Jerry Lucas memorabilia

Journal story...

Lucas auction brings $433K; Olympics medal doesn’t sell

MIDDLETOWN —
Jerry Lucas said he wasn’t “totally overjoyed” with the results of his recent sports memorabilia collection auction.

On Saturday night, 16 items that Lucas collected throughout his hall of fame basketball career were sold for about $433,000 by Grey Flannel auctions. The auction ended Saturday night after the Basketball Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

The most expensive and prized item — the 1960 Olympic Gold Medal that Lucas won in Rome as a member of the U.S. Men’s Basketball Team — didn’t receive a bid. The reserve was $250,000.

Lucas said the $433,000 total includes buyers’ fees, so he’s unsure how much he will receive from the auction house.

Lucas said he’s also unsure what he will do with the gold medal.

He has no regrets that he sold the items, but he was disappointed by some of the prices they brought, he said.

Michael Russek, director of operations at Grey Flannel, which was contacted by Lucas to auction off his memorabilia, said he was “a little bit” disappointed that the gold medal didn’t sell. It was the first gold medal from those Olympics ever offered.

Russek said the other pieces garnered “a tremendous price” and “great action.”

Of the 16 sold items, the 1973 NBA Championship ring that Lucas won for the New York Knicks, brought the most — $72,000.

Lucas said he had stored the items for the last five decades that he earned at the Olympics, Ohio State University and his NBA career in his closest.

Lucas, 73, a 1957 Middletown High School graduate who led the Middies to 76 consecutive victories and back-to-back state championships, was the youngest member of the U.S. basketball team that won the gold medal at the 1960 Olympics.

Because he couldn’t divide the items fairly among his family, he said selling them through Grey Flannel Auctions was “the right thing to do at this time.”