The world’s largest collection of Nolan Ryan memorabilia finds a new home in South Jersey

Real estate executive and former Shore Mall co-owner Leo S. Ullman thought he was killing some time when he happened upon his first batch of baseball great Nolan Ryan collectibles nearly 30 years ago.

He was in Madison, Wis., awaiting the birth of a grandson, when he noticed there was a card show being held at a motel next to the hospital. He decided to check it out.

“I bought 12 Nolan Ryan cards for $1 each thinking I had a collection, having no idea what I was getting into,” said Ullman, 82.

Over the years, Ullman ended up amassing nearly 15,000 items of Ryan memorabilia. Believed to be the largest collection of its kind, it took up two whole rooms in Ullman’s Long Island home and has been assessed at over $1 million. But recently the collector decided the time had come to share the joy.

This far-ranging tribute to the Ryan Express has pulled in permanently at Stockton University.

Ullman, owner of Vastgood Properties, has donated his vast collection to the South Jersey university.

The school’s College of Arts and Humanities is already planning to create a class on collecting with the exhibit as its focus for the spring 2023 semester, and other courses may follow.

“Stockton is excited to become the new home for Leo’s vast and unique collection of Nolan Ryan memorabilia,” said Leamor Kahanov, Stockton provost and vice president for academic affairs. “We believe the collection will be a great academic resource for courses like sports history or statistics.”

The university plans to eventually display the collection, said Stockton spokesman Mark Melhorn, something that will no doubt delight the many fans of this Major League living legend.

In his storied career with the New York Mets, the California Angels, the Houston Astros, and the Texas Rangers, the right-handed speed pitcher made baseball history. Ryan still holds the Major League career record for strikeouts — 5,714 — and for pitching seven no-hitters.

Ullman’s collection is eclectic, to say the least.

Sure there are the classic collector’s items, including more than 8,500 baseball cards, about 3,000 of which were signed by hand.

But there are also the less expected like a full-size leather saddle with Ryan’s likeness; signed cowboy boots; seven hand-painted baseballs, one for each of Ryan no-hitters, by American pop artist Charles Fazzino that are autographed by Ryan; a watercolor painting of the pitcher that was used in his Hall of Fame induction ceremony, as well as various items from his restaurants, ranches, charity tournaments, and other novel career memorabilia. Guitar picks, ice cream sticks. You name it.

Even before he bought those dozen baseball cards for $1, Ullman’s brother had gifted him a Ryan baseball or bat; after all these years and that stuff, he’s not sure which.

For Ullman, who was a lawyer for many years, a lot of the fun was just the hobby itself.

“I think it was more the process of collecting,” he said. “What all was out there — it’s just so mind-boggling. And then there’s the fun of getting something special, and also realizing how much the guy was valued.”

The guy, of course, is Ryan himself. Ullman said he had met Ryan at some of his charity functions. He had invited the baseball great to see his collection. Although he never took Ullman up on the offer, the collector said Ryan was always gracious.

His appreciation of the pitcher actually predates becoming a collector.

A native of the Netherlands, Ullman was only 3 years old when his parents sent him to live with a policeman’s family to try to keep him safe from Nazis who occupied their homeland while they hid in an attic elsewhere in Amsterdam.

After the war, the family reunited and immigrated to the United States, settling on Long Island. An aunt by marriage who was from New York introduced him to baseball, and young Ullman fell in love with the Brooklyn Dodgers. When the team left for Los Angeles, he was bereft. But then his loyalty began to shift to the New York Mets and their amazing young pitcher Nolan Ryan.

Over the years, Ullman, who also collects cigar bands and Chinese snuff bottles, remained impressed by Ryan’s baseball skills but also by the man — “a really, really good guy.”

Ullman, who at one time co-owned the Shore Mall in Egg Harbor Township, had a relationship with Stockton even before he decided to donate his collection.

Several years ago, the collector and his wife, Katharine, funded the creation of the Schimmel and Hoogenboom Righteous Remembrance Room at the university’s Sara & Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center. The remembrance room is intended to honor the individuals who sheltered him and his parents in Amsterdam during the war.

More recently, Ullman said he was chatting with Stockton President Harvey Kesselman, another baseball fan, when he mentioned his treasure trove of Ryan stuff. Kesselman ended up asking him if he would consider giving it to the university.

That set the wheels in motion.

An appraisal of the collection commissioned by Ullman last year found it to be notable in several ways.

“This collection is probably the largest private collection in existence and covers all types of memorabilia, from the mundane and common to the unusual and rare,” according to a report by appraiser Leon Castner. “This collection is not simply an accumulation of individual items. It is an archive of modern sports collectibility.”

Now it appears destined for an audience that may grow even more with time.

Ullman said he’s very happy about his collection as a teaching tool, as well as becoming an exhibit many will get to enjoy. He admits, though, he does get a bit misty when he walks by those empty display cases where his collector’s items used to be. He’s kept 24 pieces that have special meaning to him. One is the original contract signed in 1970 by Ryan that gave Topps cards exclusive rights to his signature for two years. For that, the pitcher who became baseball’s first $1 million-a-year player was paid the princely sum of $75.

Ullman plans to publish a book he has written about his collection, but he swears his Ryan collecting days are done.

“At this point, I don’t think I need it,’” he said, although he does continue to get offers.

“It was a great ride,” said Ullman. “And I’m really proud of what we collected. I enjoyed the process.”