Memories for sale at the Jack Eaton estate

For this week, at least, the intersection of Tiger Lane and memory lane can be found in East Memphis, at the home of the late sportscaster and longtime “voice” of the Memphis Tigers, Jack Eaton.

“Great Caesar’s ghost!” was Eaton’s signature exclamation, but the 6-foot-6 “Big Jack” was such a lively presence that this modest two-story ranch house at 1578 Rabb feels less haunted than busy, even a year after the local broadcast legend’s death. The place is crowded with sports memorabilia, press clippings, Tiger stadium blankets and all the other odds and ends that testify to the residence’s almost six decades of occupancy by Jack and Erma Eaton.

Thursday through Saturday, the place is likely to be crowded with people, too. A Jack Eaton estate sale will give fans a chance to take home a relic from the career of the man who owned one of Memphis’ most familiar faces and voices from 1959, when he began his career as a “Memphis State” play-byplay announcer, to 1991, when he retired from WMC-TV Channel 5, where he had been perhaps the most popular sports anchor in regional television history.

“There’s just so much cool stuff in here,” said Jerry Copeland, who is managing the event for Copeland Estate Sales, while ushering a reporter and a photographer toward some tables loaded with vintage, even historic material.

This “cool stuff” does not include any of the “victory cigars” that Eaton would famously announce he was unwrapping at the point in a game when a Tiger victory was assured.

But it does include a souvenir cup from 1973 — the year the Tigers played UCLA in the NCAA tournament championship game — that’s emblazoned with nicknames both familiar (“Doctor K” means Larry Kenon) and largely forgotten (“The Buffalo” is forward Kenny Andrews).

There’s a caricature of young Jack, feet on his desk, from his days as radio broadcaster in Columbus, Georgia, his last stop before Memphis.

There’s a vinyl record album titled “This Is Tiger Country” that features such unlikely cuts as “Tiger Fever,” “I’m Dana Kirk” and “Ode to Coach Kirk.”

There are World Series baseballs, hand-written fan letters from kids (“Dear Jack Eaton, you are the greatest sports man”), keepsakes from innumerable tournament games, and vintage print ads that celebrate Eaton’s oldschool, home-team boosterism. (In one, Eaton is dressed in the Tiger mascot