DALLAS — As the hall-of-fame host at Dallas’ New Country 96.3, Mark “Hawkeye” Louis spends his mornings playing other people’s music.
But through the years, he’s earned enough accolades to sing his own praises. However, few things have ever made him prouder than his cards.
“My collection was vast,” Hawkeye said. “And everybody knew it too. I had the best collection of all my friends. I was very proud of my collection.”
For much of his childhood, Hawkeye collected baseball cards. His collection includes Mickey Mantle, Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays and so many more of the greatest players to ever play the game. In total, Hawkeye collected more than 17,000 valuable cards from that era.
To him, though, they were priceless.
“These cards were more than just something to collect and trade,” Hawkeye said. “They were something that really got you involved with Major League Baseball.”
For the past 30 years, however, the cards sat in a closet gathering dust. That is, until last summer when Hawkeye decided to see how much money he could get for them, so he could give it all away.
“It just clicked that’s what this was all meant for,” he said.
For years, Hawkeye has helped patients at Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth.
He’s volunteered at camps and his radio show’s annual fundraiser has raised millions.
And since no one in his family wanted to inherit his cards, with the help of Heritage Auction, Hawkeye sold his collection for more than $10,000.
Every penny will be given to Cook Children’s.
“All that joy as a child, I’m bundling up that joy, now I’m kind of multiplying it to something even bigger,” he said.
Something to be proud of.
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