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1966-68 Bob Lilly Game Worn Dallas Cowboys Jersey....
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Description
1966-68 Bob Lilly Game Worn Dallas Cowboys Jersey. He was the first player ever selected by the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL draft and went on to play all 196 games of his professional career wearing the Lone Star, earning eleven Pro Bowl appearances and a Super Bowl VI Championship during those fourteen seasons of Hall of Fame service. It's little wonder that he's known as "Mr. Cowboy" to this day. Yet, somehow, despite Lilly's enduring fame in the DFW metroplex, this remarkable durene gamer was located just weeks before our consignment deadline at a thrift shop in the Lakewood neighborhood of Dallas with a price tag (still attached) reading, "Dallas Cowboy Bob Lilly Jersey, $95 Firm." Clearly that purchase price will be dwarfed in this auction.Lilly jerseys are notoriously tough, and the few that have emerged in the hobby have dated almost exclusively to the 1970's mesh era. This durene beauty can be assigned to a three-season span through its tagging format and double sleeve striping, a style that was worn in both the 1966 and 1967 NFL Championship games, the latter immortalized under the name, "The Ice Bowl."
The low-resolution photography of this era has made definitive photo matching to the subject jersey impossible (thus far), but its surface is speckled with an array of team repairs and blood stains that could serve as data points for that ongoing effort. Other stains are likely not game-related, but our catalog imagery should convey that these are not particularly distracting. You'll find the rare and desirable expansive "crossover" neck style from these historic early seasons, and the numeral font style that announces "74" at chest, shoulders and verso in royal blue tackle twill. Interior collar holds proper "Southland" manufacturer's label, from Terrell, Texas, just up the road from the Cotton Bowl. It anchors a cloth flap tag reporting, "Size 52L," correct for Lilly's massive six-foot five-inch, 260 pound frame. Verso of this tag bears the lot code/order code in red.
The garment features several important and unusual tailoring traits, notably the interior rope stitching of the front and back numerals, applied to increase durability and unique to early Cowboys gamers. We should also note that the sleeves and tail have been custom-hemmed, a feature virtually unheard of for the era. Likewise, we find one of the earliest incarnations of spandex side panels. Unquestionably one of the finest "Doomsday Defense" gamers ever to surface in the collecting hobby, and with a crazy discovery story to boot. LOA from Heritage Auctions.
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