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Thursday, September 15, 2011

Sept 15-King Kong

King Kong




Nicknamed "King Kong",Jerry Korab made a solid reputation for himself in the tough 1970's-era NHL as an imposing physical defenseman




Jerry Korab


The native of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario played two years with the Chicago-sponsored St. Catharines Black Hawks of the OHA. He played two seasons of minor pro in the IHL and WHL before suited up for the Hawks as a rookie in 1970-71.
Korab played physically on defence while getting a chance to rush with the puck and shoot more from the point. He hit double figures in goals four times and helped the Buffalo Sabres reach their first Stanley Cup final in 1975. He was picked to play in the 1975 and 1976 NHL All-Star Games and was a popular figure at the Memorial Auditorium.
Korab retired with 455 career points in 975 carrer games with 1629 PIM.

Korab currently owns and operates Korab Inc., a packaging service located in Bellwood, IL.
Address: c/o Korab Inc.,3000 Washington Blvd. #4, Bellwood, IL 60104





Received these blue ink signed cards IP at one of the Molson NHL SloPitch tournaments. The good thing was that depending on conditions (weather, number of fans, popularity of player), they would sign multiples. The ten above attest to that fact. As Sal (at Puck Junk)http://www.puckjunk.com/index.php mentioned in his comment in my previous post, there were some no shows from the provided list. But if you even had a minimum of say five players per team, you would have over 100 NHL'ers to hound. Back before the internet days, you would not know the rosters. I would go by the previous year's program and pull cards of players I thought would appear. Once there, it was like a gummy Venus de Milo. Who to start with. Can I get him later. For Sal, a true Chris Chelios story. I've got his 84/85 and 85/86 cards signed so it would have been in 1986. I approached him either before or after a game when he was walking by himself. I had 3 cards for him to sign. (2 RC's and 1 2nd year). As he was signing with black sharpie, he commented on why I needed 2 of the same card signed. He opined that I was going to sell it. I was going to say something but just smiled and thanked him. He was like that even in the early days. Have a lot of memories, some faded, that I'll have to share in the future.

1 comment:

  1. Wow, Chelios thought he was a rock star before he WAS a rock star. Your answer in 1986 should have been "one day, I'll know Sal, and he'll claim to be your biggest fan....and I can SELL it to him" (j/k)

    Funny story about the 76-77 Korab card. I showed it to him a few years ago, and asked what was up with that necklace. He said "That? Oh, that's what you call a mistake." He then went on to tell me that it was cool to wear Native American jewelry and such in the 1970s. He also mentioned that the photographer said he wasn't going to use the photo for a hockey card. I guess Korab wasn't a fan of that picture.

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