Historical Hockey and Sports Memorabilia Auction February 2024
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/20/2024
Known and respected for their bravery and tenacity, hockey goaltenders are historically unique in sports as the men that face the greatest punishment, with the valorous and fearless practitioners going maskless for nearly the first century of the game. Recognized for being the first to regularly don a face covering during game play in the National Hockey League, starting with a November 1st, 1959 contest against the New York Rangers in which he was stuck by a shot from Andy Bathgate, Jacques Plante recognized many years beforehand that the growing intensity and speed of the game needed to be matched with increasing protection for players. After informing journalists that he wanted to wear protective gear when training, a fan sent him a plastic mask in 1956 being the process to the masks that we know today. The following year, Bill Burchmore, a Canadiens fan and fibreglass salesman, contacted Plante to design a mask better suited to his needs. Together, they designed a fibreglass mask made from a mould of Plante’s face. At first, he only wore the mask in training but after the November 1st, 1959 injury that required him to get several stitches, Plante continued to play in the game but refused to go back out on the ice without his protective mask. Reluctantly, Canadiens coach Hector “Toe” Blake agreed and Plante returned to the net, leading the Habs to a 3-1 win over the Blueshirts that night. For the rest of the season, Plante wore his mask in all regular games and the Canadiens won their still unmatched 5th straight Stanley Cup at seasons end with Jacques also receiving the Vézina Trophy, a trophy given to the best goaltender in the League. In the years that followed, almost all NHL goaltenders started wearing masks and, in the 1970s, the technology developed by Burchmore and Plante was used to make those masks out of fibreglass.
By January of 1960, Burchmore had come up with a second goalie mask design. His new mask, the pretzel design, used fiberglass cloth and was made up of fiberglass bars contoured to the goalie's face. The new mask weighed 10.3 oz (292 g) and allowed more air to circulate around the goalie's face. In 1970, Plante added hard ridges on the forehead and down the middle of his mask to deflect pucks, and protruded the mask over the ears. This new mask was made with epoxy resins which were able to absorb impact better. This mask withstood a test in which pucks were fired out of an air cannon at speeds of 120 miles per hour (193 km/h). The only thing that broke were the hockey pucks. More and more goaltenders began to wear masks not only in practice but also in games with the last maskless NHL goaltender appearing in 1973.
Involved in the mask-building business for as long as masks had been mitigating the impact of the pucks that were finding his face in the NHL, Plante worked mostly with Bill Burchmore over the years, the young Montreal sales manager from Fibreglass Canada who’d designed Plante’s original mask and inevitably saved his and the lives of many others with each deflected puck.
Offered here, we present this late-1950s goalie mask made by Bill Burchmore, the maker and designer of Plante's original mask in 1959. Originally obtained from Burchmore's son and one of the earliest masks that Bill Burchmore ever made, the mask was made in the same timeframe as when he made Jacques Plante's first mask in 1959. Closely resembling the first face covering worn by the famed Canadiens goaltender, the deep brown fiberglass mask measures approximately 9 1/4" from top-to-bottom with taping that was the backing of once affixed foam present on the interior. Void of any strapping harness or backplate, the basic and barebones mask sports a pair of eye hole and mouth opening with cutouts around the edges for the previously mentioned harness to be fed through, the mask remains in excellent condition while remaining structurally sound and free from any cracks or breaks. A primitive-esque piece with some roughness to the edges all the way around, the surface of the mask does show some signs of use via marks and abrasions throughout while residue from at once applied sticker is seen at the top right side. A once in a lifetime chance to acquire a piece of hockey history, don't miss out on this one for your all-important collection!
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