When Bob Pettit came out of college in 1954, no one thought he was talented enough to make it as a professional basketball player. Although he had been a prolific scorer at LSU, the tall, thin forward was deemed too slight at 200 pounds to survive the pounding of an NBA season. However, the scouts failed to factor in Pettit's willingness to work harder than anyone else on the court in order to succeed. And succeed he did. After 11 years with the Milwaukee and St. Louis Hawks, he retired having become the first player in the league to top 20,000 points. He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1971. Top 50 All-Time player. Bob Petit wore #8 this game as a rookie in his first All-Star Game as his #9 was taken by veteran, Bobby Wanzer who had seniority. Inside the front tail of the jersey is the "Horace Partridge Athletic Goods" manufacturer's tag with the jersey size "44" on it. On the front and the back of the jersey is the player number "8" in white tackle twill and six stars in red tackle twill. Autographed on the front and back number in black marker and rates an 8.The jersey shows game-use and appears to have no alterations of any kind. The autographs are accompanied by a LOA from JSA. This tremendous piece of basketball history is accompanied by a hand-signed LOA from Bob Pettit and comes to us directly from his private collection.