12-Year-Old Michael Jordan's First Autograph Sold for $35K

A grandmother's simple request to make two 12-year-old baseball players "feel special" just became a piece of sports history worth thousands of dollars.

In 1975, Michael Jordan was just Mike, a kid from Wilmington, North Carolina, playing in the state Dixie Youth Baseball tournament. When his team traveled four hours west to Kings Mountain, he stayed with Frank and Nina Mitchem, a local couple who volunteered to host players. Jordan asked if his best friend Reggie Murrill could stay there too, and the Mitchems said yes.

The boys had such a great time that week that Nina asked them to sign the tournament program before they left. Jordan, who usually went by Mike, signed his name "Michael Jordan" above his picture. It was likely his first sports autograph ever.

That program sold at auction this week in Philadelphia for $35,250.

But the real story isn't about the money. It's about what happened next.

Jordan loved the Mitchems so much that he came back the next summer. And the summer after that. For more than a decade, even after becoming one of the most famous athletes on Earth, Jordan returned to their Kings Mountain home every summer.

Sunny's Take

Justin Jones was born the same year Jordan first stayed with his grandparents. He grew up knowing Jordan only as "Uncle Mike," just another guy who hung out at the house. When Jones was six, his grandmother called him inside. Mike was on TV, playing in the 1981 McDonald's All-American Game.

Jones was confused. What was Uncle Mike doing on television?

The Mitchems drove to Chapel Hill to watch Jordan play for North Carolina. They celebrated when he was drafted by the Bulls in 1984. And still, he came back every summer. Jordan even took young Jones to Chicago during spring breaks, bringing him to practice and asking where a nine-year-old wanted to eat. (Jones picked McDonald's, naturally.)

The friendship started because the Mitchems wanted two kids to feel accomplished after a baseball tournament. They got a lifetime bond with one of the greatest athletes ever, who never forgot the family that made him feel at home when he was just a 12-year-old kid far from Wilmington.

Nina Mitchem wanted Jordan and Murrill to feel special, and in return, they made her family feel pretty special too.