Historical Hockey Memorabilia Auction November 2010
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/16/2010
With the record-smashing $1.275 million sale of Paul Henderson's 1972 Team Canada jersey, our last auction demonstrated the stunning value of the Summit Series-clinching goal. What if that incredible moment in Canadian history had not been preserved on film? Thanks to the work of renowned sports photographer Denis Brodeur, the point is moot. This incredible lot includes the Nikon camera Brodeur used to record his award-winning photos of "The Goal" and the negatives to a sequence of 17 pictures of Henderson's series-winning goal shot by Brodeur, along with their highly valuable copyrights. Never before offered for sale, imagine the merchandising opportunities and perpetual revenue possibilities of owning the rights to these pictures, including what is commonly acknowledged to be the top Canadian sports photo of the 20th Century!
A bronze medal-winning goalie for Canada's 1956 Olympic hockey team, Brodeur turned his passion for photograpy into a working career following his playing days. Established as one of the best hockey shooters in the business, Brodeur was on hand with this Nikon SLR camera at the Luzhniki Palace of Sports in Moscow for the eighth and final game of the landmark series between Team Canada and the Soviet Union on September 28, 1972. With a goalie's mentality of focusing on action around the net, Brodeur (whose son Martin, born in May of that year, would grow up to become the NHL's all-time leader in wins and shutouts) was ready to record history when opportunity knocked in the final minute of the third period. With the score tied at 5-5 and the two teams apparently destined to end the series in a stalemate, Henderson instinctively came off the bench to replace Peter Mahovlich and join Phil Esposito and Yvan Cournoyer. Henderson had scored the game-winning goals in Games 6 and 7 to stave off what would have been a humiliating series loss. Those goals also kept alive Canada's hopes of winning three straight games in Moscow after falling into a 1-3-1 hole. For those who heard Foster Hewitt's call on TV, let's pick up the action from immediately after where the broadcasting legend calls out, "... here's a shot! Henderson made a wild stab for it and fell."
Offered here are the original negatives of 17 photos of Henderson's goal, beginning with a photo of Hall of Fame Soviet goalie Vladislav Tretiak stopping Phil Esposito's initial shot and on through the goal itself, including immortal shots of Cournoyer and Henderson embracing each other in the jubilant instants following "The Goal", and culminating with Esposito, Bill White, Ken Dryden and the rest of Team Canada joining in the gleeful on-ice celebration.
The Nikon camera used by Brodeur to record these historic photographs is included here, though it is no longer in working order. This remarkable collection comes with a letter of authenticity signed by Denis Brodeur, who will transfer the copyrights of these 17 historic images to the winning bidder. Please note that this lot may be subject to a silent reserve.
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