Contents from Newport Sports Museum to be Offered by SCP Auctions

Laguna Niguel, Calif. – The Newport Sports Museum Collection began in 1953 when, at the age of 12 years old, John W. Hamilton was given a signed football from the Look All-American Football Team.

For more than a half-century Hamilton’s collection grew to become one of the largest privately owned sports memorabilia collections in the world. In 1995, Hamilton along with several athletes, opened the Newport Sports Museum.The museum in Newport Beach, Calif., has housed more than 10,000 significant game-used artifacts and mementos representing every major sport and athletic endeavor imaginable. The genesis of the museum is a product of its founder’s dual passions for collecting and inspiring kids.

For decades the museum has been a public gathering place for John’s astounding and ever-growing collection, as well as a non-profit venue for countless civic fund-raising events, school functions and athlete mentoring programs.

“I’ve always had a passion for sports,” Hamilton said. “It doesn’t do any good to have it all lying around in my basement. I wanted to take all this stuff and turn it into a positive tool.” Few private sports collections have been shared so generously, for so long, in service of a greater purpose.

The magnitude and quality of the collection itself is extraordinary. Most who have visited the vast maze of showrooms required multiple return visits to take it all in. But the true depth of the collection lies beyond the objects themselves. Behind almost every item is a story and a personal connection. The collection represents Hamilton’s life in and around the world of sports and a lifetime of relationships and experiences that have enabled him to acquire most of his items directly from athletes and team personnel (most of whom he still counts as friends).

As John Hamilton enters a new chapter in his life, SCP Auctions is honored to embark on a historic four-part auction event that celebrates the Newport Sports Museum’s and its founder legacy of community service through the public offering of one of the world’s most extraordinary sports memorabilia collections.

The first of the four-part auction will take place from April 30-May 17 at www.scpauctions.com. Some of the highlights include: