Up for bidding here is a Tennessee Volunteers game-issued jersey from 1996 of current Philadelphia Eagles All-Pro defensive tackle Darwin Walker. This type of jersey is impossible to acquire, and here's why.
Darwin Walker started his collegiate career at North Carolina State since his brother played with the Wolfpack. Things didn't work out, and he elected to transfer to the University of Tennessee, where he would go on to become a two-time All-SEC first team defensive tackle. Walker entered the program in 1996 and was forced to sit out the season as a first-year transfer player. In 1997, Tennessee signed a deal with Adidas, and all of their game jerseys were sold through the athletic department. Walker was issued two jerseys (road white and home orange) for reasons unknown. The white one, since it was later used in the Citrus Bowl game against Northwestern, was given to the players themselves. This left only the home orange, which is easily dated with the 75-Year Neyland Stadium Anniversary patch on the left shoulder.
This is the home orange jersey issued to Walker. It is a size 52, has the SEC patch hot-glued and sewn onto the collar, and has the Neyland Stadium patch on the left shoulder. The jersey, by virtue of being issued to Walker and not seeing the playing field, is in perfect condition. There is no game wear to it. If it had wear, it would easily be noted as a fake or there would be an awful lot of forfeited games from the 1996 season.
The location of Walker's UT jerseys outside of this one is unknown. This is truly a one-of-a-kind item, and once this one's gone there may never be another one that sees the light of day (if they do in fact still exist, and haven't been chopped into little bits to go into cards).
I'm asking $300 for this beauty...pics can be seen in the Orange UT Gamers folder of my Webshots profile below.
Thanks,
Nathan
http://community.webshots.com/user/rockytopreb/
