Legacy of Fandom: Introducing the Levey Family Collection on Sports and Culture

Lewis Levey (MBA ’67) has collected sports memorabilia all his life. His passion began with personal keepsakes from sporting events he attended as a child growing up in St. Louis and evolved into a family endeavor over the decades. Levey has attended thousands of sporting events in virtually every imaginable arena – from small college basketball games in the 1940s to multiple World Series, the Olympic Games, and Super Bowls – and has never stopped collecting.

Levey and his family (including his wife, Leslee (AB ’67)) have now donated the majority of their vast collection to Washington University Libraries. The Levey Family Collection forms the foundation of a new collecting area for the Julian Edison Special Collections Department. The collection contains a vast array of items – ticket stubs, books, autographs, artwork, and ephemera – that document Levey’s life as a collector, businessman, athlete, father, and enthusiastic fan.

Taken as a whole, the collection reflects the growth of sports into big business since World War II and the significance of sports to its fans. The Legacy of Fandom exhibition showcases just a few of the items from this extensive collection. Beyond the history of each unique item, the exhibition explores the changes in sports fandom over the last 80 years. As America’s insatiable appetite for athletics has grown, nearly everything has changed, and Lewis Levey has had a front-row ticket to it all.

The Legacy of Fandom exhibition was organized by Levey Collection Curator Tim Huskey and Project Archivist Erin Purdy.

Image credit for photos on this exhibition’s page belongs to Ian Lanius unless otherwise noted.