A Munster, Indiana, man is the owner of a rare piece of Chicago Bulls history after he stumbled upon the stashed childhood memento in his childhood bedroom.
Forty years later, and in a box underneath his dresser, David Blixt, who is an avid collector, can even forget what memories he boxed up as a kid. While recently looking for an old Nolan Ryan rookie baseball card to see what it was worth, he found the real treasure in the box — not a rookie card, but a rookie ticket.
"And Michael Jordan's name on the ticket underneath the Bulls," Blixt said.
A $5 ticket to a preseason Chicago Bulls game in 1984, Michael Jordan's rookie year.
Jordan played his first two games as a Bull on the road in small venues in Peoria and St. Louis, but his first home game took place in a high school gym in northwest Indiana. Blixt was the only one to have said the ticket.
"The date, Tuesday, October 9, 1984, 7:30 at East Chicago Washington Gym," Blixt said.
The old ticket jogged Blixt's memory of Jordan highlights.
"A vacuum sucked everything out of the gym for an instant, and it got silent and then pfff! Eruption when he dunked, and it was like, 'oh my God!'" he said.
Those memories are no longer boxed up, and neither is the ticket. Blixt said the ticket has been authenticated, and it's the only known ticket from the game.
"The ticket is going to go back to the bank," he said jokingly.