Albersheim's 2015 November Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/14/2015
Daniel Reid Topping (June 11, 1912 - May 18, 1974) was a part owner and president of the New York Yankees baseball team from 1945 to 1964. Daniel Reid Topping was the son of Rhea Reid and Henry J. Topping. Rhea Reid, the daughter of Daniel Reid, known as the "Tinplate King" for his vast wealth in the tin industry, was the mother of three sons, Daniel Reid Topping, Henry J. Topping (1914), and John Reid Topping (1921). Daniel Topping, along with Del Webb and Larry MacPhail, purchased the Yankees for $2.8 million from the estate of the late Jacob Ruppert on January 25, 1945. MacPhail sold his share of the team to Topping and Webb in 1947, and the two sold controlling interest in the team to CBS in 1964, after which Topping remained as team president until 1966, when he sold his remaining stake in the Yankees. Topping also was co-owner, along with John Simms Kelly, of the National Football League's Brooklyn Dodgers starting in 1931, eventually owning the team outright. By the mid-1940s, Topping wished to move his football team from Ebbets Field into the newer and larger Yankee Stadium. Tim Mara, owner of the New York Giants, who played in the Polo Grounds, held NFL territorial rights, and refused to permit this. Not to be denied, Topping moved his team anyway, joining the newly formed All-America Football Conference. Topping's team retained most of its players during the jump and became the football New York Yankees. The New York Yankees were a professional American football team that played in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) from 1946 to 1949. The team played in Yankee Stadium in the Bronx and often played in front of sold-out crowds They were owned by Dan Topping, who brought many of his Brooklyn football players from the National Football League to the AAFC. The team's coach was Ray Flaherty, who had coached the Washington Redskins in the early 1940s. The NFL canceled its Brooklyn team. The Yankees appeared in the 1946 AAFC championship game, but lost to the Cleveland Browns by a score of 14-9. The same two teams appeared in the championship game the following year, with the Browns winning again 14-3. Before the 1949 season, the Brooklyn Dodgers football team folded and merged into the Yankees, which became the Brooklyn-New York Yankees, but this was the final season of the AAFC, which then merged with the NFL. The Yankees players were divided between the New York Giants and New York Bulldogs, who returned to their Yanks (from Boston) nickname in 1950.
On December 5, 1945 Dan Topping announced that he was transferring his NFL franchise to the AAFC. The owners of the seven franchises agreed to give Topping $75,000, plus $25,000 to come out of the first year’s gate receipts.
We offer an original stock certificate for the formation of the AAFC team whereby Topping owned 98 out of 100 available shares of the club (98% of the team) in 1945, just prior to their first season in 1946. This document has been signed by Daniel Topping twice (once on front and once on back). Signatures rate a 9 out of 10. This is the Holy Grail of the NY Yanks AAFC history!
Letter of Authenticity from Richard Albersheim.