The first Heisman Trophy award won by a wide receiver is going up for sale.
The trophy won by former Notre Dame wide receiver Tim Brown will be sold in an auction conducted by New Jersey-based Goldin Auctions. The auction starts online on Nov. 19 and closes Dec. 5, four days before the 2018 Heisman will be awarded.
Brown sold the trophy from the 1987 season last year in a private sale and that buyer has consigned it to the auction.
Heisman Trophies of modern players have commanded a pretty penny. Rashaan Salaam’s from 1991 sold this year for a trophy record of $399,608, Charles White’s 1979 trophy sold for $184,000 in 2000 and O.J. Simpson’s 1968 Trophy sold for $255,000 in 1999. The family of Yale running back Clint Frank sold his 1937 trophy last month for $317,000.
Brown was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2009 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2015 after a 17-year NFL career in which he played sixteen for the Raiders in Los Angeles and Oakland.
“We believe it is one of the the most significant award trophies to ever be auctioned in any sport,” Goldin Auctions president Ken Goldin said. “We have the most prestigious and valuable award given to an NFL Hall of Famer who went to the most storied program in history.”
There’s a reason recent winners haven’t sold their trophies. Since at least 1999, the Heisman Trust has made winners sign a waiver that they would not sell the trophy. The Heisman also maintains that it owns the right to publicly display any trophy.