Team Canada inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame

Canada's Walk of Fame announced its 2012 inductees, as picked by 30,000 Canadians from over 135 countries. Team Canada 1972, winner of the Summit Series in hockey against the Soviet Union and one of the most important sporting events in Canada's history. This is the first time Canada's Walk of Fame has inducted an entire team.

Established in 1998, Canada's Walk of Fame recognizes achievements in music, sport, film and television as well as the literary, visual and performing arts. It also encompasses science and innovation.

According to a news release,

"Potential candidates for Canada’s Walk of Fame must have been born in or spent the totality of their creative or formative years in Canada. A minimum of 10 successful years is required to qualify, as well as a recognized body of work that has had a significant influence on our cultural heritage."

The accolade comes with a star on a stretch of sidewalk in Toronto's entertainment district.

This year's inductees, who will receive their tribute at a ceremony at Toronto's Ed Mirvish Theatre on September 22 are:

- Randy Bachman, legendary guitarist, songwriter and original Guess Who band member.

- Phil Hartman, gifted comedian and Saturday Night Live cast member.

- Russ Jackson, one of the greatest quarterbacks in Canadian Football League history.

- Sarah McLachlan, JUNO and Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter.

- Sonia Rodriguez, National Ballet of Canada Principal Dancer.

And now, the next installment of the Team Canada card set.

# 25 Wayne Cashman 

At the time of his retirement, he was the final active player who had played in the NHL in the "Original Six" era prior to the 1967 expansion.

# 26 Frank Mahovlich

Punch's favourite Mah-hal-o-vich

# 27 Peter Mahovlich

The Little M

# 28 Vyacheslav Solodukhin/Alexander Sidelnikov

These guys were reserves and were on the Sidelines

# 29. Yuri Shatalov 

Юрий Шаталов

# 30 Brothers

M & M

E & E

 

# 31 The Goalies

3 HOF'ers

 
# 32 Alexander Bodunov

one of the members of the Soviet's "Kid Line," also known as the "Headache Line."

Share with your blogger buddies an embarrassing sports memorabilia story from your past.

Fuji's question and my reply

1992 Pinnacle # 365 Eric Lindros card---this was when it was first released and it depicted Eric in a Team Canada uniform--anyhoo, dealer had a sticker on the top loader for $1.00--I think it was going for around $10.00--I scooped it up before anyone else had a chance--now the sticker was in the middle of t he top loader--guess what--it was hiding the spot where some of t he card was torn off--after that, taught me to check everything carefully

Hobson's Choice (not Butch)

There are two upcoming opportunities here in Brantford to nab some signatures.

It's the 20th annual Walter Gretzky CNIB Golf Classic and organizers are gearing up to make the final year noteworthy.

The golf tournament, which will take place at the Brantford Golf and Country Club on July 10, will be preceded by the annual memorabilia auction on July 9. Aside from all the tremendous items up for bidding, those attending the auction will have the opportunity to take part in an autograph session with former hockey players Johnny Bower, Bobby Baun and Lori Dupuis.

Both won Stanley Cups with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Dupuis is a former Olympic gold medalist with the women's national hockey team (2002).

The autograph session will take place prior to the start of the auction, which is free to attend and open to the public. The auction preview will take place at 6 p.m. with the auction to follow at 7 p.m.

Link to the online auction.

http://www.brantnewscharityauction.com/

Hockey Night in Brantford, the Homecoming Game, will be played at the newly constructed Wayne Gretzky Sports Centre on Wednesday, August 15, 2012, with Opening Ceremonies at 6:45 pm, Homecoming Game at 7:00pm.

The roster of confirmed players totals 19 people- former NHLers Pat Hickey, Dan Gratton, Greg Hickey and Ken Murray, WHA alumnus Jim Turkiewicz, Brantford Smoke alumnus Paul Polillo, WLU assistant coach and WNHL alumnus Cindy Eadie, OHLer Keaton Turkiewicz, Syracuse University's Jenesica Drinkwater, Brock alumnus Sammy Simms, CWHLer Sarah Digg and MPs Peter McKay, Denis Lebel, Greg Rickford, Patrick Brown, Gord Brown, Ben Lobb, Dean Allison and Rick Dykstra. There's also a possiblity of more names to be added from the people who have been invited. (Adam Henrique??)

But this is my Hobson's choice.

Both of these events take place on weekdays around 6 pm. I work until 8m and then have a 1 1/4 hour commute home to Brantford. As much as I would love to attend these events, I think work takes precedence. (and my wife would agree).  Now to try to find someone who will attend these events and get me some sigs.

I don't know what is worse, having no signings or ones you can't attend.

What would you do if your were in my shoes? (sz 81/2)

Fuji's next question

Who were your childhood favorites (players)?

I'm a hockey guy and my childhood favourites were any of the Leafs. During the 60's, I thought they had a chance to win the Cup every year and they had a pretty good run. Frank Mahovlich, Red Kelly and Tim Horton stood out for me.

Do you collect their cards & memorabilia?

Yes. It was easier before the card boom of the 90's to collect their cards.I have a lot of Leaf cards. .

If so, what's your favorite item (of your favorite childhood player) in your collection?

I have a lot of autographed items including Tim Horton. The Tim Hortons' logo for the doughnut chain is his autograph. Ingenious. I collect tim-bits too but thats another story.

Team Canada--part 3

Here is part 3 of the Team Canada card set

# 17 Don Awrey

View my July 18th post to see my autographs of Don.

# 18 Mickey Redmond

His brother Dick used to work in the summers where my Dad worked.

# 19 Alexander Gusev

Member of the Russian Hockey Hall of Fame (1973),

# 20 Alexander Maltsev

According to NHL.com, Maltsev was Alexander Ovechkin's childhood idol.

# 21 Rod Seiling

Will have to post my autographs of him in the future.

# 22 Dale Tallon

There was an agreement that all three Canadian teams were to be represented with at least 2 players on Team Canada 1972. Without that agreement it is likely that Tallon would have been on the roster.

# 23 Coming Back

Game 2 Third Period  1:19 PPG and GWG

Cournoyer (Park)

# 24 Unforgettable

Game 2 Third Period 6:47 SHG and insurance goal

 Game 2 was played on Sept 4/72 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

 Sinden takes  the Rangers GAG (goal a game) line of Vic Hadfield, Jean Ratelle and Rod Gilbert out of the line-up for this game. They were replaced with grinders (Wayne Cashman, J.P Parise and Bill Goldsworthy). Hadfield does not take this decision lightly and invades Sinden's dressing room to show his disapproval. Also, Tony Esposito replaces Dryden in net.

After the game, a frustrated Vsevolod Bobrov (card # 10) invades the officials dressing room, angrily complaining about the officiating and Canada's play.

American officials Frank Larsen and Steve Dowling, who officiated all the games in Canada, particularly upset Russian coach Bobrov in this game. Bobrov accused the officials of letting the Canadians get away with too much illegal physical play. Wayne Cashman, inserted into the lineup for this particular game, was the culprit who should have been cracked down upon in Bobrov's estimation. Andrei Starovoitov, head of the Soviet Hockey program, screamed "The American referees let the Canadian players perform like a bunch of barbarians!"

Let the gamesmanship continue.

Stay tuned, 6 games to go.

Fujis contest

Fuji's next question and my response

What's a cheap (under $5), cool card you feel every collector should add to their collection?

Contests happening galore

Its seems to be the season for contests--heres a few

http://babennysbaseballcardbuffet.blogspot.ca/2012/06/legends-of-hall-and-contest.html
http://dgreen1899.blogspot.ca/

http://bassonballs.blogspot.ca/2012/06/1st-official-bass-on-balls-contest.html?showComment=1339733536983

http://sanjosefuji.blogspot.ca/2012/06/flea-market-finds-19-sets-bum-fights.html#comment-form

Fuji;s questions

Do you ever go to flea markets in search of collectibles? If so, what are some of your favorite flea market purchases?
Flea markets are where I got my start collecting cards again. This was in the early 80's and seeing the cards of my childhood brought back fond memories. Remembering the old players on the cards I used to own. Started picking them up and also the newer issues. Then it branched into all things sports. Books, jerseys, postcards. You name it. If it was available, I was there. EVERYTHING I obtain is my favourite.

Domo arigato

90/91 Upper Deck French Hockey

Lance and compte

Listia is an online marketplace for trading goods between people using a virtual credit system instead of real money.

I recently signed up for Listia, got free credits and bid on some items. Of course, cards were number 1 on my list. Bid on a few items, game used jersey cards, Parkhurst Champs minis and won this item.

90-91 UD Hockey Français LOT

I remember when these were first released and the pack price was outrageous ( can't remember but around $4.00)

I bought a few packs but didn't complete the set. When I saw this item, CARDS>HOCKEY>FREE SHIPPING, my trigger happy finger bid right away. After the auction period ended, the seller requested my address and shortly thereafter, voila.

# 50 Doug Bodger

# 61 Dave Christian

# 65 Jon Morris

# 111 Shawn Burr

# 133  Michel Goulet

# 137 Bryan Trottier

# 239 Greg Paslawski

# 262 Kevin Lowe

# 297 Jyrki Lumme

# 367 Troy Loney

# 388 Alan Kerr

# 494 Mark Messier

# 523 Johan Garpenlov

# 534 Bobby Holik

Also a few high number series cards in the lot.

As I've said before, FREE is good.

Check Listia out at

https://www.listia.com/

Not (Puck) Junk

Like the other entrants in Sal's contest http://puckjunk.com/, I received my consolation prize this week.

Since Sal also asked for your favourite team, I received something Leafian.

This team insert card from 78/79 Topps hockey. I knew I had some of these so I had to find them.

Now you might wonder why I scanned the blank back. You will see why in a minute. A quick search online revealed 17 cards in the set but I had 21 different. This puzzled me. On closer examination, I noticed

None of mine were blank backed. They had  this ad to order personalized trading cards.The trademark dates are also different. The one from Sal had a 1978 date while mine had a 1979 date. The four teams that came over from the WHA were included in the 79/80 set.Now I have too admit that I collected OPC and picked up whatever Topps I could find. Apparently my knowledge was sorely lacking as my set was the 79/80 Topps insert set. Here they are in all their splendour.

I wonder if any kids did indeed use them as stickers on their helmets and sticks.

Thanks Sal for the card and the history lesson. Now I'll have to keep my eyes open for  these.

And these are not (Puck) junk.



Da Da Kanada

Nyet Nyet Soviet

So rang out the cry from Canadians from coast to coast and from those 3000 who made the journey to watch the concluding four games.

# 9 Stapleton

Good ol' Whitey. Apparently has the puck from game 8 from games end. See my autographs of him on July 4th post.

# 10 Bobrov

not my uncle

# 11 Tretiak

Владисла́в Алекса́ндрович Третья́к

# 12 Faceoff

featuring PM PET



# 13 30 Seconds

not to Mars (sorry Jared Leto)

# 14 Zimin

Scored the first goal for Russia in the series but played only 2 games due to injury.

# 15 Bill White

Teamed up with Pat Stapleton in Chicago--White and Whitey. Will have to show my autographs of him in another post.

# 16 7-3

The final game stats tell the sad story.



Суперсерия СССР — Канада

Henderson has scored for Canada.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Summit Series between Canada and Russia. This series was another one of those moments where you remember where you were and what you were doing at the time. It was a different time in the world. This was likened to a war with differences in ideaologies. In the end, I believe hockey came out the winner.

Lets go back 20 years to look at Future Trends release card  to commemorate this series.

My unopened box of this product.

The cards were available initially only at The Bay stores (Canadian department store) and were sold in 10-card foil packs with no factory sets.

All 70 players on the Canadian and Russian teams are represented, and 30 additional special cards capture unforgettable moments from the series.
The card fronts feature borderless black and white, action or posed pictures. A white, red, and gold stripe cuts across the bottom of the card face and intersects the ’72 Hockey Canada logo at the lower right corner. The backs carry additional photos, biographical information, series statistics, sportswriters’ editorial comments, and player quotes.  The card number appears in a blue oblong design within the bottom red stripe on both sides. The ’72 Hockey Canada logo also appears in the local right corner of the back.

The set was issued in both an English and a French version. The production quantities were reportedly 9,000 English and 1,000 French 12-box cases. 

So let's go down memory lane with a history lesson from THE SERIES.

# 1 In the beginning

Clarence Campbell created Canada and Russia

# 2 The backyard Rink/More months a year

Looks more like my backyard rink when I was a kid

# 3 It didn't take long /7-2

I guess they felt they were ready

# 4 The Patriarch/ Anatoli Tarasov

I have a copy of his book, I believe called Russina Hockey Secrets somewhere

# 5 More hours a day

I suppose you can jump down to get out of the tree

# 6 Coming out party

Coming out--no comment

# 7 Never in Doubt

From watching some of Russia's games before the Series, I thought it might be close

(but I was laughed at)

#8 Team Canada
Team of the Century

More to follow