(WBIR - Knoxville) Legendary football coach Vince Lombardi famously said, "Winning isn't everything. It is the only thing."
A husband and wife in Knoxville are big winners after striking vintage gold with the discovery of a piece of Lombardi history.
Sean and Rikki McEvoy bought Lombardi's West Point sweater at a Goodwill Outlet in Asheville, North Carolina, in June 2014 for what amounts to around $.58. The garment is now worth tens of thousands of dollars.
"I just cannot get over how lucky we are," said Rikki McEvoy. "It's not dumb luck. It's like finally getting our big break."
The McEvoys are a husband-and-wife team that find, buy, repair, model, and sell vintage clothes online at their Roslyn VTG Trading Co. website. To truly succeed in the business of vintage clothing, it is better overall to be good than lucky.
"We work constantly and have experience to know where to find things. You find better vintage clothes in colder areas because things that are made with wool, really thick leather, and are really built to last. We moved here from the Pacific Northwest and were surprised to not find as much really old vintage clothes in great condition," said Sean.
"In the South, the heat required people to wear less durable clothes that would breathe," said Rikki. "It makes sense."
"But you can find good stuff anywhere. I love this. I travel around the whole country looking for things," said Sean.
Sean and Rikki made the trip to the Goodwill Outlet in Asheville where clothes are sold by the pound. The garments for sale at the outlet are usually deemed to have too much damage to sell in the main retail stores.
"The sweater was in good shape. It just has a few moth holes in it," said Rikki. "Sean grabbed it. We have a lot of stuff and it takes a while to process it all. I looked at the sweater around six months later. I was about to sew it and repair it, but something in my gut told me not to alter it. The next day, we found out what it was and I'm so relieved I didn't alter it"
"When I found the sweater, I thought it was a basketball warm-up, which still could have been cool because you have guys like Bobby Knight and Mike Krzyzewski at West Point," said Sean. "I was watching a Vince Lombardi documentary and saw a picture of him wearing the sweater just like the one we bought. And Rikki's like, there is a name under the tag."
Sean said he asked Rikki in a sarcastic voice, "The name is not Lombardi, is it?"
"And she's like, yeah, that's the name. Lombardi," said Sean. "My heart just dropped."
"My jaw hit the floor," said Rikki. "I like hockey. I didn't know anything about Vince Lombardi. Even if I did, I probably wouldn't have made that connection and thought this was a famous coach's sweater. I know a lot about Vince Lombardi now, though!"
Sean said he briefly thought about donating the sweater to the NFL Hall of Fame or to Lombardi's son. Then his wife quickly called an intelligent audible.
"She said we're selling that thing and put the kibosh on any other ideas I had," laughed Sean. "It's at Heritage Auction now."
Heritage hired forensic experts to verify the authenticity of the garment. Now the sweater bought by the pound for half a buck is likely worth tens of thousands of dollars. As of Friday night, the bidding was already up to $17,000 with eight more days before the auction ends February 21.
"It's just a cool thing to know this sweater was on his body when he was coaching, and now someone who really appreciates that will be able to enjoy this," said Rikki. "We bought this thing at the end of the day and usually the items that aren't sold that weekend will be sent off to a mill and turned into rags. This sweater could have been a day away from becoming a rag."
"On any given Sunday, you might find something. The only thing that matters is if it's significant to you. And to me, this is pretty significant," said Sean.
