Historical Hockey Memorabilia Auction June 2017
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 6/21/2017
Chosen to light the Olympic flame at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, the 1980 US Olympic men’s hockey team were honoured with the task, as this was the first Winter Games back in the US since 1980. We have an official Olympic relay torch, hailing from the personal collection of 1980 hero Mark Pavelich. We should first note though that this torch is not the example used by the 1980 team to light the 2002 flame, and Pavelich wasn’t in attendance for the 2002 lighting. At roughly 33” in length, the stalactite shaped torch was manufactured by Coleman and designed by Axiom Design of Salt Lake City, and features three sections, each with its own meaning and representation. The top section is glass, which stood for purity, winter, ice, and nature, while the middle section is made of silver and finished to look old and worn, with the bottom section was fashioned from highly polished silver, with the middle representing the silver mining heritage of the American West, while the bottom section represented the future and modern technology.
The torch has been lit and used at some point, and it remains in wonderful condition, with light wear to the glass section from use, along with some minor handling wear. The 2002 Game’s logo appears embossed on the middle section, with “Light the fire within” engraved onto the lower portion. A “176” sticker has also been affixed.
The 2002 Olympic Torch, engineered and manufactured by Coleman, is modeled after an icicle, with a slight curve to represent speed and fluidity. The Torch measures 33 inches (84 cm) long, 3 inches (7.6 cm) wide at the top, 0.5 inches (1.3 cm) at the bottom, and was designed by Axiom Design of Salt Lake City. It was created with three sections, each with its own meaning and representation.
The top section was glass, and the Olympic Flame burned within the glass, echoing the 2002 Olympic theme Light the Fire Within. The glass stood for purity, winter, ice, and nature. Also inside the glass was a geometric copper structure which helped hold the flame. Copper is a very important natural element of Utah, and represented fire, warmth, Utah's History, and mirrored the orange/red colors of the theme Fire and Ice. The center section was made of silver and finished to look old and worn, while the bottom section was made of clean, highly polished silver. The center section represented the silver mining heritage of the American West, while the bottom section represented the future and modern technology. The Torchbearer gripped the torch at the junction of both the aged and polished silver, during which their hand represented a bridge from the past to the present. The two silver sections also mirrored the blue/purple colors of the Fire and Ice theme.
The climax of every Olympic opening ceremony is the lighting of the torch, the symbol of every Olympics and a beacon for the world's greatest athletes. The honour of lighting the flame is usually bestowed upon a great athlete from the host nation's glorious past, and when USA hosted the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, there were enough choices for the duties that it became a much discussed mystery in the days leading up to the Opening Ceremonies at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
But as the torch entered the stadium on the first day of the Games and passed from one famous pair of hands to another, it became increasingly obvious who would be lighting the torch to begin the 2002 Olympics. Figure skaters Dick Button and Dorothy Hamill started the final procession, followed by Scott Hamilton and Peggy Fleming. The anticipation started to build as fans realized that the torch lighting would have some connection to the Miracle on Ice team of 1980, the team that shocked the hockey world with its gold-medal victory. Still, few fans could have expected what transpired.
Standing high above the crowd at one end of the stadium was team captain Mike Eruzione, who scored the game-winning goal against the Soviet Union midway through the third period some 22 years earlier. He was wearing his original sweater, and soon he beckoned to his left and beckoned to his right. Out came the entire USA Olympic hockey team from Lake Placid 1980 and together, as one, they lit the torch to officially begin the 2002 Olympics. The hometown crowd went berserk, and the Opening Ceremonies culminated with one of the most dramatic and emotional events of those Olympics.
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