Before he embarked on a legendary career in the NBA, Hall of Fame center Wilt Chamberlain played college basketball for the University of Kansas Jayhawks. Chamberlain played college basketball with the Jayhawks from 1956-1958 after a statistically dominant but personally unsatisfying 1957-58 season that saw Chamberlain average 30.1 points per game but froze-out by opposing teams that attempted to contain his dominance. Chamberlain sold the rights to his story “Why I Am Leaving College” to Look Magazine for $10,000 dollars, an astronomical sum when most NBA players only made about $9,000 a season. Chamberlain, who led the Jayhawks to the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Finals against the North Carolina Tar Heels in 1957, losing to the Tar Heels 54-53 in triple overtime, was named the Final Four MVP in 1957 during his first season with the team.

Presented here is a 7 5/8 x 10 ½ -inch University of Kansas Official Souvenir Program signed by 18 members of the 1956-57 University of Kansas Men’s basketball team. The program is labeled “OFFICIAL SOUVENIR PROGRAM” in black on the top left corner. The cover features purple, blue, red, orange, blue, yellow, and green stripes on the cover adorned with nine white stars arranged in a circle around two players reaching for a basketball. “KANSAS UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS” and “OKLAHOMA A&M COLLEGE” are labeled in black on the center of the program. The ten-cent program features “TUESDAY FEBRUARY 12, 1957 ALLEN FIELD HOUSE LAWRENCE” in black on a yellow shield on the top right corner. The Jayhawks defeated the Pokes 62-52, with Chamberlain scoring 36 points during the victory at the Allen Field House. The program's cover features 18 signatures from the 1956-57 Jayhawks team signed in various colors of ink. The most prominent of those is Wilt Chamberlain’s, located on the top-left corner of the program in black ink. The signatures are bold, and the program features elements of cornering and edging. The 1957 Official University of Kansas Souvenir Program signed by Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlain comes with an LOA from Beckett Authentication.

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