Art Monk Jersey Collection, memorabilia and Wire Photo Gallery UPDATED

[jollyroger29]

I HAVE ATTACHED A LARGE LIBRARY OF ART MONK WIRE PHOTOS FOR EVERONE TO ENJOY ON THIS THREAD. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN HAVING A PRINT MADE OF ANY OF THE PHOTOS AS I AM HAPPY TO SHARE ANY OF THE PHOTOS IN MY LIBRARY!! I HOPE THAT EVERYONE ENJOYS THIS ONE_STOP ART MONK REFERENCE THREAD!!!!

I am nearing completion of putting together my collection of Art Monk items to eventually display in my game room and I thought that I would just share some photos of it with all of the collectors on Extremeskins. As a collector, I always enjoy seeing what others have worked on and put together that is important to them, so I thought that I would do likewise.

About a year ago, I realized that I had a lot of Redskins items of different players, but it all just seemed random and not something that was what I considered a "Collection". I had a lot of jerseys and footballs, but it wasn't something that could be viewed at and appreciated if I were to display the items. It was at this time that I decided to sell a lot of my collection, piece by piece and use the proceeds to put together a collection of Art Monk items.

I chose Art Monk as he was my favorite player for the Redskins when I was growing up. I had a couple of years in the mid 80's where George Rogers was tied for the lead, but after 1987 (and Timmy Smith's SB XXII performance) Rogers was no longer on the team, and so all of my focus went back on Monk. The very first game that my father took me to at RFK was in 1986 and guess who scored the first TD that I ever got to see? Art Monk. Since I had such a sentimental attachment to him as a player, I figured that it was the natural choice to collect Art Monk items.

All of the jerseys and uniform items that I have gathered are not game used, but I tried to make them as accurate as possible. The only game used item that I have are the cleats that he wore when he scored the last TD of his career. These were sold in an auction back in 1997 and I was lucky enough to buy them from the winner of that auction. Aparently Mr. Monk was somewhat superstitious and he wore this pair of cleats with the Jets that he had worn with the Redskins. I did some research and I was able to photo match the cleats to Mr. Monk's last TD catch while he was still with the Redskins in November of 1993. Other than those cleats, everything else that I have put together is not game used. I will start off with a picture of the cleats and a couple of pictures of Art Monk wearing the cleats and then get into uniforms and jerseys. I will then just go into footballs and knicknacks. This may take me a couple of posts, so please keep checking back to see what all has been added. Thanks for your interest. I would love to see the collections that others have out there of Redskins items so please feel free to share them with me! I AM STILL LOOKING FOR MORE ART MONK ITEMS, SO PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE ANY THAT YOU WOULD BE WILLING TO SHARE.

[jollyroger29]

This is a uniform that I have pieced together to represent what Art Monk would have worn in 1991-92. Jersey is a Starter size 46 with the sleeves trimmed so that the yellow stripe comes all the way to the end. The pants are Starter, but they have the logo embridered into the pants instead of a patch on the pants. I haven't been able to find the exact pants that I need, but these are very close to what he would have had on if he hadn't removed the NFL logo. The logos have adhesive on the back and so I didn,t want to remove them as it would not display nicely. Monk did wear some jerseys in 1992 with the NFL shield on the collar, so we will go with that. The helmet is a proline VSR-4 that I have customized. I removed the NFL shield from the back of it and placed the 81 sticker over the spot. This is what Monk did to his actual game helmets. The gloves and socks are NOS and the shoes are the ones pictured below.

[jollyroger29]

Game Used Shoes

[jollyroger29]

Monk wearing the shoes in November of 1993. He would score the last TD of his Redskins Career in this game.

[jollyroger29]

Last TD of Monk's Redskins Career. These are the cleats pictured above.

[jollyroger29]

Art Monk 1986 Uniform. I wanted to do the uniform in this year since that was the year of my first Redskins game. The jersey is a Russell Athletic authentic jersey and the pants are 1987 team issued pants for #61 who was a rookie lineman. The helmet is actually one of the old replica helmets that I fitted with the OPO facemask that Monk wore until 1984. He switched to the OPO-SW in 1985, but I thought that this uniform would display nicely with the facemask of his rookie year. I replaced the grey foam padding with the padding from a WD-1 helmet like Monk wore his rookie year. I also added an extra snap to the outside and attached a 4 point chinstrap instead of the 2 point that these helmets came with. The helmet has the 8 and 1 on opposite sides of the stripes with the individual numbers. I customized the sleeves and trimmed the burgundy portion at the end of the sleeve to look just like Monk's jersey.

[jollyroger29]

80's Helmet...notice the long feather on the back that was worn in the early 80's. After 1982's curved feather the feathers were shortened to make it easier to apply the decals. From what I know, the curved feather was originally developed to made decal application easier as well. I just don't like the curved feather as much, so I haven't done a Monk helmet with the curved feather...yet.

[jollyroger29]

80's Helmet Back

[jollyroger29]

90's Helmet

[jollyroger29]

90's Helmet Back

[flexxskins]

I am in awe of you having those cleats my man. Congrats.

[jollyroger29]

These are the retail authentic Monk jerseys that I have been able to collect. From L-R they are:

1991-92 Away Jersey
1990 Away jersey
1993 Home Jersey
1991-92 Home jersey

I will show them in closer detail individually. The 1990 jersey has the standard 81 font with the normal slant at the top of the 1 and the tall 8 on both front and back. The 1991-1992 jerseys displayed an 8 that was a little bit more stout and the cross bar in the middle is much skinnier than the 1990 or 1993. the 1 these two years had a very pronounced scoop to it that was very unique. The Bills had this same Starter font when they met the Redskins in SB XXVI. The 1993 jersey is almost exactly the same as the 1990 jersey, but it has a small scoop on the one. the 1993 jersey was a perfect cross between the 1990 and the 1991-92 jerseys.

[jollyroger29]

I am in awe of you having those cleats my man. Congrats.

Thanks!! I was just at the right place at the right time!! I happened to stumble on them when I started emailing a collector in Wisconsin and they had the cleats. They collect mostly Jets Monk items and so they weren't too attached to the cleats even though he wore them as a Jet. The last game that we wore them in was at Foxboro Stadium and it was the game that he tied Steve Largent's record at 177 consecutive games with a reception. I believe that he had 3 or 4 receptions and one of them was the last TD of his career. I would like to get them autographed by him so if anyone knows how I might get in touch with Mr. Monk to do so, please let me know. I sent an email to the contact at artmonk81.com to see if they would contact Mr. Monk for me, but I haven't heard anything back.

[jollyroger29]

1990 Away Jersey. This jersey is one of the handful or so of ACTUAL Mitchell and Ness Monk jerseys that were sold. Aparently M&N didn't have all the permission to market these and so they were yanked off of the retail market. The jerseys were also to be used for a signing, but that fell through as well and so they never hit the market. This one is one of 3 that Distant Replay sold before they were told to pull them from the racks.

Ok, about the jersey..the tag says 1982, but the number font on this jersey is clearly the 1990 font. the 1 is much skinnier than the 1982 1 and so is the 8. The font used in 1982 looks the same as the jersey pictured above with the 80's Monk uniform. The font stayed fairly consistant throughout the 80's until 1989. Even though the tag says 1982, I still consider this one to be 1990 because that is what it is. This jersey even has the Made in Berlin, WI tag on the inside.

[jollyroger29]

1990 Back. Redskins used the Varsity font until 1993. During that season they started to transition from the varsity font to the taller font still used. Some players wore varsity font and the new font in 1993 depending on which jersey they were wearing.