By BECKY GOFF
Little Apple Post
MANHATTAN - For more than 50 years, a Manhattan man has been adding to his collection of Kansas City Chiefs memorabilia, which now totals more than 1,300 pieces.
More than two years ago, Curt Herrman applied to the Guinness World Records hoping to be named the owner of the 'Largest collection of Kansas City Chiefs memorabilia,' a designation that did not exist, prior to him being notified he is now a 'Guinness World Record' holder.
"It was obviously elation, actually I got the notice at 5:37 a.m. a week ago last Friday...because, well, because they are based out of England, and so they're way ahead of me...but you know, they kept coming back every time I would send them something they would come back and say, 'ok, we need to have this; well, can you send us a close up of this.' and I had to make a video of everything, of me counting everything, and so when I got that email that morning, I thought, 'oh, here we go again, what else do you need?' and it was like 'Congratulations, You've now been awarded the World Record,' so it was a very happy moment." Curt Herrman says.
Curt received his first Chiefs item, a football, following the Chiefs' Super Bowl 4 victory.
"When I was 9 years old in 1970, the Chiefs won Super Bowl 4, and that year for my birthday I got a football for my birthday, and then ever since then, every year, Christmas, holidays, birthdays everybody just gave me Chiefs stuff. And over the years, I collected quite a bit and...but at one point a lot of it was in storage, but when my kids went to college, we became empty-nesters, and my wife told me 'Stop buying more stuff, you have...you don't even know what all you have.' And so, I got everything and started taking pictures and started hanging stuff up on the walls and next thing you know I had realized I had about 650, almost 700 items." Curt says.
Curt's collection contains no duplicates, any duplicates he receives he gives to friends who are working to build their own collections.
As of September 19th, Herrman's collection contains 1,312 Kansas City Chiefs items.
Herrman's collection keeps growing thanks to gifts, donations and things he finds while he's out and about.
Curt watches the Kansas City Chiefs games from the couch in his basement surrounded by his 'Chiefseum' collection, which include a life-size cardboard cut-out of his son.
Curt says as a huge Kansas City Chiefs fan, he would love to meet someone from the team and have them visit his collection.