yeah. Well, another interesting name. I remember getting that day and I really liked the way he played. I didn’t know that he would be an NBA player someday.

He, he wasn’t, but I but he ended up playing and starting at Missouri as Josh CRO. Who’s now the part of the Kroenke family that owns the nuggets, the nuggets, the avalanche. And so I’ve run into Josh a time or two at the Vegas summer league and just reminded him of that. I mean, he didn’t remember me specifically, but he remembered playing in that to right, right.

And he was on the team with Jason capono actually. And so I reminisced about that and he got a good laugh out of that, but yeah, those were some of the early high school autographs and  I’m getting occasional high school players now that I’m projecting to someday maybe play in the NBA or, or at least be a college player that I really like and, and want to follow.

[00:44:58] Mike Klinzing: Well, now those nowadays, those guys are potentially only a year away from the NBA. And whereas you go back in the seventies and eighties and guys had to wait till after their junior year. And then we went through that period where guys could come straight outta high school until we had the one and done rule.

And so things have obviously changed over the course of time as to when a high school player can eventually get to the NBA. But there’s certainly, as you’ve said, a couple times, way more information available about players and who’s out there and who projects to be eventually a guy that ends up in the NBA.

So there’s, there’s a lot of ways today to get information that you didn’t have access to when you first started. Right. You did get an opportu. You did get an opportunity though, to get an autograph from the greatest player of all time, Michael Jordan. And then recently you were able to. Sell one of those cards, if I’m not mistaken.

So share with us the stories of getting Jordan’s autograph, what that was like, and then just the process of taking a piece of your collection and actually putting it up for sale.

[00:46:03] Tim Gallagher: Sure. Well, and I’ve always collected just for the personal enjoyment of it and the fun of it. And I mean, of course I’ve kind of followed the business side of the hobby and understand that some of this has value and, and could potentially be worth something someday kind of in very general terms, but yeah, with Jordan, well I kind of told you about mailing out to the top incoming college players each year.

And so back in the early eighties, when he was on those lists at North Carolina, and again, no one was anticipating that he would become as great as he was even if after his freshman year, when he hit. Game winner to beat Georgetown and NCAA finals, no one would’ve ever dreamed he would become the greatest of all time.

Right. I mean, he was obviously very good, very talented, but I, I think you’d find very few people although I know there’s a famous quote of Bobby Knight where he talks about him on the Olympic team, although that was a little bit after that  game winner against Georgetown. But  when he played on the 84 Olympic team, right, there’s some audio of Bobby Knight video,

[00:47:14] Mike Klinzing: That audio is incredible. Yeah. When you hear, when you hear Knight, describe why he thinks Jordan’s going to be the greatest player ever when he hasn’t even set foot in the NBA yet. It’s a pretty, it’s a pretty incredible clip if you haven’t seen it.

[00:47:25] Tim Gallagher: Yes. But I would say generally and even that was not taken that seriously at the time, even when Bobby Knight said it, right.

It wasn’t like bold headlines in the paper night predicts, George will be greatest ever. Right. It was Yeah, I don’t, I don’t think people really quite grasped it, but anyway, I got some things signed back from Jordan through the mail very, very early on at North Carolina. And then the next time I got to see him in person was I, I was living in Phoenix, like I mentioned in the eighties and in 84, the Olympic team came through Phoenix.

They played an exhibition game against some NBA, all stars. And there’s video of that if you go onto YouTube from a variety of those games, but the Phoenix one in particular. And so I knew the team hotel where they were going to stay and actually Don Donna her from university of Dayton fame is a, a, a lifelong family friend.

And so he was an assistant for night on that team. So they were coming out to Phoenix. And so I kind of had a little insider access as it was anyway with coach Donaher, but yeah, got Jordan assigned a few things that day and in Phoenix. And then and then even early on in his MBA career, His first few years.

I mean, he was a star, but not a rockstar, right. Where  he, he was still somewhat accessible and approachable and, and a pretty good signer  for somewhat of his, his stature. But I, I tell some people though at the time let let’s say around like, so when I got his 1986 FLIR card signed, which was one of the cards I eventually sold for auction and  kind of made, made some news stories because of that.

And ended up spring boarding me into the job I have today as a consignment acquisitions person at auctions, but we’ll, we’ll get to that in a minute. But  I, I tell people as much as I loved Jordan at the time and, and admire and love him now, getting his autograph then was really not that much different than getting Dominique Wilkins or Clyde Drexler.

I know people find that hard to believe, but it wasn’t that Jordan was so far superior to those guys that at that point even from a devoted fan like me now, obviously I saw what took place once they  started winning championships and his level of greatness just kept going up and up and up.

But I try to give people some context that at the time and I, and I don’t mean to disrespect Jordan at all, but getting some other players of similar stature were, were just as interesting and exciting to me then. Now obviously the, the value of some of those other signatures is nothing like what it became for Jordan, but but anyway, yeah, he was, he was pretty compliant and I was lucky to have good timing early on to get him on some various things.

And then fast forward years later my sons had are somewhat grown up now and they’re interested in sports and have small collections, but nothing I’m, I’m obviously quite extreme and in my interest in the game and my collecting. So I could see that some of it would not be that interesting to them.

And just, just had a little premonition in 2019 that, well, maybe I should see about putting some of these up for auction just to see what what happens. And  and it’s funny, there’s some other things I have in my collection of Jordan. I’m, I’m actually more attached to, and like more than some of the ones that might be more, most valuable in, in terms of a general public and auction standpoint.

So anyway, I connected with this company that is now my employer interestingly enough and quite thankful and happy about that, but yeah, put a few cards up for auction and lo and behold, they. they went for some very significant dollars. I mean, not, not like now I can retire and live happily ever after kind money, but enough that my wife has taken a much deeper interest in.

Now, what else is having those binders? Where, where are we storing those cards?

[00:51:26] Mike Klinzing: We’re keeping those in a safe place, right?

[00:51:27] Tim Gallagher: Yeah. What else do you have of Michael Jordan? And so anyway, it’s funny, kind of funny, but yeah, she’s gained a, a, a different appreciation of my collection through through that, but of course I always spent more time getting more autographs and collecting more rather than kind of pausing because a big thing.

Now, in terms of just the hobby is having the autographs authenticated by PSA or Beckett or having the card graded by PSA or Beckett that really kind of validates it and establishes the value as well. Especially if you’re going to present it to the market in auction or through eBay or somewhere like that.

 I was way behind the curve in terms of getting my items authenticated, you know at least for pub for public display type thing. Right, right, right. But that’s something that didn’t really interest me that much. although I, I obviously learned that if you’re going to present these for auction, they need to have a third party, no matter how good your story is, Tim no matter how good that Larry Bird magic Johnson story is that we, we need one of those independent third parties to authenticate it and encapsulate it or give you, or give a letter of authenticity based on their forensics of that item.

Right. So that, what does that look like?

[00:52:45] Mike Klinzing: So you have Larry bird’s signature on an index card. How, how possibly can somebody verify whether that’s Larry bird’s actual signature, they’re comparing it. I’m assuming to other known Larry bird’s signatures, but it still feels like I know that I can speak to my own signature has morph.

Over time. It doesn’t look exactly the same. Just what’s the process. Like, I’m just curious.

[00:53:07] Tim Gallagher: Well, yeah, I mean, I’m not one of the authenticators, I mean, I’ve collected enough and see enough, especially in the, in my job looking at potential consignments and things that people have. But from the best I understand it is the authenticators have experts.

 people like me that have maybe been on the front lines of the hobby to some degree also they have a examples exemplars as they call them of signatures over time. And you’re right. Those certain athletes, depending on the time and place and era, their signatures could vary a lot.

I mean Jordan’s is pretty consistent, but  if you got him in person as he’s coming off, you know off the golf course compared to him, maybe the times I saw him and another thing going for me in Phoenix was. , it was a, a good weather city and in the winter wintertime, so teams like Chicago or teams from back east in the Midwest, when they came to Phoenix, they would kind of walk out the lobby before they got on the bus and just kind of savor the sunshine and nice weather.

So as an autograph collector that really worked to my benefit right? Where they, they weren’t maybe in such a rush or they’d even come down a little bit early, so they could kind of soak up a little sun, even if it was for a few minutes. So getting Jordan in a more relaxed setting versus maybe a more rush setting  the autograph could vary quite a bit or, and then other like pistol Pete Maravich, for example, his autograph varied considerably depending on the era and the time.

But I would say in general, the authenticators have enough examples and experienced evaluators that they that they’re able to assess. And  and sometimes, and they don’t pass everything. Right. So, and there could be some things that even if it’s real, that they may not  I’ve heard kind of indirectly that they may not be confident enough to put their name behind it.

Right, right, right. Because you might get a very sloppy L bird that he signed kind of grudgingly, he was getting on a bus. Right. Which does PSA or Beckett want to say, yes, we stand behind this autograph as a authentic Larry Bird.  it may indeed have been signed by Bird, but it’s the quality of it might not be it to their standards as well.

So there’s all kinds of layers to it. It’s pretty fascinating and and interesting when you really dig into it.

[00:55:37] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, absolutely. So tell us a little bit about the experience of selling the card and you do it through SCP auctions, and now you work for SCP auction. So tell me how.

Happens. Yes. And what those conversations are like as you’re going  through that process.

[00:55:52] Tim Gallagher: Sure. Well, and, and I, like I said, I wasn’t oblivious that  of what was going on the, on the business side of the hobby, but know I essentially for have had a a quote unquote real job corporate job various companies, but corporate sales business executive type job basically since I graduated from bowling green in 1980, right.

So but all along, I’ve had my hobby and my collection and followed the game of basketball. In fact you’ll appreciate this with your camps and your playing career. And I’ve been a speaker at some different basketball camps on occasion. And I mentioned back to Michael Jordan that, I don’t know if it was an urban legend, but basically early in his career, it was said that he had a love of the game clause in his contract.

meaning that if he was driving by a schoolyard and there were people playing a pickup game, he could join that game. And somehow he got hurt his contract would still be guaranteed.  I don’t know if that’s literally how it was, but  kind of makes sense. Yeah, it makes sense.

At least let’s say the very early first couple years in the league, Michael Jordan. So I always kind of tell these campers that I’ve kind of had a love of the game clause in my life, which means I’ve always kind of made some time for the game, whether it be  when I was a, a father raising young kids I played in a pre Dawn pickup game on Wednesdays and Saturdays with a group of guys.

Right. In fact, we still play to this day on, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. But I kind of made time where it wasn’t interfering with family life or business life.  I’ve got a, a driveway court that to this day, at my age of 64, I, I still haven’t found anything that kind of helps clear my mind and putting on some music and go putting on the driveway, flood light and getting some shots up.

Right. Just, I never found anything better. at least to kind of help me kind of clear my clear my head from, from the day. Right. So I, I kind of use that example as to, to tell young players that whether at basketball or music or art or what whatever you love, right.

Make time for that in your life. And so anyway, that’s a little preface to, so I’ve had this collection all these years in 2019, I was working a a corporate sales job. And it’s just, something told me that, well, maybe it’s time to kind of test the waters and see if some of this for my collection.

Might you. Sell well for the, in the market. And I had a not coincidentally had a son that was just starting college. So there’s some expenses involved with that too. And  and again, some of it some of these players, I have many extras now, when I say extras, they’re not duplicates the same thing, but  there might be a dozen different Michael Jordan photos I’ve gotten over the years right.

Of different sports illustrated covers or pictures that were in magazines, things like that, not the, not, not multiples of the same thing, but I kind of thought, well, maybe some of do I really need all of these, right. I could still keep my favorites and maybe put a few out there for the market.

So really not understanding the process kind of got a random email from a, a friend that had been in some auctions over the years. And he, he would send me forward emails to me from different auction houses and things from the hobby just randomly over time. And so one came from An auction house, SCP auctions, where I work now, SCP stands for sports carts plus up in orange county.

So south orange county, not too far from where I live and I thought, well, I’m going to reach out to these guys and just see, see what happens. And so we started a conversation what do you have? And I kind of again, now I totally understand, but I mentioned some of the magic names  pun intended magic, I guess, but  what do you have?

Well, I’ve got some things of Jordan, Pete Maravich, wilt Chamberlain Kobe Bryant . So so that, that kind of caught their attention. And so one thing led to another, I ended up getting some things consigned to them. They got them formally authenticated presented in fraction and and they ended up some of them did quite, quite well in the market and kind of no, no premonition though of future job loss of.

COVID and what that would do to to life and the economy and my job situation. So it, it just it all kind of fell into place over time, but not not instantly. And so after I’d had a few items in a couple of their auctions that did quite well, and then they got to know me in as a person and realized I was more than just a casual fan and quite knowledgeable and had been on the front lines of collecting since the late 1960s.

So  one thing led to another and they thought I could be an asset to them working with consignment acquisitions and private sales. And, and that’s what I’ve been doing since October of 2020.

[01:01:05] Mike Klinzing: Very cool. That something that’s been a lifelong hobby has been able to turn into. An actual job and profession that you could participate in.

I’m sure that it wasn’t, as you said, something that you ever saw coming, but how cool is it that your story kind of comes full circle from being a kid? And now here you are doing it professionally.

[01:01:26] Tim Gallagher: Exactly. It’s yeah, really is kind of a dream job for me because I naturally enjoy and knowledgeable of the content.

And the other aspect of it though, is kind of the life lesson too though, is I learned so much in all the other corporate stops. I had leading up to this that it really helped prepare me for for this and to appreciate this probably even more than I would’ve anyway.  not that all these other stops in my career were weren’t enjoyable.

I met a lot of great people, had some, some great years, had some tough years  kind of the corporate life of a salesperson, right. This but thankfully I always had the game and my hobby to kind of cushion any disappointments or or, or tough, tough days in, in the in the real world kind of thing.

I was able to escape with basketball, either through playing coaching, the hobby all of it.

[01:02:31] Mike Klinzing: Tell us a little bit about your experience, coaching the game and just more directly, rather than focusing on the card piece of it. Just tell us a little bit about what you’ve been able to do from a coaching standpoint.

Some of the things that you’ve had the opportunity to, to interact with people in the game as a coach.

[01:02:48] Tim Gallagher: Sure. Yeah. Well  most of the coaching has been through my sons and they all played basketball up through high school. Although I didn’t coach them at, with high school.

Although actually my older son, I did, I was kind of like a volunteer assistant a bit for their school and involved and coached them JV games when PE when the regular coach was unavailable for whatever reason. So, but mostly it’s been through individual workouts and skill development and and that kind of happened organically as well, but how it all got to that is as I mentioned, I grew up in Dayton and was lucky enough to grow up around the sons of a lot of the players that put university of Dayton basketball on the map and the 1950s.

And so probably a lot of the listeners will recognize the names of Jim and John Paxon. For example, they both played the NBA and Jim was an executive for the calves that drafted LeBron. John was Jordan sidekick on the bulls for a couple of those championships. So most people know them, but there were a number of others too, that were in my immediate neighborhood.

Co and then became my high school teammates as well. And, and their, their dads played a couple of ’em in the pioneer days of the NBA.  Don icky, AR BHO, these are names you can look up. So their sons were my high school teammates. And so kind of being around all of them growing up and especially the Paxons.

I mean, Jim was a year ahead of me. So we, we were lucky to have a great high school coach named Joe Petrocelli. Who’s I believe he’s still second, all time in Ohio wins. I don’t think anybody’s caught, caught up to him yet in the number two spot, but legendary high school coach and taught us the fundamentals and  grew up going to Don Donna, her basketball camps, which were a, about as great as you could ever dream of in terms of fundamentals and learning to game the right way.

 he’s a very renowned coach where. Yeah, kind of a coach’s coach where Bob Knight, Rick Majerus, those guys just adore Don Donaher, right. Where, although he is in the college basketball hall of fame a lot of fans understand what an excellent basketball mind, he’s still alive.

He’s 90 years old and still sharp as ever. I talked to ’em probably a week and a half ago on the phone. But so that was kind of my foundation for  growing up with all those guys and and their fathers and, and kind of their influence and, and standard. And then yeah, once I moved into our house and this kind of is an interesting tie into to Mike Gansey.

Who’s now the GM of the calves. So when we moved into this house 23 years ago, the day we were Mo moving, the moving truck was here and stuff’s getting loaded in the house. I see these two. Like 6, 6, 4, 6, 5 kind of basketball build guys jogging down the street. And I said to my wife, those guys are basketball players.

I know it she’s like of course just with my tie-ins with basketball and seems seemingly basketball threads throughout my life. So it turns out that they live five houses up the street. The older one had just finished playing college basketball at Cal poly Pomona.

The younger one was just getting started in his high school career at St. Augustine high school a kid named Eric Osmonds. And so got to know Eric A. Little bit and Al he’s almost like another another son to me unofficial third son, but  just kind of shooting in the driveway and there’s a, there’s a park down the street with a nice court and just kind of informally started working with him and.

And that led to kind of a word of mouth network of probably over the last 20 years or so. I’ve worked with probably 30 different high school players and, and some pro players. And again, mostly individual skill development. I kind of have a, an hour workout with a very set set of drills and and things to go through and along with taking them through the, the drills, I’m a, a big student of coach John wooden, the pyramid of success, the whole wooden philosophies actually during the pandemic, I got certified as a, as a wooden way, coach through the John wooden course, which again, for your coaching audience, that might be something to, to look into.

I know different coaching staffs at different schools and, and even pro organizations have gone through that. And it’s it’s so fantastic. I mean, I know. Almost any basketball coach know has some awareness of coach wooden, but this really kind of takes the pyramid of success and, and, and turns it into a full course of and then obviously, how can you apply this to your personal life, to your coaching life?

And, and it’s just really tremendous content. So anyway, back to Eric, my neighbor, so he ended up turning out to be a, a excellent high school player, played his freshman year at Utah for Madras. Then transferred to Penn, played for coach dumpy at Penn on some great teams went to the NCAA tournament and ended up playing overseas.

After a couple years in the, it was called the D league. Now it’s now the G league, of course, but just to wrap a bow around the story is his roommate in Germany the year he was there was Mike Ganzi. So because I’m so close with Eric Osmonds and I’m from Ohio originally he said, oh, you and Gant, you guys will hit it off and Ohio natives and so on.

So I got to know Mike some years ago as well, and it’s been quite exciting to see his escalation to the front office with the Cavs. It’s a small world.

[01:08:27] Mike Klinzing: You start thinking about how interconnected we are in the basketball world. And that’s one of the things that the podcast has definitely taught me is it’s a very short line to connect from one person to the other.

And we have a friend of the podcast, Greg white, who’s a high school coach in Arkansas. And he always says the ball has magic in it. And I think that kind of describes exactly what you’re talking about. What we’ve talked about on the podcast is just the ball connects us in ways that sometimes we don’t always fully understand and just all the people that.

You’ve been able to interact with, even if it’s just in a small way of getting their autograph or saying, hello briefly when they sign something for you, it’s still that connection. And it’s just kind of amazing the way that the basketball is enable the way it enables us to be able to connect with other people.

It’s really just something that to me is it’s always amazing.

[01:09:24] Tim Gallagher: Absolutely. Yeah. There, there’s a lot of beauty in the game and I mentioned my, my old guy pickup game and and it’s a group of guys we’ve been playing together for years, but all walks of life. Right. And, but, but once we get on the court none of that matters.

Right. And and we all have that, that bond and absolutely. And playing the game and and I’m sure you’ve experienced it. Right. You could show up as a stranger on a playground. And get with the right group of guys, the right mix. And maybe you hold that, hold that court for the rest of the night.

 with, with just a random group of strangers, but yep. You, you have a mutual understanding of how to play the game. And I mean, I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about those times that had happened. Right. I mean, I’m, I’m not at a point now where I’m seeking out pickup games but, but but there were many years that I did though.

Right. And whether it be  traveling on a business trip and going to the Dallas wide to get run in some evening some random night, right. And you get with a group of guys and end up winning three or four games in a row and it’s just like magic, like you said.

[01:10:27] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. I’m thankful that I grew up in the era where that was.

Kids today. Don’t really experience that same thing. And we’ve talked about that a lot on the pod, so I don’t wanna necessarily rehash it all, but I I’ll just leave it that I’m thankful that I grew up in the era when I did, when you could go out and find a pickup game and have that special experience, like what you just described, where you get a bunch of guys that connect and you win.

And maybe guys maybe guys you don’t know, but that’s part of, I think the beauty of basketball and what makes it such a great game is that you can figure it out. And people who do understand it can play together, even though they may not know each other and really have things come together and just give you a great experience.

And I’m just glad I grew up when I did. So I was able to experience that playground basketball feeling that you’ve talked about, and I know has been a big part of your basketball life, for sure. All right. I have two more things I wanna talk about. Okay. One is a story that. You sent to me about Al McGuire.

I’m going to leave that for last. Okay. Because I think that’s a story. My dad and my entire extended family grew up in Milwaukee and my dad always loved Al McGuire. So when you sent me that and I read that little blurb and story about. Just I’m going to let you tell it, but it’s a great story about Al McGuire long time coach at Marquette, New York city legend guy who went on an unbelievable career in broadcasting.

Just again, a special, special guy. It’s a great story. As an NBA historian, give me your top five players of all time, and then we’ll get to the Al McGuire story.

[01:11:59] Tim Gallagher: oh boy. You’re you’re putting me on the spot now and

[01:12:03] Mike Klinzing: We’re not going to, we’re not going to debate it. I just want to hear, I just want to hear your list.

I I’m don’t we could debate it and that could be another hour and a half, so we’re not going to do that, but just gimme your list.

[01:12:11] Tim Gallagher: Okay. Well, and, and I’ve not prepared for this at all. I’m just the names that just came to my head right off, right away. That’s fair for magic. Yep. Jordan? Yep. Bird. Yep. Will and Kareem.

Yep. Okay. Without, I mean, that’s just what came to my mind. I’m not if I overanalyze it, thought some more, I I’d probably have some other names there, but. Those are the five that, that came to mind and I’ve, we could have a whole nother discussion about appreciation of players from past eras.

And yeah, I think you almost have to look at it decade by decade to really  give everybody their, their just due, because do, because  I, I have some older gentlemen that are good, good friends and long time basketball fans. And they’ll tell you that Elgin, Baylor.  there’s nobody that could hold a candle to Elgin Baylor.

Right. Right.  and, and players like that are Oscar Robertson or and, and I love the, the modern players too, the current players. And  obviously Kobe is a big, big part of our, our world where I, where I work. We just sold a Kobe rookie Jersey in our last auction for 2.7 million.

I’ll say that again, 2.7 million. Wow. That’s one of his rookie jerseys with all the, the right paperwork and forensics have been done to prove that yeah. He wore this, the last part of the regular season and in the games and against the jazz and the playoffs and there’s photo matching and so on.

But  I, I can totally understand a lot of the names that get brought up. Although I think some of the players from days gone by don’t get their the recognition they deserve. And, and I think for the most part. There’s probably a few exceptions, but I think for the most part, if you took a, a Jerry West or Oscar Robertson or Bob Pettit or Elgin Baylor one of those kind of players with their physical skills and mental toughness and so on and put them in today’s game and and they were taught how to play, how the game is played now that they would be just fine.

in fact, they might be more dominant than they were in their own eras. Potentially.

[01:14:29] Mike Klinzing: I agree with you completely on that. I think if you took the players of the past and you gave them the modern training methods and they grow up in the era that today’s players grew up in, I think there’s no doubt that a player from any era would have tremendous success.

And then there’s a guy I lied when I said I wasn’t going to ask a follow up question because there’s one guy in your top five that I think is. controversial is the wrong way to say it, but there’s obviously differing opinions on Wilt Chamberlain. And ever since I was a kid, I was fascinated by wilt. The idea that you could average 50 points in a season where one night you get 30 and you’re like, oh no, I gotta get 70 the next night to get my average.

I don’t care where you’re doing that or who you’re doing it against to me. It’s just incredible. And you look at the things that will did and just how physically dominant he was. And when I heard you talking about taking players from one era and putting him into the next and how they succeed, I think there’s a hundred percent, no doubt that that’s true.

And I think will is probably even one step beyond that. I honestly feel like if you took 1965 will Chamberlain and just gave him a new pair of shoes, did no training, did no. Nothing told him nothing about the game. And you just dropped wilt into an NBA game in 2022, the type of athlete that he was. I just think he’d, he’d figure it out and he’d be just as dominant because you look at what he was as an athlete.

To me, he’s just, it is just incredible. And I know he didn’t win as much as bill Russell, which is always the argument. And there’s clearly some stains on his record here and there, but man, that guy just from a physical standpoint and what he was able to do to me, he’s still a no doubt, top five, although you can find a lot of top fives that don’t include Wilt.

[01:16:18] Tim Gallagher: Yeah. Well, and  now that I’ve had a chance to sit on this for a minute or two, right. I just gave you the names that came to my mind immediately. Right.  now I’m thinking, gosh, I didn’t say LeBron. Right. I didn’t  there’s some other names that, that probably are deserving of, of being considered at, at minimum, if not being on that list.

And I, and that’s no knockout against LeBron and I’ve been aware of LeBron since since very early on in high school and saw him play act St. Vincent St. Mary came out and played at UCLA at poly pavilion in a high school showcase. So I saw him play in person early on. And also I know they beat my Alma mater alter long after I was gone, but they beat altar in one of their, one of their state championships.

And yeah, totally appreciate LeBron’s greatness as well. And so he would certainly be somebody I’d have to consider bill Russell’s a name too that, well, gosh, I didn’t mention bill Russell. Right. He’s the, certainly the greatest winner in basketball history. Yeah. Yeah. And and dominant in another way.

But  I guess I’m when I think of somebody like Jordan or bird or magic being the greatest I’m, I’m talking about their all around ability on both ends of the floor.  just a complete game where where obviously Russell was great and dominant, but  more of a defensive guy, you wouldn’t say bill Russell was a good shooter, a good scorer, right.

Where? Right. So I, I’m kind of looking and that’s why, I guess you have to think LeBron deserves to be in that consideration, but you could debate on this  ly, this is, this is a two hour podcast in and of itself. So yeah, let’s just say I appreciate players of all eras. And I know the same older gentleman that you know was speaking about Elgin, Baylor he’ll say something like so you don’t think Jerry West could have extended his jump shot for five feet.

If there was a three point line  are you kidding me? Of course he could have. Right.

[01:18:17] Mike Klinzing: The games just played differently. Right? You think about if Jordan played in this era, you’re telling me Jordan, would’ve been one of the best three point shooters in the league?

[01:18:25] Tim Gallagher: Exactly.

[01:18:27] Mike Klinzing: There’s no question about that with his maniacal work ethic and competitiveness. There’s no way that he would’ve developed it. It was just, at that time he didn’t need it. He didn’t need it in order to be a success. Whereas today you do. So the game has evolved and changed over time. And I think, like I said, you made a great point that the great players in any era, if you updated them, by giving them all the modern training and just the upbringing and the game, the way it is now, I, I have no doubt that players of the past would be every bit as successful.

Certainly if you dropped Bob Cousy from 1960 into the NBA today, he probably wouldn’t have as much success. But if Bob Cousy had been born in 19, whatever, if he had been born in the year 2000, I don’t think there’s any doubt that Bob Cousy with his ability and just his mind that he would, he would be a successful NBA player without question.

[01:19:18] Tim Gallagher:

Yeah, I think a lot of today’s fans would think Bob Cousy would be. Kevin Pangos , you know? Right, right. Where I think he would’ve been Steve Nash. Yeah. Right.  given the like you said, the, the training the other interesting thing a couple other quick thoughts on players of yesterday year and just thinking about the all time greats.

Sure.  one name that never gets mentioned is George Mikan. Right. And, and, and to me, that’s like talking about the all-time greatest baseball players and, and babe Ruth isn’t in the discussion. I’m not saying babe, Ruth is the all-time greatest baseball player, but  you would at least have to bring his name up.

Right. But no one ever brings up George Mikan,  they just kind of dismiss, oh, well he must not have, he was taller than everybody. He must not have been playing against any good other players even hear that argument about wilt. But right. If you, if you go back and look at who will played against Especially once the sixties started rolling with  he’s obviously playing against Russell, he’s playing against Nate Thurman, he’s playing against Willis Reed.

He’s playing against Walt Bellumy. He’s playing against Bob Lanier. He’s playing against Dave Cowens. I mean, you it’s a long list of hall of fame players. Right? Right. Absolutely. People are saying, oh, he never played against anybody. Well, I begged to differ. But and the other thought  I’m very fascinated by Steph and Jokic of current day player and Luca, those are probably my three favorite players to watch among others.

But John Moz, another one that I’m kind of fascinated with, but  with Jokic what’s fascinates me is I wonder if there were centers from back in the day, if they were given the green light to handle the ball and dribble coast to coast, they, they probably could have done it. Right. Where back in The traditional centers were taught to get a rebound and get it to a guard.

Right? Yeah. And any thing more than a couple dribbles would’ve been considered blaspheme.

[01:21:18] Mike Klinzing: We were much more tied into traditional positions and what that position meant. And it’s really only in the last 15 years that that has started to erode and you go back even to the eighties, you just think about this, guy’s a power forward.

This guy’s a center, this guy’s a shooting guard. This guy’s a point guard. And if you look around the game today, the players that even at our considered point guards, if you can’t score, you’re not going to be on the floor. Whereas in the era of seventies, eighties point guards were pass first. And you had a couple guys that could score you think about tiny Archer ball or whatever, but right, for the most part, you had your pure point guards, which were players that wanted to pass the ball and didn’t really look to score.

And then you had shooting guards. Whereas now. you kind of gotta have the entire skill set. If you wanna be on the floor. I mean, every year in the playoffs, in the finals, especially you look at the guys who are able to stay on the floor and they’re guys who are multi-skilled and can play at both ends.

And if you can’t play at both ends, you might still get some minutes, because your team doesn’t have enough depth of eight or nine guys that can both play both ways, but your role is going to be pretty limited because the other team’s going to attack you. And yeah you see guys that are skilled at all sizes now.

I mean, what Jokic is doing as a passer and his ability to score on the clutch with what you would say is below average athleticism for the NBA, athletic athleticism, meaning running and jumping. Obviously there’s a ton more to athleticism than just running and jumping. But when we hear athleticism, that’s what everybody means.

And clearly Jokic is not on the level of most. NBA players when it comes to running and jumping, but he’s just tremendously skilled. And his mind processes the game at such a high speed that he’s able to dominate with the things that he does, the skills he does have.

[01:23:08] Tim Gallagher: Yeah. It’s, it’s fascinating. And I love the versatility of players and, and I, and I wish back when I was playing, that there was the freedom that these players have now, right.

For right. To have the three point line or to  just  the amount I know there were not necessarily formally noted, but restrictions on how far out you could even shoot a shot. right. It was considered a bad shot, unless it was the end of the half or something, or the end of the game.

Right. Plus the dribbling you were not really encouraged to, to dribble as much, right. It was pass. And I’m, I’m fascinated by. You know how some of the point guards will, will dribble the ball and, and control it for, you know extended periods of time. But anyway, yeah, just fascinating to compare players of different eras.

And I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer, but I just I say appreciate players from all the eras.

[01:24:08] Mike Klinzing: The skill level is so high right now in the game. And I just think that when you watch NBA players, heck you watch college players, you watch high school players, the, the players that were at the back end of the bench when you and I were playing were not nearly as skill as the players that are at the back end of a bench in college or in high school today.

Not that doesn’t necessarily mean they have a high basketball IQ or they have a feel for the game or whatever it might be. But from a, just a pure skill standpoint, there’s no question that players are far. Far better today than they’ve ever been. All right. Let’s, let’s leave that. Maybe we’re going to have to have you back on and just go through a whole discussion of Jason.

My co-host, who wasn’t able to join us tonight, because he’s on dad duty. He and I were talking earlier that we, we may end up having to go in. We did maybe two or three years ago. We did our top. I think we did our top 10 or top 15 players of all time. I can’t remember now, but we said we gotta revisit that. So maybe we’ll maybe we’ll have you jump back on with us on that, Tim.

All right. Here’s what I wanna do wrap up with the Al McGuire story. And then you can share how people can find out more about what you’re doing and share your social media and all that stuff, but give us the Al McGuire story first.

[01:25:13] Tim Gallagher: Sure. Well, yeah, I wrote a story for sports collectors daily about Al McGuire and a particular autograph experience with, with him.

But just as we talked a little bit about coach wooden and, and coach wooden structure and the pyramid of success and all that I’m equally fascinated by. Al McGuire and his style which was more instinct see to the pants, trust your gut just and, and that was, and I’ve always tried to take kind of a philosophy of coaching and from life from both ends of that spectrum  the, the structure and precision of wooden and the instincts and  and, and kind of distrust trust your gut kind of flow of Al McGuire, but fascinated seeing Al coach, I, I mentioned earlier in the podcast about seeing Marquette among some of the teams that would come into Dayton arena for the NCAA tournament.

Marquette was one of those teams early on, and there was just something, a little different about Marquette. Again, I was still a teenager and, and this is all just information I’m absorbing at the time, but. Even the Marquette uniforms were kind of legendary, right, where they’d have the uniforms and racing Stripe uniforms and just stylish and flashy and, and unique.

And so and just the interaction with the coaches. And when I go to a game, I kind of notice everything from what kind of shoelaces the players wearing to what’s the interaction of the coaches and their staff and the players on the bench. And I don’t miss a thing.

And I noticed even as a young guy, that the Marquette interaction was much different they’d argue with each other. And just the decorum, so to speak was just different.  it was still all about winning and, and it never got disrespectful, but.  it was kind of like a family, right?

Where you might have some arguments, but you all still love each other and you’re all you want the same things. So I was always been fascinated by McGuire and was able to meet him, get his autograph a few times. And then of course, when he became a broadcaster for college basketball, people got to really understand more about his colorful style and vocabulary.

And again the story I wrote in sports collectors daily goes into a little more detail about all Marquette and especially during the McGuire years, but yeah, I was able to see him speak by the way at a actually not far from where my office is now near Dana point, California, but he had been broadcasting by this point and was on the speaking circuit.

And a buddy of mine was the VP of sales for a company up in orange county. And so they kind of snuck me in knowing I love, love McGuire. And he was speaking kind of like a corporate sales conference type. And which I’d attended many events like that with different kinds of speakers over the years, but what was unique about Al is he had no slides, no notes basically he was just w just wing winging it.

Right. Which as you’d get to know more about Al that he would’ve had it no other way. Right. He just so that was an amazing thing to observe just in and of itself. But at the 1995 final four, he had I, I saw that one of the Seattle stations were having him on as a guest, the morning of the NCAA finals.

And so I’ve been to 21 final fours. I’ve kind of slowed down a bit in recent years, but I’ve gone to many of ’em and enjoy all the peripheral activities along with the games. So recruited a couple of my buddies and I, including our mutual friend, Kim Otten. And so we got up early, went to this. It was like a sports bar where they had A Seattle area, sports talk station, broadcasting, and Alice, one of the guests.

And so we thought, oh, this is great. We’ll go see him speak and get some things signed and it’ll be a great morning. Well there were hardly any new people there. I think maybe because of the early hour of the morning, and just maybe it was a little bit out of the way for some people, but anyway, we enjoyed seeing Al on the air, we got a chance to meet him afterwards.

We got some items signed and his assistant who was kind of quite eccentric herself came over and saw we had some photos. And as I’ve kind of alluded to throughout this podcast, we’re always pretty prepared well in advance of who we might see and having photos and cards and things of a coach or player.

So we had some pretty cool stuff for Al to sign and she complimented us on being so prepared and you know what, we must be really true fans and. We said, yeah, yeah. We certainly are. We love Al and thanks. And so we’re getting ready to head out head back to our hotel. This is early on a Monday morning in Seattle and she says, no, well, boys, wait a minute, wait a minute.

I’ve got something special for you. You’re such true fans. Let me get something for you. So we, as we’re kind of pausing and wondering if she goes to the back room, we’re wondering what she might have. Right. We’re thinking maybe a sign basketball from Al or I say eight by 10 signed by him.

And so she comes out and she’s got you’re familiar with the Oscar Meyer Wiener, right? Yes, yes, absolutely.  from commercials and, so she has these little toy like kind of like about the size of a like a larger remote control for your television, right?

Like these Oscar Meyer Wiener reveals and Al has signed them right on the hot dog. And so we kind of look at each other my buddies and I are like, okay, this is a little strange, but you know sure. She’s like, well we we’ll give these you guys can have these, what do you think?

And we’re like, oh yeah. Well, thank you. That’s so nice of you to, to think of us. And yes. So, you know kind of cool to have these and thank you. So for the second time, now we’re starting to head out of the door of the sports bar and she’s calling out to us again, say, wait, wait, wait, don’t leave. And she comes rushing up to us kind of in a panic.

And she says, I am so sorry. I hate to tell you this. But Al had promised those to someone else and so we it was so so bizarre. And we, we said, well that, oh, that’s okay. I, we understand we got our stuff signed earlier. You we’re good. You know you can have the Wiener mobiles back that we understand. And so she said, but I have something else for you. And so thinking now you, what else could it be?  what could top assigned mirror? And she gives us these little, you could fit ’em in the Palm of your hand. They’re like the size of a a key chain, but the, the little seven up spots, again, like a little promotional thing that like a red dot with feet and hands like you’d have in kind of an animated commercial and Al had also signed these and a black marker on the red, rubber part of the spot or dot.

And so again kind of a bizarre thing to get, but  we, we took those and laughed about it and I still have it to this day, although the signatures faded. But and I write about it in the story in sports collectors daily. But as we were walking back to the hotel, we figured that Al.

 again, he probably was a child of the depression growing up and, you know in his parents’ house, above their bar in, in, in New York and probably everything had some values. So we, we assumed he must have been on the speaking circuit and whatever, some of these companies would have different tchotchkes that they’d give out Al would kind of hoard some of them and then repurpose them to, to fans and people he’d meet.

So it was just kind of classic Al just you couldn’t make this stuff up. Right. And and of course this is some of the stories he would tell and we could do a whole episode just on Al McGuire himself. And there was a play that Dick Inberg wrote a one man show kind of like somebody would play mark Twain or Abraham Lincoln or something.

Right. And do a, a one man performance. And because Dick Inberg up until he passed away, lived here in San Diego. The show was performed here a number of times Al had long since passed away. But so I was able to see that one man show probably three or four times over a couple of different years when it was here and it was, it was really touching and fascinating.

And I think it still is performed in Milwaukee, on occasion at a, at a theater there. But it really kind of captures the essence of Al which is there’s no one quite like him and kind of one of my favorite Al McGuire lines, and maybe we’ll wrap up on that is once someone got their college degree, he said, then you should work as a cab driver and a bartender.

And then you’ll really learn what people are about and what life is like. and just kind of a man of the people and a man of the streets. And just always been fascinated by Al and his insights on life and coaching.

[01:34:14] Mike Klinzing: Definitely one of the great characters in the history of the game of basketball.

There’s no question about that. And just had a diverse career as a player. And his brother was a hall of fame player and as a coach, and then clearly as a broadcaster, the things that he was able to do and contributing in a lot of different areas, make him very, very unique. And just with my own personal recollections of Al McGuire, that story kind of hit home for me.

So I think it’s a great one to end on before we get all finished here, Tim, will you please share how people can follow you, connect with you, whether you want to share your social media, share that Twitter account, share sure. Email, whatever, whatever you feel comfortable with. And and then I’ll jump back in and wrap things up.

[01:34:56] Tim Gallagher: Sure. Absolutely. Well, I do post each day on Facebook and Twitter. What I call today’s treasure for my collection. So again, over 50 plus years of collecting basketball, autographs and memorabilia, I’ve got quite a range of things and it’s not just. The superstar players like we’ve talked about, but if I have some interesting and unique obscure items or players that I think maybe people that  aren’t aware of that it should be aware of  I’ll bring that up.

Or sadly if a, if a player, a former player or coach will pass away, that I I’ve had some stories and encounters and autographs with, I’ll usually use that opportunity to, to pay tribute to them as well. But on Twitter, it’s just @TimGall13.

And then if you go to my company website, SCP auctions, that’s S as in sports, C as in cards and P as in plus SCP auctions.com it has profiles of all the staff there, and I’m there, and you can get a brief bio about me. And my email address is there as well. If you want to reach out through that channel and happy to talk to anybody.

Consigning sportsman or what values of items you might have in your collection that kind of thing. And or just talk hoops as well. We’d love to do any of that.

[01:36:21] Mike Klinzing: Tim cannot thank you enough for taking the time out of your schedule to join us. It’s been an absolute pleasure to get to know you and learn a little bit more about your collection and your journey, and just how you kind of came to this unique experience that you’ve had.

And so thank you for that and to everyone out there. Thanks for listening. And we will catch you on our next episode. Thanks.