The Marcel Dionne's Auction - October 2004
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/19/2004
Truly fascinating story accompanies this amazing piece of lumber that the great Howie Morenz would have eventually used had it not been for his tragic and untimely death. After the hockey hero passed away in 1937, this stick was mounted in the Canadiens' dressing room to commemorate his memory, a gesture that was repeated after the death of Babe Siebert in 1939. Upon renovations to the team's dressing room in the 1940's the stick was carelessly tossed into the garbage by unknowing workers and retrieved by a Canadiens employee who knew better. The man who was first hired by Dick Irvin Sr. in the mid 1940's as a statistician, went on to work over 4 decades at the Forum. In the 1970's he became good friends with Carleton McDiarmid, who has been a goal judge at Canadiens games for some 30 years and who is also known for his artistic prowess. McDiarmid received this stick as a gift from the man in the 1970's and has kept it ever since, now deciding it's time to pass it along to another appreciative collector. The one-piece stick has "Howie Morenz" visible in pencil on both sides of the shaft, up near the handle, as well as on both sides of the blade. There is a mounting hole through the shaft at the handle. MacDiarmid relates how one could spot remnants of dressing room paint at one point in time, but that officials at Montreal's McCord museum asked if they could clean it off when McDiarmid temporarily lent the stick to the museum. The thought-provoking piece has been preserved in exceptional, "difficult-to-expect-nicer" condition, has no cracks and gives the holder an imaginary trip back through time to when hockey's legends wielded such "tools of the trade". Amazing! Mr. McDiarmid will sign a letter of authenticity which will be included with this rare historical treasure.
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