Description:

In 1968, a set of 46 bookmarks was issued by the Basketball HOF. These bookmarks were available at the HOF bookstore. Then, 9 additional bookmarks were issued between the years of 1969 and 1974. While the exact dates are not completely known, primary indications are that these bookmarks were issued in the following years: 1969-Bernard Carnevale/Bob Davies, 1970-Bob Cousy/Bob Pettit/Abe Saperstein, 1972-Dolph Schayes, 1974-Bill Russell, an extra variation of John S. Roosma (est. 1971 or 1973), and an extra bookmark of Bob Davies (est. 1971 or 1973). With the exception of the Abe Saperstein card, which has too much text, the remaining 8 cards have the inscription "Basketball Hall Of Fame Springfield Mass." on the bottom of the bookmark. The final 9 bookmarks are much more difficult to find and represent the primary value of the set. They are condition sensitive as they were produced on much thinner paper. They likely came in rolls and were hand-cut to size. Of these bookmarks, the Abe Saperstein is in my opinion, the most difficult to obtain. However, the Bill Russell bookmark also is really difficult. There are many cases where these particular bookmarks are the only ones lacking to complete the set. There are also font variations that have been noted on the Pettit, Cousy, and Russell bookmarks, which results in the write-up being of different lengths.