Historical Hockey and Sports Memorabilia Auction February 2025
From the Hockey Diversified Inc. Goal Puck Program we have a puck used by Steve Shutt to score the Montreal Canadiens' 119th goal of the season vs the New York Rangers, on December 29th, 1973 on home ice at the Montreal Forum. Assisted by Jimmy Roberts, it was Shutt's 5th goal of the season and 13th of his career at that point, with a total of 424 career goals scored overall throughout the course of his career. Netted at 15:35 of the third period, it was the Canadiens' seventh and final goal of the game and only point for Shutt, with the Canadiens thrashing the Rangers to the tune of a 7-1 final score. Yvan Cournoyer would register two (2) goals during the game and Michel Larocque would get the win in goal. With the rubberized Canadiens logo over the one face showing some wear/toning as well as crazing, the Goal Puck Program label placed over the other side remains clear except for some staining that needs to be mentioned for accuracy. Finally, the puck itself shows some light wear/marks/abrasions over the surfaces as well as couple of small edge cuts.
In 1972 founders of a company named Hockey Diversified Inc. envisioned that each puck shot into the net to produce an official goal scored in an NHL hockey game would develop a degree of intrinsic collector value for hockey fans everywhere. The founders took this idea to the NHL and procured the rights to all such NHL pucks during regular season and playoff games for a period of five years. Pucks shot into the net for a goal were collected by the referees, given to the time keepers to label and then shipped to Hockey Diversified to further label with scoring details. The pucks were then marketed to the public by Hockey Diversified Inc. Unfortunately this idea was ahead of its time and pucks sold poorly. The program lasted only two seasons, 1972-1973 and 1973-74. Hockey Diversified Inc. dissolved shortly thereafter. Each puck originally distributed by Hockey Diversified could be obtained by mail with the buyer’s choice of team and possibly player. A label was affixed to each puck listing the scorer, team and date, along with a code that divulged which team-goal said puck accounted for.
Publishing his first paid hockey article in a New York Rangers game program in 1970 that earned him a total of fifty ($50) dollars, from there, Frank Brown began his career as a journalist for The Associated Press, typically covering the Montreal Canadiens. Under the leadership of Stan Fischler, Brown stated he learned the "courage of my convictions" after being handed Gordie Howe's phone number. Moving on to the New York Daily News in 1980, where he would remain until 1998, when he joined the National Hockey League as a communication executive, a position he would hold with the league until his retirement in 2018. He was awarded the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award by the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2019.
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