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winnetkacurrent.com news
the winnetka current | June 22, 2017 | 3
A quarter century of fandom
Winnetka sports,
entertainment
memorabilia store
a proven favorite
Jacqueline Glosniak, Editor
Going into a bar, basement
or bedroom of a super
sports fan, what’s the
one thing you’ll undoubtedly
see? A signed piece
of sports memorabilia — a
poster, a jersey, a ball.
Twenty-five years and
four locations later, Northfield
resident Keith Mc-
Donough has made it the
goal of his Winnetka shop,
Bleachers Sports & Framing,
to help these fans
both locally and across the
country get their hands on
100 percent authentic and
memorable pieces of sports
history.
While McDonough’s
store now features a plethora
of everything from
signed photos, jerseys,
basketballs, shoes, albums
and posters, the inspiration
for opening a store sprung
from a simple collection of
baseball cards in the late
1980s.
Originally, McDonough
thought it would be a fun
hobby to start collecting
baseball cards for his then
5-year-old son.
“I decided to start buying
him baseball cards from the
year he was born, which
was 1987, and got really
into it,” McDonough said.
“I got really hooked and
then I had all this stuff and
I was like, ‘I have to figure
out a way to do something
with it.’”
Eventually, McDonough
— who had always been a
sports fan and played intermural
sports growing up
— decided to leave his job
as a financial social worker
with a United Way agency
and make his new calling
running a sports memorabilia
store.
In the beginning, Bleachers
started out selling authenticated
baseball cards.
Soon after, McDonough
became interested in basketball
items from Upper
Deck sports memorabilia
company, which in the
early ’90s, came around to
authenticating Michael Jordan
autographs — something
that was in-demand
in the area as the Chicago
Bulls were at their peak
during that time. Then,
McDonough began getting
into the business of authentic
autographs on jerseys,
basketballs, baseballs and
more.
“Now, we have one of
the best sports memorabilia
stores in the business, maybe
the entire nation,” said
McDonough, who runs the
store with the help of his
wife, Patti, and son, Sam.
At Bleachers, Mc-
Donough says all of his
items are certified authentic,
with the majority of
products including tamperproof
authentication stickers
that come with certificates
of authenticity with
matching sticker numbers.
For much of the baseball
memorabilia, for example,
items he sells are first-party
MLB-authenticated, meaning
someone witnessed the
athlete signing the item and
then immediately placed a
sticker of authenticity on
the product.
While Chicago is a huge
sports city, Bleachers’
memorabilia is not limited
to items from Chicago
teams. McDonough sells
everything from photographs
of historic baseball
greats Ted Williams and
Babe Ruth to soccer items
signed by FIFA stars Cristiano
Ronaldo and Neymar,
jerseys of Los Angeles
Lakers legend Magic Johnson
and even jerseys and
posters of NCAA teams.
And, for the last three
years, McDonough has
also featured music memorabilia
in his store, having
items from artists across
the gamut from legends
Keith Richards, Bruce
Springsteen, Peter Gabriel,
The Beatles and The Beach
Boys to modern-day phenoms
Adele, Bruno Mars
and Justin Timberlake.
For framed pieces of both
athletes and musicians,
McDonough often makes
production pieces out of
the autographs — printing
a clean copy of song lyrics
to frame alongside a signed
headshot or album cover
or having a signed jersey
framed next to a photo of
the athlete.
McDonough ships his
products nation-wide and
stresses that many things in
his store are limited edition,
so clients are truly getting
one-of-a-kind pieces of
sport and pop culture history.
“We have to have unique
stuff, so what we have is
framed professionally for a
good price,” he said.
Occasionally, Bleachers
will also work alongside
local charities for products
for auction for fundraisers
at hospitals, schools in
need and other civic groups
at McDonough’s discretion.
Additionally, Bleachers
doesn’t just sell sports
memorabilia but also specializes
in custom framing
of customers’ existing
professional sports memorabilia
or even jerseys,
equipment and photos of
local youth and high school
athletes.
Overall, McDonough
has enjoyed spending the
last 25 years serving a wide
mix of clients, working
alongside his loved ones
and making the store a reflection
of his interests.
“Aside from working
with my family and aside
from the cool people I meet,
the fact that I get to select
what we’re going to display
and sell and I get to purchase
all of that, and I get to have
input as to how I’m going to
frame it [is my favorite],” he
said. “This is really my taste
on the walls here.”
RIGHT: Bleachers now
showcases a wide
variety of music artist
memorabilia.
Wilmette resident Megan Moser and her 10-year-old
son Max chat about sports with Sam McDonough, the
son of Bleachers’ owner Keith McDonough. PHOTOS BY
JACQUELINE GLOSNIAK/22ND CENTURY MEDIA