Gentlemen,
I think a lot more information is necessary to attempt to answer a very good question Jersey Jim has asked.
MeiGray has not examined very many NY Knicks jerseys from the 1970s and 1980s, but we have examined more than 1,000 NY Rangers jerseys from all eras. Two significant facts have emerged from my research:
1) Up until 1984-85, the Cosby neck tag of that era for NY Rangers jerseys looked like this:
THE PROFESSIONAL'S CHOICE
GERRY COSBY (their logo)
ATHLETIC OUTFITTERS & CO.
3 PENNSYLVANIA PLAZA
NEW YORK, N.Y. 10001
MADISON SQUARE GARDEN
In 1985-86, a distinct single change was made to the bottom two lines of the tag:
MADISON SQUARE GARDEN ... was printed above ...
NEW YORK, N.Y. 10001
2) In NY Rangers jerseys, Cosby tags moved from the hip to the neck around 1973-74. I have seen a few Cosby tags in the necks of jerseys from 1972-73. By 1974-75 they are all in the neck.
Were the NY Knicks jerseys customized the same way? I can't say for certain. But I would surmise that a NY Knicks jersey with the MADISON SQUARE GARDEN line above the NEW YORK, N.Y. 10001 line is a 1985-86 or later jersey.
Barry
THANKS for posting the "Cosby" information. The tag I posted is from a Ray Williams. He played for the Knicks in the late 70s to EARLY 80s (not with the Knicks in 1984) According to your info, my jersey is not legit. However, the Medalist Sand Knit tag is from the Late 70s to early 80s..who would "fake" a Ray Williams?
Medalist used a different tag starting 1983-84.
THANKS
After further research.
Ray Williams played for the Knicks from 1978-1981. He then was traded back to the Knicks for the 1984 season. The Cosby tags still don't match the timeline. Also, the Medalist Sand Knit tags don't fit the timeline of the Cosby tag. I am still confused.
I have a Bill Cartwright Knicks jersey from the early 80's and a Rory Sparrow warm up also from the early 80's.Both items have the same Cosby Tag as BTPH Ray Williams jersey.
My NY Ranger info has been consistent for hundreds of jerseys ... but without a fair number of NY Knicks jerseys to compare this to, it would premature to come to any conclusions.
I would be interested to hear about post-1986 NY Knicks jerseys, to see what those tags look like. And the more NY Knicks jerseys we hear of, the better base of information we'll have.
I called Cosby's today and spoke to an employee who has been there since the mid '80s, and was involved in the preparation of the on-ice and on-court jerseys for the Knicks and Rangers.
Remember, we're talking about procedures from approximately 20 years ago, and he was speaking from memory. He said he would check records, and samples, to see what he could fine.
But he did say he would not be surprised if there was no consistency between Knicks and Rangers jerseys, since things were done separately for the two teams.
So my research on NY Rangers would not necessarily apply to NY Knicks jerseys. He did say, however, that he wanted to try and see if he could date the changing of the Madison Square Garden line on the tag.
Because he did agree that me never seeing the MSG line above the New York, NY line on Rangers jerseys before 1985 was odd if there were NY Knicks jerseys with tags like that.
Anyway, I will post as new info. becomes available.
That helps, based on another thing my Cosby contact said.
He remembered that Cosby's eventually was prohibited from sewing their tags into the on-court jerseys. He estimated that that happened around 1986-87. If his memory is correct, that would explain why one of your jerseys lacks a Cosby tag, and would pin the other two with multiple year possibilities as 1985-86 jerseys.
