Historical Hockey Memorabilia Auction Fall 2011
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/1/2011
Bobby Orr set the bar for offensive defencemen in the NHL. His two hundred and sixty goals, including forty-six scored in a single season, have not been matched by many. Orr thrilled fans in Boston and led the Bruins to Stanley Cup victories in 1970 and 1972. During his time in the league, Bobby racked up and impressive collection of awards and there was hardly a season in which he didn't run away with the Norris Trophy... he won it for eight consecutive years! In 1976, a faltering Orr was selected to represent his nation for the first time at the 1976 Canada Cup tournament. Bobby's knee, ravaged by operations every summer, was virtually without cartilage. He had played only ten games with the Bruins the previous season before requiring more surgery and rehabilitation, but he refused to allow injury to prevent him from playing in the inaugural Canada Cup, the first best-on-best featuring Canada and Europe. Bobby came out strong and in the first game, an 11-2 win over Finland, Orr had three assists. Next, in a 4-2 win over USA, he added two more assist with one more in the next match up against Sweden. The best-of-three finals pitted the Canadians against Czechoslovakia, and Canada began with an impressive 6-0 win in which Bobby scored twice including one that came on his trade-mark rush down the right wing to pot one over the glove of netminder Vladimir Dzurilla. After Canada's historic victory in the second and final outing, finishing on Sittler's memorable goal, Bobby Orr, who led Canada with nine points, was named the tournament MVP. Wondrous white knit with the heavily-screened rubberized red name, numbers and Team Canada demi-leaf design was worn by Bobby Orr throughout the international tourney. The shirt is tagged in the neck by Athletic Knit, in size 46 with Bobby's surname across the back shoulders above his famed number "4". Blue ballpoint ink on the backside of the neck tag reads "Oldrich Machac, Heydukova 21, 62800 Brno Ceska Republika". This example has the cross-over style neck and reinforced elbows. Game wear is quite evident throughout the uniform with areas of red paint transfer, dozens of stick marks and slashes on both arms, the front and the back and scuffing and cracking to the red rubber appliqu?s. Authenticity is assured by a conclusive photo-match to a two-tone stick slash which appears on the lower right side of the back of the jersey. A digital copy of a photographic image, which will accompany the lot, shows the jersey folded in this area, but you can clearly discern a small part of the red portion of the mark and the tip of the black slash. Who can forget the emotional celebratory scene following Canada's victory when both teams met at center ice to shake hands and exchange jerseys. Pete Mahovlich found the Czech player with the jersey number matching his own and soon after, every other participant on the ice followed suit. Bobby swapped shirts with Czech star Oldrich Machac and this jersey remained in Machac's collection from that day to this. Certainly proud of this memento, Oldrich has marked his name and address on the neck tagging, as noted above, and also marked his name in blue ink inside the lower front hem, adding a label in the inner tail that reads "Orr (Machac) (Sin Slavy)". The jersey was loaned at one point to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto and comes complete with a copy of a letter from Bobby Orr and officials of the Hall attesting to its display in the Hall of Fame. The exciting and historical find was consigned to Classic Auctions in 2011 by Oldrich Machac who, sadly, passed away soon after. It will come with a letter of authenticity from Classic Auctions and another letter of provenance from the family of Oldrich Machac. Following on the heels our recent offering and the record sale price attained for Paul Henderson's 1972 Series Team Canada jersey which set the bar, we believe that this photo-matched, game-worn Bobby Orr Team Canada 1976 Canada Cup jersey, with unwavering provenance, most certainly represents the second-most significant Team Canada uniform find in the history of the game and the hobby!
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