Albersheim's 2015 November Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/14/2015
Penn State head coach Joe Paterno once said that Cappelletti was the best football player he ever coached. John grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs and would accept a full ride to Penn State. As a senior tailback for the Nittany Lions, he’d rush for 1522 yards on 286 carries and score 17 TDs as his team plowed through their opponents earning an undefeated season.
He was awarded the 1973 Heisman Trophy, Maxwell Award, the UPI College Football Player of the Year, the Walter Camp Award, the Chic Harley Award, as well as receiving All-America honors. In his two-year running-back career, he gained over 100 yards in thirteen games and had a career total of 2,639 yards and twenty-nine touchdowns for an average of 120 yards per game and 5.1 yards per carry. During Cappelletti's Heisman acceptance speech, he dedicated his award to his dying brother Joey, and it became one of the most memorable speeches in the history of college sports.
He was drafted in the first round of the 1974 draft and went on to play in the NFL with the LA Rams and San Diego Chargers in a career that lasted from 1974-83. Cappelletti was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1993.
We’re extremely thrilled to offer in what we believe to be the first Walter Camp Award ever offered at auction. It measures 13” x 10” and comes with an actual AP wire photo dated January 31, 1974 showing John Cappelletti holding the award at the banquet where he was awarded this monumental piece!
About the Walter Camp Award: “The Walter Camp Player of the Year Award is given annually to the collegiate American football Player of the Year, as decided by a group of National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I-A head coaches and sports information directors under the auspices of the Walter Camp Football Foundation. The award is named for Walter Camp, an important and influential figure in the development of the sport. Only three players have ever won the award twice: Colt McCoy of the University of Texas in 2008 and 2009, Archie Griffin of Ohio State in 1974 and 1975, and O. J. Simpson of USC in 1967 and 1968.”
Basically if you win the Walter Camp Award, you’re pretty much a lock to win the Heisman Trophy.
This lot has a Reserve Price that has not been met.