Presented is an elaborate 1955 trophy presented to Tom Gola by Coca-Cola for his performance in an exhibition basketball game featuring college basketball all-stars versus the Harlem Globetrotters. The ornate 11½ x 19½ x 40-inch trophy features a 12½-inch gold figure of a winged woman holding a torch above her head with both hands atop a gold metal basketball on a pedestal. The pedestal is accompanied at all four corners by four gold metal eagles with wings spread atop separate pedestals, while two 13½-inch gold metal basketball players set atop globes of the Earth sit at either side of the overall trophy. The trophy features a brown wood base with a 4 x 8-inch gold metal plaque engraved with the legend “Coca-Cola Bottler Award Most Valuable College Player 1955 All-Americans vs. Harlem Globetrotters Won by Tom Gola”. Please note that the basketball player figure on the lower left has broken off the globe base, while the figure on the right is loose. The 1955 “World Series of Basketball” was an eight-game tournament between the 1955 college basketball All-American team versus the famed Harlem Globetrotters, with games played over eight nights in eight Eastern U.S. cities.

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