Dan Marino Signed Pittsburgh Panthers Rawlings White Football BAS Authenticated

Add the college-origin signature of one of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of professional football — on a football in the colors of the program he grew up next door to — to your collection with this Dan Marino Autographed Pittsburgh Panthers Rawlings White Football — Beckett BAS Authenticated. Dan Marino grew up on Parkview Avenue in the South Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh — a street a few blocks from the University of Pittsburgh campus. He attended Central Catholic High School in the same Oakland neighborhood. When the Kansas City Royals drafted him in the fourth round of the 1979 MLB Draft, he chose football. When recruiting offers arrived from major programs across the country, he chose to stay home. Across four seasons (1979-1982) at the University of Pittsburgh, Marino set the program's career records for passing yards (8,597) and touchdowns (79), records that still stand 43 years later. He led Pitt to three consecutive 11-1 seasons in his first three years, finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1981, won first-team All-American honors that same season, and threw the most memorable pass of his college career — a 33-yard fourth-down touchdown to tight end John Brown with 35 seconds remaining in the 1982 Sugar Bowl to defeat No. 2 Georgia 24-20 in one of the most celebrated bowl upsets in college football history. The Pitt Panthers Rawlings white football signed by Marino is the game-object credential of the four-year college chapter that produced the foundation of his Pro Football Hall of Fame career — in the colors of the program he could have played on the schoolyard for since he was a kid in the neighborhood, certified authentic by Beckett Authentication Services with a tamper-proof hologram verifiable at Beckett's official website.

This Pittsburgh Panthers Rawlings White Football has been hand-signed by Dan Marino. The autograph has been certified authentic by Beckett Authentication Services (BAS) with a tamper-proof hologram verifiable at Beckett's official website.

Product Highlights

• Hand-signed by Dan Marino — Pittsburgh Panthers quarterback (1979-1982); Miami Dolphins quarterback (1983-1999); Pro Football Hall of Fame 2005; College Football Hall of Fame 2002; 1984 NFL MVP; 9 Pro Bowls
• Pittsburgh Panthers Rawlings White Football — Pitt branding; the game-object credential format; the college-origin signed football of one of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of the sport
• BAS Authenticated — tamper-proof Beckett hologram verifiable at Beckett's official website
• Pitt all-time records still standing: career passing yards (8,597); career touchdown passes (79); single-season touchdown passes (37, 1981); single-game touchdown passes (6, vs. South Carolina, 1981); #13 retired by Pittsburgh
• 1982 Sugar Bowl: 33-yard touchdown pass to TE John Brown on 4th-and-5 with 35 seconds remaining; Pitt won 24-20 over No. 2 Georgia; Marino's own stated favorite throw of his college career; play call: "69-X"
• Three consecutive 11-1 seasons (1979-1981) — combined 33-3 record; Pitt was 29-5 with Marino as starter; 22 Panthers drafted in four years after the 1982 Sugar Bowl including six in the first round
• Hometown hero: grew up on Parkview Avenue in South Oakland; attended Central Catholic High School (Oakland); turned down MLB Draft (Kansas City Royals, 1979) to stay home and play for Pitt
• Backed by our Lifetime Authenticity Guarantee

The Pitt Football — The Hometown Hero's College Credential

The most personally specific available framing for any college signed memorabilia is the player who grew up next door to the campus. Dan Marino did not commute to Pittsburgh from another city or another state. He walked from his neighborhood. Parkview Avenue, where Marino grew up, sits in the South Oakland section of Pittsburgh — a few blocks from the University of Pittsburgh, a few blocks from the football stadium, a few blocks from where the most celebrated quarterback the program would ever produce went to school in the same neighborhood he grew up in. Marino was a hometown hero in the most literal available sense — not the player who chose a school and adopted its colors, but the player whose colors had always been the program at the end of his street. The Kansas City Royals drafted him in 1979 in the fourth round as a baseball prospect (Marino was a legitimate MLB prospect as both a pitcher and an infielder). Major college programs from across the country recruited him aggressively. He chose Pitt. He chose the school he could see from his front yard. The Rawlings Pitt Panthers football signed by Marino is the game-object credential of the chapter that began on Parkview Avenue and ended four years later with the most decorated college quarterback career in Panthers history — in the colors of the program that has always been, in the most direct available sense, his.

1982 Sugar Bowl — Marino's Favorite Throw

On January 1, 1982, in the 48th Annual Sugar Bowl at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, the No. 8 Pittsburgh Panthers faced the No. 2 Georgia Bulldogs in what would become one of the most celebrated bowl upsets in the history of college football. Pitt trailed 20-17 with 35 seconds remaining, facing fourth-and-five at the Georgia 33-yard line. Pitt head coach Jackie Sherrill considered attempting a 50-yard field goal that would have produced, at best, a 20-20 tie. He asked Marino. Marino chose to go for the win. "It comes down to this," Marino explained to Sherrill at the timeout. "It's a 50-yard field goal and, even if we don't make it, which is a longshot, it's still going to be a 20-20 score. If we go for it and make the first down, then we have a shot to win the game. And if we don't make the first down, then we don't deserve to win the game." The play was called: "69-X" — a play Pitt had taken out of mothballs specifically for this drive. Georgia called an all-out blitz. Marino threw a 33-yard touchdown to tight end John Brown to win the game 24-20. Marino has cited this throw as the most memorable pass of his college career — not the touchdown passes he threw in three consecutive 11-1 seasons, not the six-touchdown game against South Carolina, not the dozens of clutch fourth-quarter throws that built his Hall of Fame résumé — but the specific 33-yard touchdown in the 1982 Sugar Bowl that beat the No. 2 team in the country in his final available bowl game in Pitt colors. The Rawlings Pitt football signed by Marino is the game-object credential of the player who threw that pass.

The Records That Still Stand — 43 Years Later

The University of Pittsburgh has produced some of college football's most accomplished quarterbacks across more than a century of football history. Among them: Mike Reid, Larry Fitzgerald (as a wide receiver, not a quarterback, but as the program's most recent modern offensive star), Tony Dorsett (running back, Heisman winner), and the long line of Panthers who passed through on their way to the NFL. Forty-three years after Dan Marino's last game in Pitt blue, he still holds the program's records for: career passing yards (8,597); career touchdown passes (79); single-season touchdown passes (37, set in 1981); single-game touchdown passes (6, vs. South Carolina in 1981). The 1981 season alone produced the school-record 37 touchdowns and the third consecutive 11-1 season — during the most dominant three-year stretch in Pitt football history (33-3 combined). Twenty-two Pitt players were drafted in the four years after the 1982 Sugar Bowl — six of them in the first round, three of them eventually elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame (Marino, Jim Covert, Chris Doleman). The Rawlings Pittsburgh Panthers football signed by Marino is the game-object piece of the program-record holder on a Pitt team whose talent depth was the foundation of his college credential — in his words: "There were games when my uniform never got dirty. There were games when I never hit the ground. That's incredible."

BAS Authentication

This football has been certified authentic by Beckett Authentication Services (BAS) with a tamper-proof hologram. The hologram is verifiable at Beckett's official website.

Authenticity

This football is certified authentic by Beckett Authentication Services (BAS). The tamper-proof hologram is verifiable at Beckett's official website.

Specifications

Authenticity Guarantee

Every signed piece at GameDay Sports Memorabilia is backed by our Lifetime Authenticity Guarantee. If your item is ever determined to be inauthentic, we will replace or refund it — no questions asked.