While each professional sports team has legions of fans, from time to time, the most passionate fans become celebrities themselves. In Chicago, "Blackhawk Bob" Gertenrich was such a fan, a Blackhawks hockey fan who began attending home hockey games in 1966 and attended every home game afterward, more than 2,200 in total.  His fandom extended beyond hockey as well, as he attended plenty of other local sporting events, most notably the Chicago Bulls. Gertenrich became a celebrity himself, meeting players and coaches, even garnering a Sports Illustrated feature article.  Sadly, Gertenrich passed away this spring, leaving behind an impressive legacy of passion and devotion to his sports teams.

Gertenrich saved every ticket stub from every game he attended, writing the score and attendance on each.  And although his Blackhawks ticket stubs were certainly impressive (the stub from Wayne Gretzky's NHL debut was featured in our Summer, 2024 auction), the group that caught our eye was the early Chicago Bulls stubs. We have used Gertenrich's outstanding collection to reconstruct Michael Jordan's legendary rookie season, presented here ticket by ticket, game by game, representing the majority of the Chicago home games.

One of the most highly desirable stubs from Jordan's rookie season is from November 17, a seemingly unimportant game against the 76ers. In that game, however, Jordan took the court wearing a pair of Air Jordan 1 sneakers - the first game he would play in his namesake shoe. It wasn't a great game for Jordan, as he scored just 16 points on 4-of-17 shooting, and after this game he would revert back to the Nike Air Ship sneaker in which he started the season. But by late December he was in Air Jordans full time, revolutionizing the game (of celebrity endorsements, that is).