Upper St. Clair
resident amasses
colossal collection of
sports memorabilia.
BY JENNIFER BROZAK
Photos by Beth Kukucka
A
s a child growing up in his native Philadelphia, Gary
Sterling had a sizable collection of baseball cards.
Together with his friends, he used to flip and trade those
cards—cards that, years later, his mother would find in the
basement of his childhood home and throw away.
It’s safe to say that Sterling has more than made up for
the heartbreak-inducing fate of that baseball card collection.
Today, the Upper St. Clair resident has devoted approximately
1,300 square feet of his basement to an ever-expanding sports
memorabilia collection.
“I loved sports as a kid,” he says. “I was never good enough
to make any college teams, but I loved to play baseball and
football. I’ve played tennis and I’m obsessed with golf. I’m a
sports addict.”
Sterling, 64, says his job as senior vice president of
merchandising with Dick’s Sporting Goods gave him access
to professional athletes that he otherwise wouldn’t have had.
For instance, he’s been to dozens of trade shows, Super Bowls,
All‑Star games and professional tournaments, where he’s been
able to mingle with sports’ most celebrated players—and snag
their autographs while he’s at it.
“My collection went from one wall to several shelves to an
entire room,” he says with a laugh. “As our houses got larger, so
did our basements, and so did my collection.”
One of his favorite autograph stories involves Hall of Fame
baseball player Joe Morgan. Sterling and Morgan were playing
at the Mario Lemieux Celebrity Invitational golf tournament.
Morgan had played in the morning and Sterling was scheduled
to play in the afternoon. Sterling was coming into the locker
room when he spotted Morgan coming out of the shower.
“He sits down five feet away from me, facing away, and
I asked him for his autograph,” Sterling says, laughing. “It’s
the only baseball I’ve ever had signed by someone who was
unclothed.”
Sterling owns around 400 baseballs autographed by players
from the 1920s and 1930s through today. At least 175 baseballs
have been autographed by Hall of Fame players like Ernie
Banks and Stan Musial, who Sterling says were “two of the
nicest individuals I’ve ever met in the entire world of sports.”
He also has a “shelf of shame,” which holds baseballs and other
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