Historical Hockey Memorabilia Auction Winter 2020
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/26/2020
Originally a charter member of the WHA, the Los Angeles Aces, then Sharks, moved to Detroit for the 1974-75 season as the Michigan Stags, with the club again relocating mid-season to become the Baltimore Blades. This Blades jersey was worn by the team’s leading scorer Gary Veneruzzo during the club’s lone season of existence, in 1974-75. First worn by the AHL’s Baltimore Clippers, when the WHA came to Baltimore mid-season in 1974-75, the Clippers disbanded, with all of their equipment and jerseys going to the Blades, and after Baltimore folded, the Clippers re-formed for the 1975-76 AHL season, and reacquired their jerseys and equipment. A General Athletic label is affixed to the inner left seam, with the vintage sweater measuring-out to roughly a size 48. Featuring “Baltimore” placed diagonally across the chest in individual orange-over-white tackle twill letters, “18” appears over the sleeves and verso in matching material. A scarce survivor originating from Baltimore’s lone season in the WHA, this spectacular specimen is worthy of considerable laudation.
In conclusion, this set of jerseys would have been worn by the Baltimore Clippers in 1973-74, 1974-75 (before disbanding) and 1975-76 (after re-forming), along with the partial season they were worn by the Baltimore Blades when the Clippers first disbanded, in 1974-75. We should further note that the jersey likely had a nameplate when Veneruzzo wore it with the Blades as period photos do show the players wearing a nameplate. The Clippers players to have possibly worn the jersey include Brian Murphy in both 1973-74 and 1974-75 (along with possibly one other in 1974-75), with it unknown who donned the garment in 1975-76. With a custom-vented collar, there are a couple small holes over the front band, with a solid dark mark over the right shoulder. Fabric runs and scrapes are present over each sleeve, with a fairly large resulting hole on the lower left sleeve. There are also team repairs visible, with examples over the front (1), reverse (4), left sleeve (3), right sleeve (1) and shoulders (1), with repairs also to the reverse “8”.
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