"The Shot" lives on at The National

Darren Rovell gets rare 1998 NCAA tournament ticket professionally graded in Chicago

Sports collectors from around the world descended upon Chicago last week with their eyes on memorabilia featuring Honus Wagner, Mickey Mantle and…Bryce Drew?

The 2025 National Sports Collectors Convention was held at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont from Wednesday through Sunday and the biggest names in sports were on hand.

Tom Brady walked the halls as he promoted the opening of his new sports card shop outside Wrigley Field. Athletes ranging from Jim McMahon to Giannis Antetokounmpo to Pete Crow-Armstrong participated in autograph sessions while tens of thousands of collectors roamed 500,000 square feet of floor space that featured everything a sports fan could desire.

In the middle of it all was longtime sports collectibles reporter Darren Rovell and he came to Chicago with a purpose.

Sure, he was busy covering the event for cllct, the media company he founded in 2024, but he also brought a piece of memorabilia to get professionally graded at the show. It was a piece of memorabilia that he had been chased for half a decade.

Last March, Rovell completed a 5-year search when he finally tracked down a ticket stub from the 1998 NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Why was Rovell, a 19-year-old Northwestern at the time, so hot for the ticket? Simple.

The Shot.