Shortly after Lou Carnesecca's death in late November, I got a call from Eddie Kull, St. John’s new athletics director.
He asked the question so many in his position should be asking, but don’t.
"How do we give fans a piece of our past?"
Kull knew St. John’s still had a couple of sweaters worn by Carnesecca, the legendary Johnnies Hall of Fame coach who took the team to the Final Four in 1985 and amassed a 526-200 record in 24 seasons with the school.
“I don’t want to sell a sweater just to sell it,” Kull told me. “I only want to sell one if we can use it as a tribute to coach.”
Kull’s words immediately resonated.
The best way to do this, however, was to take one of the Carnesecca sweaters and cut it up. Controversial perhaps, but there was no argument for the joy that would give to fans who could then buy a small piece of history.
Intent on having something ready by the Jan. 4 game at Carnesecca Arena, to celebrate what would have been Lou’s 100th birthday on Jan. 5, Kull sent cllct the sweaters — one worn by Carnesecca, the other worn by current coach Rick Pitino in a game against Kansas State, the first win following Carnesecca's death.
We then sent the sweaters to Eric and Aaron at Reclaim Customs, the best-in-class custom card maker and worked on making the cards special — the design, the limited-edition nature of them and every detail.
We secured autos of both Carnesecca and Pitino to make a dual-signed, game-used sweater 1/1 booklet to auction off on eBay.
Other parts of the Carnesecca Legacy Collection will include dual worn sweater cards, individual worn sweater cards (Carnesecca and Pitino separately), a 1/1 Carnesecca refractor sweater card and a limited edition of 500 base cards of Pitino and Carnesecca.
All the items will go on sale Saturday at 1 p.m. ET, following a pre-sale for St. John's Athletics constituents. Base cards for both Carnesecca and Pitino are available for purchase now.
“It has been great that older traditional fan base loves our history, but how do we also use history to connect with the younger generation and new fan base and attract a whole new demo for us?” said Kull, who hopes this offering will reach all segments of SJU fans.
You know us here as a media outlet, but we are just as proud of our full-service collectibles consultancy, of which St. John’s is now a client.
Collectibles aren’t just money makers. Done right, they are important nostalgia plays, connectors to the past.
And we are so excited St. John’s fans can take a piece of two Hall of Fame coaches' sweaters into their collections to enjoy.
Darren Rovell is the founder of cllct.com and one of the country's leading reporters on the collectibles market. He previously worked for ESPN, CNBC and The Action Network.