David Kohler's Laker shrine, con't
Jerry West has always been David Kohler's favorite Laker player.
"I remember listening to a game when I was a kid, and Chick Hearn said Jerry West got hurt and was taken to Centinela Hospital," Kohler said. "Chick asked all the Laker fans to write him a get-well card. So I wrote him a letter.
"A few weeks later, I got a personally signed note card back from him, thanking me for the card."
And where is that note today?
"I can't find it," Kohler admits. "I think my little sister scribbled all over it anyway."
That may be the one piece of Laker memorabilia Kohler has failed to track down over the last 25 years.
A visit to his south Orange County home, where he has set up a Laker shrine in an upstairs room, is chronicled in today's paper at this link.
Some more pieces in the collection:
==A pair of George Mikan's round glasses that he wore while playing in the late '40s and early '50s. Mikan visited Kohler's home in 2002, the night he and several other Minneapolis Lakers were honored before a game at Staples Center:
==A pair of Wilt Chamberlain's white canvas Chuck Taylor high tops -- what everyone wore in the NBA those days, even as late as the 1970s. Wilt signed them, as well, along with an array of other things -- like his personal suitcase, a headband ... but not his black book:
==A pair of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's goggles, signed, and taped together by trainer Frank O'Neal, who donated them. It should be noted that there's also a dried wad of gum on the goggles. That's where Kareem would put his gum when he wasn't chewing it.
==President Nixon sent a letter of congratulations to Lakers coach Bill Sharman early in 1972, when the Lakers were in the midst of setting a new regular-season record for consecutive wins. Nixon's letter here notes that the streak was at 31 -- it would go to 33 before Abdul-Jabbar and the Milwaukee Bucks ended it.
==Sharman's coaching jacket (and whistle):
==Jerry West's gym bag:
==And a side trip to the bathroom that's next to this shrine shows more signed photos on the wall, as well as one of Mikan's trophies:
Sorry, but we failed to take a picture of the Santa Claus suit that Shaq wore back in '02 to promote the annual ABC Christmas Day game. TV Guide used the shot as well on its cover that December....
Meanwhile, this was done by KTTV's "Good Day L.A." earlier this month and gives a little better perspective:
Kohler, the president and CEO of SCP Auctions in Orange County, knows his stuff.
Here's a link to his bio on the SCP website, with a history of some of the sports memorabilia he has handled since starting the company in 1979.
About this blog
Leave a comment