For David Blixt’s 13th birthday in 1984, his parents got him tickets to see Michael Jordan.
As the former North Carolina star prepared for his NBA debut, the hype around the Bulls' top draft pick was palpable. The man who would later become known as “His Airness” was coming to play a preseason game just down the block from Blixt’s family’s home at Washington High School in East Chicago, Indiana.
“You’re having true Chicago fans for the first time being able to really see him in proximity to Chicago,” Blixt explained of that preseason game.
Jordan wasn’t the only big name attracting fans to the game. Initially, marketing of the exhibition match surrounded Junior Bridgeman, who was from East Chicago and would be making a homecoming. However, the Bucks traded Bridgeman to the Clippers just two weeks prior to the game.
Bridgeman, who died earlier this year, would go on to become an incredibly successful entrepreneur following his NBA career, accumulating a net worth in excess of $1 billion.
“Two future billionaires,” Blixt noted of the irony of the two men’s paths nearly crossing that day in Indiana.
The ticket features the names “Jr. Bridgeman” and “Michael Jordan” in parentheses under their respective teams.
Blixt, who had never been to a Bulls game, recalled the preseason game as one of the most special memories from his childhood, attending with his sister, father and mother, who was an alumnus of the high school.
“All I remember is Michael Jordan being on everybody’s lips,” Blixt said. “In my 13-year-old mind, he didn’t even look like he was from this Earth. He was so fast and so quick. Maybe because of the intimate setting of the high school gym, you could feel every dribble just pounding through your chest.”
After the game, Blixt went home and placed the ticket and the program inside one of his binders of baseball cards. He didn’t think about the ticket again for 40 years.
Earlier this year, Blixt’s mother, now 82, was looking through some of her silver coins and wanted to take them to a shop to see if they were worth anything.
“I figured, if we’re gonna go, let me grab my Nolan Ryan rookie that I know I have somewhere and see what they have to say about that, too,” Blixt said. “If I didn’t look for that card, that ticket and program would still be in a box under the dresser with a bunch of dust on it.”
Blixt immediately recalled what the ticket represented and says he knew it was intrinsically important, but it took a bit of late-night research to really hone in on the story that made the piece so significant.
It wasn’t just the third preseason game of Jordan’s career, it was also considered his first professional home game due to the school’s proximity to Chicago.
“It’s almost like a lost game, in a way, because there’s just so little on it,” Blixt said. His copy is the only example graded by PSA.
The ticket will appear in Lelands’ Fall Classic Auction, which closes Dec. 6.
A ticket to Jordan's preseason debut Oct. 5, 1984, against the Pacers in Peoria, Illinois, sold for $5,400 in May 2023. His first preseason game at Chicago Stadium (Oct. 19,1984 against the Kings) went for $4,800 in December 2024.
Want more stories like this? Subscribe to the cllct newsletter and follow cllct on X and Instagram.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture.