1956 - 1968 Al Oerter Olympic Collection
GUEST: They're from my dad. He won four consecutive gold medals in the discus; '56, '60, '64 and '68. And each time he also set an Olympic record. He was just the greatest guy. I just miss him, and I love him so much. He was goal-driven, but back when he was in the Olympics, you had to be an amateur. So he had a full-time job. He would lift weights on his lunch hour, throw after work, and usually take my sister and I when he would go throw. And he made a comeback in '80, which we boycotted. And he probably would have made the Olympic team if it wasn't for the boycott. Then he made a comeback in '84, was throwing world-class, but got injured at the trials.
APPRAISER: And what you brought in were your dad's, Al Oerter's, four gold medals from four consecutive Olympics, all for the discus throw. How did he get into throwing the discus?
GUEST: Oh, that's a great story.
APPRAISER: (chuckles)
GUEST: I'm glad you asked that. So in high school, he ran track. And he didn't like running track because that was too much work. So at one point in time, a discus skipped over the track. He picked it up and threw it, and it threw over the discus ring.
APPRAISER: No!
GUEST: So the coach said, "You. Over there," and that was it. And he won the nationals, high school nationals. And he won his first gold medal when he was in college. So it was very quick; he-he was meant to be a discus thrower.
APPRAISER: This is a discus you brought...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...that he used for practice, right?
GUEST: Yes. Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: But i-if you look here, it says "Al Oerter Olympic Gold '56." And these are all the lengths of his record throws.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: 184, 10 inches; 194, two; 200 feet, uh, one inch; and then 212 and six.
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: So over a 12-year period, from the time he was 20 to 32, he just got better.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: We've got the '56, the '60, the '64 and the '68 medals. I'm gonna talk about these three first, because if you notice that they're so shiny, it appears that they may not have the original finish on them.
GUEST: Correct, correct. The New York Athletic Club, for his 50th birthday, re-gilded them.
APPRAISER: And then the '68 medal...
GUEST: That medal is not actually the medal that was put around his neck.
APPRAISER: Okay.
GUEST: What happened was, there was a movie made, and they needed a mold for '68 Olympic gold medals. So my dad gave it to them. Well, they didn't tell the mold-maker it was an original medal, so it was destroyed. But they did get the molds from Mexico City. So it is from those molds.
APPRAISER: And then you have this fabulous family photo from 1968.
GUEST: (laughs) Yep.
APPRAISER: Your mom, you?
GUEST: Yep.
APPRAISER: Your dad and your sister.
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: What's fascinating about discus is that it actually started with the first, uh, ancient Olympics...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...back in 776 B.C. We're gonna value it as a collection. I'm gonna value it for insurance value.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: Okay? We have pros and cons.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: Now the pros are that your father was the greatest discus thrower of all time. I don't think anyone can argue that.
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: Now the con is another value factor, condition. And this is a copy.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: So, and with copies, they are generally worth a fraction of what an original is. And the total value here for this copy is the association with your dad and his career. Uh-huh. I would place an insurance value on the whole collection here at $400,000.
GUEST: (bursts into laughter) (laughing) Are you kidding? Holy smokes! Wow. That’s impressive. Wow. Dad would get a kick out of this, boy. Let me tell ya.
$400,000 Insurance
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