Collection Facility

David Kohler might be sitting on a gold mine, or more appropriately, a purple and gold mine.

Kohler, a memorabilia collector, has a shrine dedicated to the Lakers in his home in southern Orange County.

“Not to be bragging, but there is nothing quite like this out there, devoted to one team,” Kohler said as he gave a reporter a tour.

Certainly, there is nothing like it in Southern California.

The shrine, or museum, includes more than 100 game-worn jerseys, nearly as many classic photographs, priceless autographed game balls and trophies galore.

There are such novelty items as a pair of George Mikan game-worn protective eyeglasses, Wilt Chamberlain’s “50 Greatest Players” ring and Chick Hearn’s ledger board, in his handwriting, from the 2002 NBA Finals.

There are two of Jerry West’s original blue Laker jerseys, plus game-worn jerseys of many other Laker stars, some of whom played for the Minneapolis Lakers.

Kohler has so much Laker memorabilia he is running out of room. When five members of the Minneapolis Lakers came to visit in April 2002, Clyde Lovellette said to Slater Martin, “Hey, Dugie [Martin], your All-Star jersey is in the bathroom.”

In all, the shrine includes about 2,000 pieces of Laker paraphernalia in a room of about 1,100 square feet.

Kohler, who owns Sportscards Plus, a sports memorabilia company that is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, has been working on his Laker shrine for 18 years.

“And I’m always on the hunt for more Laker memorabilia to enhance the collection,” he said.

It all started in a bedroom in his Huntington Beach condominium. Soon, Laker memorabilia was everywhere.

Four years ago, Kohler, his wife, Robbi, and their two children moved to an Orange County gated community and into a new home with a special room for the Laker shrine. It has a 25-foot high ceiling, and there is a Laker logo in the hardwood floor.

Among those who have visited the shrine are West, Magic Johnson, Bill Sharman and Hearn’s widow, Marge. All of their signatures are on the back of the door that leads into the shrine.

Said Sharman: “I had heard it was really something, but it was three or four times greater than I thought it was going to be.”

Marge Hearn was so impressed that after one visit, she decided this was the place where her late husband’s memorabilia should be displayed.

“This is what he would have wanted, rather than having things all over the place,” she said.

When West visited, he told Kohler this was the best sports memorabilia collection in the world.

The question now is, when will the public get a chance to see it?

“That’s the next step,” Kohler said. “What I’d like to do is relocate it to Staples Center. One idea is to find a sponsor who would lease the memorabilia. I don’t want to sell it.”

Kohler said his objective was not to make money but rather to give the public an opportunity to see the shrine.

So far, only one Staples Center executive, Michael Karp, the director of food and beverage services, has seen the collection. But others are aware of it.

Finding a place large enough for the entire collection might be a problem.

Staples Center spokesman Michael Roth said that someday the shrine could possibly be displayed in a proposed entertainment district across the street from the arena. He also suggested that, in the meantime, perhaps a portion of the collection could be put on display in a special area at the new Team LA store at Universal CityWalk.

For now, the shrine remains a treasure waiting to be discovered by Laker fans.