Trophy Life

As the Winners' Circle Widens, Display Space for Awards Becomes The Next Challenge to Conquer

Harvey Grant and his four sons, left to right: Jerami, Harvey, Jerai, Jerian, and Jaelin (Len Spoden - Len Spoden for The Washington Post)

Washington is home to more than its share of super-achievers, with the awards to prove it. On living room mantels, bedroom bookcases, basement cabinets and office shelves, life's shining victories, large and small, are on glittering display: gold or silver statuettes for soccer regional MVP; the Nobel Peace Prize; a high school debate champ; the best in show -- schnauzer; a Pulitzer; a Little League winning pitcher; a MacArthur genius award; a country club's hole-in-one; a garden society's best dahlia.

In this season of Oscars and Olympics, Golden Globes and Grammys, a question about trophies must be faced: What do you do with them once you get home?

Consider, for instance, the mantel in Gerardine Wurzburg's Washington rowhouse. The documentary producer has arranged a Shaker box, a tile depicting Che Guevara, stones from a favorite island in Maine -- and an Oscar.

Granted, an Oscar has a singular cachet. Wurzburg was presented with her 8.5-pound, 13.5-inch statue for Best Documentary Short Subject of 1992 for the film "Educating Peter." She and her husband, film producer Grady Watts, have gotten used to the golden guy, but plumbers still do a double take. "People are amazed," says Wurzburg. "The first time they come to our house, at some point they realize what it is but they still have to ask, 'Is that an Oscar?' "

Displaying one very special award -- an Emmy, a Grammy, a Helen Hayes or a Heisman -- is not usually a problem. But rows of accolades from years of championship seasons can present a challenge.

Harvey Grant, a former NBA forward, is currently director of player development for the Washington Wizards. Most of his trophies from his college days and professional career, which included stints with the Washington Bullets, Portland Trail Blazers, Washington Wizards and Philadelphia 76ers, are still back in his home town of Sparta, Ga. But he has four sons who are following in his size-17 footsteps: Jerai, 17; Jerian, 13; Jerami, 11; and Jaelin, 9. All are award-winning basketball players. And their mother, Beverly Grant, has to deal with waves of trophies that are brought back almost weekly to their Bowie home.

"My boys like getting them because they work hard and they are proud when they are rewarded," says Beverly, who works in real estate. "But sometimes I think, 'Not another trophy -- another dust collector for their room.' " Declaring the main floor a trophy-free zone, she has organized shelves for each son to display his prizes in his bedroom.

Her oldest son, Jerai, a center for the DeMatha varsity basketball team, displays his vast array of awards alongside his collection of celebrity sneakers.

"Trophies can take over your life. So I keep them in three areas," says Virginia Kennedy, a real estate agent. Her daughter J.C., 16, an accomplished rider, has amassed yards of prize-winning ribbons, cups and engraved trophies. The McLean family displays several major awards in the living room, but she and J.C.'s dad, Jim Kennedy, a vice president at Computer Sciences Corp., created space in the family room to accommodate the overflow. The rest are found in J.C.'s bedroom, where wooden shutters mounted on closet doors keep the hanging ribbons flat. And even though pink ribbons (fifth place) would go better in her pink bedroom, J.C. says she's keen on displaying the blue she strives for.

At the Burke household in Washington's Colonial Village, 48 seasons of sports and academics involving four active kids have produced a trophy bonanza. Tricia and Liam Burke, a financial analyst, have never counted up the loot belonging to kids Maggie, 18; Molly, 15; Katie, 13; and Liam, 7. But there are well over 100 trophies kicking around the house. (Tricia Burke admits to quietly disposing of several boxes of awards over the years.) Current prizes include BCC Baseball, CYO Basketball, Irish Dancing, Stoddert Soccer and Academic Excellence. "When they first get one, we put it on the mantel in the living room so we can ooh and aah over it for a few days," says Tricia. "Then it goes up to their bedroom."

In America, arguably the most richly awarded society in the world, it's no surprise that the trophy business is booming. According to the Awards and Recognition Association in Glenview, Ill., trophy sales are a $3 billion business in the United States and Canada, rising since the 1960s, when women started getting on the award bandwagon, according to Ed Hunt, treasurer of the association. "Before that," Hunt says, "we were selling bowling trophies and baseball trophies and it was 90 percent male dominated."

While local trophy shops and online and catalogue venues offer hundreds of styles of trophies to fit every budget, in earlier times the trophy business was conducted in fine jewelry stores. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, country clubs, big game societies and tennis tournaments would commission ornate loving cups and urn-shaped hand-engraved trophies. These are now collected by connoisseurs.

"We get them frequently when we clear out big estates," says Stephanie Kenyon, president of Sloans & Kenyon Auctioneers and Appraisers in Chevy Chase. She says the antique trophies sell for $200 to $30,000, depending on the size and craftsmanship. "Lots of people like to use them for decoration, or to get instant ancestors."

Antique and vintage sterling trophies often show up in country houses, Ralph Lauren ads or sports bars. John Laytham, president of Clyde's Restaurant Group, has bought hundreds of silver trophies over the years to decorate his 13 Washington-area restaurants, including the latest venue at Clyde's of Gallery Place. "Some are really beautiful works of art," says Laytham. "They represent someone who has performed well and won something. They have a heroic nature about them and they look great with sporting paintings."

By any measure, taking home an Oscar is a special experience. Wurzburg's Academy Award was presented to her by Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks. The president of multimedia communications company State of the Art says that receiving her award was a life-defining moment, "Once you win one, you know that it will be the first line of your obituary."

And although the items around him change from time to time, Oscar remains a permanent fixture on the Wurzburg/Watts mantel. "For Christmas, Oscar gets a red bow tied around his neck," says Wurzburg. "That's all the decorating he needs."