Art Monk Jersey Collection, memorabilia and Wire Photo Gallery UPDATED

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.

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.

Game Used Shoes

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

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

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.

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.

80's Helmet Back

90's Helmet

90's Helmet Back

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

1991-92 Home Jersey. Notice the exaggerated scoop on the 1 and the 8 seems a little bit shorter than what it looked like on the 1990 jersey. This is because the crossbar in the middle is skinnier than the top and bottom crossbars. On the 1990 font, all three crossbars are the same thickness making the 8 just a little bit taller looking.

So who's your favorite Redskin?

1991-92 Back. I haven't added a nameplate yet but it will have varsity font. Notice how really exaggerated the scoop looks on the 1 on the back. The 8 is similar to the 1990 8, but the crossbar in the middle is skinnier than the top and bottom. On the 1990 jersey the crossbar in the middle is the same thickness as the top and bottom making the 8 just a little bit taller. This is true of the 8 on the front as well.

1991-92 Away. I wear this jersey the most so I did not crop the sleeves to remove the burgundy at the end like Monk did. Maybe someday, but I don't want to mess with this one yet. It is interesting to note the difference in gold color on the burgundy jersey vs the white jersey. This is the exact same gold used, but because it is screened onto a burgundy base, it comes out looking much more orange looking.

1991-92 Away Back. Again, I didn't add a nameplate yet, but I will soon. Note how "Rosy" the burgundy color is on this jersey. If you look at Monk's 1993 Upper Deck Card, you will see that the authentics are really this "rosy" in color.

1993 Art Monk Upper Deck...See how "rosy" the burgundy color is on the away jersey.

1993 Home Jersey...The font has become a cross between the 1990 jerseys and the 1991-92 jerseys. If you look at the jerseys side by side, the font is exactly the same except for the scoop on the 1. Please note how the scoop is much less pronounced on the 1 than it was in 1991-92

1993 Home Jersey Back...again the less pronounced scoop. This jersey has the varsity font, but Monk also wore the tall font that season. Donruss put out a series of cards that have a game used swatch from a 1993 jersey. the picture of the game used jersey show one of Monk's jerseys with this font. The interesting thing with Monk is that he wore jerseys in 1993 that had the 1991-92 font AND the 1993 font. the black and white photo at the beginning of this thread is from a November 1993 game, but he is wearing the 1991-92 font. There must have been some jerseys left over from the previous year that he wore as well. He wore the new font in the playoff game against the 49ers, but I don't know if he wore it before this. One other thing to note is the font on the sleeves...notice how wide the 8 is as compared to the 8 on the 1991-92 jersey. The white in the middle of the 1991-92 jersey is square while the white in the middle of the 8 on the 1993 jersey is rectangular.

Donruss Fabric of the Game card that shows the Monk game jersey with the tall font

1986 Away jersey. The Redskins had 2 different fonts in 1985-1986. Some of the jerseys had octagons inside the 8 and some had squares. this jersey is an example of the square. This is also the same font that Mitchell and Ness should have used on their 1982 jersey if they were going to do it accurately instead of using the 1990 font. I actually prefer the 1990 font to the 80's font so I am glad that they used the 1990 font. Please see the Thread that Mark the Homer posted on the history of the Redskins Jerseys for references on the different fonts this year. He has pictures of Gary Clark and Don Warren that show the different fonts on the 8. This is a Russell Athletic size 44. I have to reattach the tag as the stitches came loose on one side and I had to remove it.