Historical Hockey Memorabilia Auction Fall 2013
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/5/2013
This sensational gold ring presented to rookie defenceman Ed Van Impe commemorates the Chicago Black Hawks' first-place finish in 1966-67, the team's first in 41 years in the NHL with the "Curse of Muldoon" to blame. Upon his firing in 1927, original Black Hawks coach Pete Muldoon swore to team owner Major Frederic McLaughlin that Chicago would never finish first. It wasn't until the final season of the Original Six era that the Black Hawks finally claimed their first ever regular season title with a 94-point season. Van Impe finished runner-up to Bobby Orr in Calder Trophy voting and Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull finished 1-2 in the scoring race with Hull rifling home 52 goals as the Hawks finished 17 points ahead of second-place Montreal, and 19 ahead of the Toronto Maple Leafs. This ring presented to Van Impe features a huge diamond surrounded by 12 smaller diamonds on the tableau. "66 NHL 67 Champions" encircle the diamonds in raised gold around the bezel. The left shank displays a "Van Impe" banner above a raised image of the Prince of Wales Trophy while the Black Hawks logo is on the right shank with "Chicago" inscribed on a banner above. The ring weighs about 26 grams with "Josten 10K" stamped inside its size 11 band. It displays proud wear that includes defects to three of the smaller diamonds that do not diminish the ring's display, along with light smoothing to the Prince of Wales trophy and Black Hawks logo on the shanks, and various scuffs, scratches and nicks that show mostly on the back of the band. This brilliant keepsake from a historic Black Hawks season comes with Ed Van Impe's signed LOA. The three small diamond defects include a chip/crack to the diamond at 10 o’clock on the tableau, below and between the right 6 in “66” and the N in “NHL”; a chip to the diamond at 1 o’clock below the L in “NHL”; and a chip to the diamond at 5 o’clock, above the I in “Champions”.
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