This 1-of-1 features Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939, with film of the most complete recording of New York Times sports columnist John Kieran's participation in the ceremony. Included are remarks from Kieran about his friend and neighbor Lou Gehrig.

The first-ever NFT of this speech, this is a bonus 1-of-1 token in the Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day collection. The collection represents the first New York Sports Hall of Fame NFT offering.

Each of the collection's NFTs features remarks delivered at the Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day event, recorded by the same source. Three other speakers — recently retired Yankees captain Lou Gehrig, Yankees legend Babe Ruth and Yankees manager Joe McCarthy — were inducted into the New York Sports Hall of Fame between 1989 and 1991.

Gehrig, Kieran, emcee Sid Mercer, Washington Senators players and members of the Seventh Regiment Band appear in this NFT. The Gehrig ceremonies were held before the second game of a Senators-Yankees doubleheader.

At the time, Gehrig was dying of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The rare and incurable disease became known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.

Kieran, who lived near Gehrig in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, presented Gehrig with these framed words of inspiration on behalf of a Colorado organization:

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will

When the road you’re trudging seems all up hill

When the funds are low and the debts are high

And you want to smile but you have to sigh

When care is pressing you down a bit

Rest if you must but don’t you quit

Life is queer with its twists and turns

As every one of us sometimes learns

And many a failure turns about

When he might have won had he stuck it out

Don’t give up though the pace seems slow

You may succeed with another blow

Often the goal is nearer than

It seems to a faint and faltering man

Often the struggler has given up

When he might have captured the victor’s cup

And he learned too late, when the night slipped down

How close he was to the golden crown

Success is failure turned inside out

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt

And you never can tell how close you are

It may be near when it seems afar

So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit

It’s when things seem worst that you mustn’t quit

Kieran also had a hand in a gift hat is considered Gehrig's favorite from the ceremony — a trophy from Gehrig's Yankees teammates inscribed, as they had requested of Kieran, with a poem written by Kieran. The poem:

We've been to the wars together;

We took our foes as they came;

And always you were the leader,

And ever you played the game.

Idol of cheering millions,

Records are yours by sheaves;

Iron of frame they hailed you;

Decked you with laurel leaves.

But higher than that we hold you,

We who have known you best;

Knowing the way you came through

Every human test.

Let this be a silent token

Of lasting Friendship's gleam,

And all that we've left unspoken;

Your Pals of the Yankees Team

A native of the Bronx, Kieran was a longtime sportswriter at the New York Times. In a Times column published four days before Gehrig broke the Major League Baseball record for most consecutive games played, Kieran proclaimed, "A runner crashing into Gehrig comes up dizzily with the impression that he has collided with concrete wall. A big, powerful fellow, is Henry Louis Gehrig, and he only recently celebrated his thirtieth birthday. If he doesn't get hurt—and what can hurt him?—he will put this consecutive game record away up in the stratosphere before he hangs up his glove."

In its treasured archives, the New York Sports Hall of Fame has rights to the film in this NFT and thousands of other historical pieces of content.