Historical Hockey and Sports Memorabilia Auction February 2025
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/18/2025
Scheduled for May 9-25, the 2025 IIHF World Championships will take place in Stockholm, Sweden, and Herning, Denmark, with a dozen nations set to compete. We offer three unawarded IIHF medals from past tournaments that all hail from the personal collection of noted Finnish hockey executive and writer Kimmo Leinonen, including a 1995-98 silver medal, 1999-2005 gold medal and 2006+ silver medal. The 1995-98 and 1999-2005 medals are similar in design at 2 3/4" in diameter, including a raised globe with crossed hockey sticks and "International Ice Hockey Federation" around the perimeter, with small plaques affixed to each reverse, and as these were never awarded, the plaques are blank. The 2006 medal sports the same dimensions, with a raised silhouette of a player on the obverse along with "IIHF", with a blank reverse. All three medals show just very light wear. An LOA from Classic Auctions will accompany.
Born in Tampere, Finland, in 1949, and beginning his rise in the hockey ranks as a junior hockey coach while also involved in the hockey stick industry in Canada and Germany, Finnish hockey executive and writer Kimmo Leinonen had a connection to the NHL as he was employed as a scout for the New York Rangers from 1978-79 to 1982-83. As a founding member of the Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame in 1979 - where he served as chairman from 2011 to 2018, Leinonen also helped to establish the IIHF Hall of Fame in 1996 and was the director of public relations and marketing for the organization from 1995 to 2007. His later career included an appointment as general secretary of the 2012 and 2013 Ice Hockey World Championships co-hosted in both Finland and Sweden. The hockey guru has written multiple books on the history of hockey in Finland, and for his great contributions to the sport, was inducted into the builder category of the Finnish Hall of Fame in 2011. He was further acknowledged as the only person from Finland to win the Paul Loicq Award in recognition for his efforts in international ice hockey in 2023. We are pleased to offer items from his personal collection that he acquired during his years as the IIHF director of public relations and marketing from 1995 to 1997, with others originating from later in his career as well as international hockey memorabilia he collected and items he was gifted.
By clicking this button, you will IMMEDIATELY bid the amount selected.
By clicking this button, you will submit this amount as your MAXIMUM (absentee) bid. The auction software will place bids on your behalf up to this amount only as it is bid against competitively by other bidder(s).