HISTORY BUFF Articles

Worlds Oldest Hockey Stick sold for $300,000 - Moffatt Stick

Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec has purchased the Moffatt Stick, considered to be the oldest known Ice Hockey stick in the World.

The Moffatt Stick will go on display July 1st, 2017 in the Canadian History Hall at the new Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec.

The Moffatt Stick is just over a metre long and weighs precisely 793.8 grams. Its curved blade varies in width from 3.5 centimetres to 8.5 centimetres and bears the carved initials “WM,” believed to represent William “Dilly” Moffatt, who was born in 1829. Research has established that a member of the Moffatt family handcrafted it from a single piece of sugar maple between 1835 and 1838 in Cape Breton.

The stick was a Moffatt family heirloom until the early 1980s, when the late Charlie Moffatt gave it to North Sydney barber George Ferneough, who displayed it for more than 25 years, perched atop a sled, on a wall in his barbershop.

Charlie Moffatt’s father and grandfather are thought to have played hockey with it on nearby Pottle Lake, Cape Breton in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Conclusions of technical analysis.

Paint and varnish chemistry indicates that the sequence of layers is consistent with

common paints that existed through time for an object that would have been made in the

mid- to late-1830s. The mid-layer position of the lead-based paint fits well for when

lead-based paints were more commonly used (early 1900s). The top most placement of

the synthetic paint (after the 1940s) also fits well with a stick that would have had nearly

175-years of use. The layers of material, in combination with the patina and natural

cracking of the layers, indicate that the sequence of coatings would be very difficult to

duplicate.

The wood properties indicate that the wood is sugar maple, and it was hand-carved out of

one piece of lumber. After careful examination, we believe the stick was originally a

small tree growing along side of a stream bank or cliff edge. It was probably

on a site that had stability issues with its rooting structures, and so a naturally occurring j-
sweep morphology, allowed the stick to be quickly carved, while the natural strength of

the wood could be maintained in the stick. This procedure would have created a robust

stick, capable of being used, while still maintaining its structural integrity for over 175

years.

Finally, there are initials carved in the blade of the stick, and by the paint

wear pattern, the initials seem to be underlain by all five layers of paint. The initials are

clearly “WM” and in the male linage of the stick owners, this would point directly to

WM “Dilly” Moffatt. Dilly was born in 1829, and if the stick were his, the

timeline issued by this analysis would indicate that he was a 6-9 year old boy when he

first received the stick.

A History of Hockey In Video Games

The Stanley Cup is a Fake ?

The NHL and the Hockey Hall of Fame have never heard of Barry Wilmont.

However, the Copenhagen man is telling an intriguing tale of how he played a major role in replicating the Stanley Cup in 1963, helping to unravel some of the mysterious history involving one of Canada's most venerable symbols.

Wilmont, a Canadian-born artist who has lived in the Danish capital for most of his life, was initially sworn to secrecy when he was asked to engrave the replica in 1963, but doesn't really know why he was told to keep it to himself.

According to a history of the Cup by Mitchell Szczepanczyk, only a few NHL officials and the Montreal silversmith who created the trophy, Carl Petersen, knew about the replica, first raised in victory by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1964.The secret, which lasted about three years, suggested the NHL might have been sensitive in letting the public know it was using a replica at playoff time.

The new trophy was the first of several different versions of the Stanley Cup presented to the NHL champions every spring that didn't feature the original bowl donated in 1892 by Canada's then-governor general, Lord Stanley. The bowl was the original Stanley Cup and gave the evolving trophy validity because it remained the integral part.

Suddenly, though, the original bowl was gone and replicated on an entirely new trophy, a fact that might still surprise many fans as the NHL continues to mythologize the trophy, leading to a public perception that the Stanley Cup we see every spring is the real McCoy.

Say it ain't so, but it appears the last team to hoist what was the real Stanley Cup was the Maple Leafs, who won it in 1963, a year before they won the replica. The Leafs also won the real Cup in 1962.

Left to Right - Presentation Stanley Cup - Original Stanley Cup - Replica Stanley Cup

Wilmont thought the trophy he engraved was the backup, but that was not the case. He didn't seem to know that the one he copied from had long been dismantled and its various pieces, including Lord Stanley's bowl, placed on exhibit at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. He was also surprised to hear that the replica he engraved already had a significant history of its own, being presented to 42 Stanley Cup-champion teams and having visited the Oval Office in the White House on many occasions.

A second duplicate was made for the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1993 by Louise St. Jacques, owner of Boffey Inc., a Montreal silversmith that has been the official engraver of the Cup since 1979.

The Hockey Hall of Fame admits that documentation involving the history of the Cup during the earlier era is poor and that it has no record of Wilmont being the engraver. It does know that Petersen, who was born and raised in Denmark, was the official engraver of the Cup from 1948 to 1979. (Petersen died in 1977.) In 1962, he was given the task of replicating the entire trophy.

NHL president Clarence Campbell had decided parts of the trophy were too thin and fragile, particularly the historic bowl. Lord Stanley purchased the bowl for the equivalent of $50 after he decided a championship trophy was needed for Canadian amateur hockey. It was first known as the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup.

To add to the NHL's worries, a Montreal man had attempted to steal the trophy during the 1962 playoffs from old Chicago Stadium, home of Bobby Hull and the Blackhawks, then the defending Stanley Cup champions. Ken Kilander told police he wanted to take the trophy back to Montreal, "where it belongs."

Wilmont, who was contacted by the Citizen on the advice of a reader, was born in 1936 in Winnipeg and was taken to Denmark in 1940 to live with his grandmother's family. He returned to Canada in late 1962 or early 1963 with his wife, Liz, and his daughter, the first of their three children. He said his engraving skills helped him land work at the Henry Birks jewelry store soon after the family arrived in Montreal.

Petersen, who apparently heard through the grapevine that a master engraver from his homeland had recently arrived in Montreal and was working at Birks, came knocking in the spring of 1963 and invited him to his Mackay Street workshop.

"When I arrived, he took me into this room where there were two Stanley cups," the 70-year-old Wilmont recounted from Copenhagen this week. When Petersen explained in Danish what needed to be done, Wilmont was overtaken by a strange sense that he was flirting with trouble, suspecting Petersen was a thief. He had heard about the incident in Chicago the previous spring, but thought the Cup had actually been stolen.

"Please, please," Wilmont recalled telling Petersen in their mother tongue. "I don't want anything to do with this. I've heard about what happened in Chicago. Someone stole the Stanley Cup."

Petersen calmed Wilmont and explained that he had created a second Cup at the request of the NHL and now needed an engraver to painstakingly copy the many names and dates from the old trophy onto the new one. He was also to do the same with every nick and scratch on the old trophy.

Wilmont said he had no idea why Petersen, then 68, didn't use staff from his own company to do the work, but added that the silversmith made it clear he wanted him to engrave the new trophy. Perhaps it was because the work involved duplicating old engravings, a task with which Wilmont had expertise.

Wilmont said he was told to keep quiet about the project, and he was given six months to complete the work.

"Mr. Petersen said I shouldn't speak to anyone (about the assignment) for about 10 years," Wilmont said. "He said: 'Don't spread the word that you have the Stanley Cups (at home).' "

If someone knocked on his apartment door, he was to hide the trophies or cover them with blankets, Peterson said, according to Wilmont.

Wilmont says he seems to remember taking the two trophies, wrapped in blankets, by car to his apartment on Hingston Avenue, near Sherbrooke Street in Notre-Dame-de-Grace, but he can't remember whether it was Petersen or a cabbie who drove him home.

He quit Birks when he took the job, but he continued to take other contract work while he engraved the new Cup.

What was of tantamount importance was that the engraving had to be a precise copy of what was on the old Cup, Wilmont said. With cushions under the trophies to protect them and his dining-room table, Wilmont copied date after date, name after name. He used strips of special paper and a variety of powders and liquids to get a print from the old Cup before transferring the impressions left on paper to the new trophy. Then he engraved the impression on the new trophy using etching instruments. He repeated the process over and over before turning his attention to copying the nicks and scratches.

"I had to be very, very careful," Wilmont said, recalling that some of the engraving on the old trophy had been badly done while other work was "very beautiful."

With the trophies perched on his table, he said getting impressions from the old bowl proved to be awkward. He called Petersen to see if the bowl could be removed.

"Just twist it off like a lid of a jar," Petersen told him. When he removed the old bowl, he noticed how thin the silver from which it was made from had become. "The bowl felt like glass," he said.

He remembers the name Montreal AAA, which he engraved into the new bowl after getting an impression from the original. That Montreal team was the first club to win the trophy, in 1893.

Wilmont said he finished the job in about four months, and delivered the two trophies to Petersen on an unbearably hot day, so he thinks it must have still been summer, well before the start of 1963-64 NHL season. He said he received about $900 for the work.

What the Hockey Hall of Fame did with the old trophy is unclear. In fact, some accounts have no mention of a replica being made in 1963. Some say the three rings or bands that formed the neck of the trophy were replaced in 1963 and sent to the Hockey Hall of Fame, where bands of earlier Stanley Cup trophies were also kept. Some say the old bowl was officially retired in 1969, and another says 1970.

It's not clear what happened at that time to the rings or bands that formed the barrel or bottom part of the trophy. Some reports seem to imply that most of the old bands are still part of the trophy that is presented to the winner at the end of the playoffs.

Wilmont said he was under the impression that the old Cup was stored in a vault in an Ottawa bank for many years.

Louise St. Jacques, who took over Boffey's Silversmiths, the Montreal company that became the official engraver of the Cup after Petersen Silversmiths closed in 1979, said the old Cup was taken out of circulation in 1963 after Petersen delivered the new one. Petersen's name is stamped on the bottom of the black base of the trophy presented to the Stanley Cup champions, according to Hall of Fame curator Phil Pritchard.

What was different about the replica was that, unlike the old one, the bands or rings on the trophy's barrel, first introduced in 1948 and then revamped in 1958, were detachable, allowing blank replacement bands to be used when there wouldn't be any room left on the Cup to inscribe the names of championship teams and their players. The first replacement band went on the Cup in 1991, and a second replacement band will be installed on the Cup this fall after the names of the 2005-06 champion Carolina Hurricanes players are inscribed on what is now the bottom band.

Over the years, winning teams have taken the Stanley Cup to the White House, where it was shown off to presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Players and coaches from the winning team are each given the Cup for a day or two. The trophy has been taken to their hometowns, on fishing trips, steambaths, bedS, strip clubs, an auto glass factory in Hawkesbury, Moscow's Red Square, and mountaintops in B.C. and Colorado. Even though a staff member of the Hall of Fame accompanies the trophy wherever it goes now, it has been dropped, dented, and thrown into swimming pools. An older version of the Stanley Cup, featuring the original bowl, was used by former Ottawa Senators star King Clancy in 1927 as an ashtray for his cigars. In 1940, Lynn Patrick and other members of the New York Rangers used it as a urinal. A cow ate hay out of the replica when Larry Robinson, coach of the 1999-2000 Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils, brought the trophy to the Merrickville area.

After the Carolina Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup, a member of the maintenance crew at the RBC Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, dropped the trophy during celebrations in the team's dressing room. The edge of the bowl was slightly cracked. It was to go in for repairs. The team was told not to worry, that worse things had happened to the trophy.

Wilmont, who returned to live in Denmark in 1965 and has revisited Canada several times since, was a little hurt to hear the news about the abuse his trophy had endured.

"I don't understand why they would do that to it," said Wilmont, who graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen and still makes his living as a painter and sculptor.

"I am proud of my Stanley Cup and Mr. Petersen's. I would treat it a little differently," he said. "I think in (Denmark), it would be treated with more respect.

"I feel a little bit sorry ... (The Stanley Cup) is like a bit of royalty, isn't it?

Article originally published by Hugh Adami at Ottawa Citizen / Canwest - 2006

Layin' on the Lumber - The CCM Hockey Stick

Layin' on the Lumber - The CCM Hockey Stick

The first recorded production of hockey sticks in Canada was carried out by the Mi'kmaq natives of Nova Scotia, who carved them out of a wood called hornbeam, also known as ironwood because of its strength. When the hornbeam was used up, the carvers turned to yellow birch. The early sticks looked like field-hockey sticks with a blade that curved up. They were shorter and heavier than the sticks that came to be used in later years.

As hockey grew in popularity, the Native carvers couldn't keep up with the demand. As a result, the Starr Manufacturing Company of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, began manufacturing hockey sticks and calling them Mic Macs in honour of the original makers.

Having distributed sticks and other hockey equipment for various companies over the years, in 1933 Canada Cycle & Motor acquired an interest in the Jos. Choquette Wood Specialties Co. Ltd. of St. Jean, Quebec. The Quebec company had been founded in 1919 by brothers Joe and Ed Choquette, who started out making hockey sticks in the rear of their sporting goods store on City Hall Avenue in Montreal before moving production to the factory in St. Jean.

Three different views of the Choquette factory in St. Jean, Quebec

According to the Choquette brothers for a hockey stick (usually elm or ash) to be strong, the wood had to be light, straight and have few marks on it. On one occasion to demonstrate the truth of the claim, Ed Choquette stepped up to the huge rack of sticks in the Choquette store and selected a stick. He then placed one end of the stick on the floor and the other against the rack and jumped on it. While Ed was tossed unceremoniously into the air, the stick stayed in one piece prompting Ed to exclaim: “Now there's a stick you can play hockey with!” (1)

Top left: Five acres of ground piled with choice hand-picked logs to be sawed under the personal supervision of Jos. Choquette.
Top right: Standing is Mr. Ernie Everden, inventor of the C.C.M. laminated model. Sitting is W. Prince also of the factory staff. Both on a tour of inspection.
Bottom left: Mr. J. Howes C.C.M. Ontario sales manager and Mr. C. Lawrence convincing themselves that 12 lbs. of green lumber is used in the making of every C.C.M. hockey stick.
Centre: Note there are no logs of large diameter in this lot. Only second growth small trees are selected. Handle stock for the top three grades of C.C.M. Laminated Ice Hockey Sticks is taken from logs 6” to 9” diameter.
Bottom right: Mr. J.A. Russell and Mr. N.P. Tonkin seen standing between two rows of logs piled shoulder high. Note again uniform size of logs selected for the manufacture of C.C.M. Ice Hockey Sticks.
(From: 1935 CCM Sporting Goods Catalogue)

The first CCM laminated hockey stick was developed by company employee Ernie Everden and left the St. Jean factory in 1935. While early sticks had been made of a single piece of wood with the curve at the bottom created by using steam to cure and bend it, the laminated stick was made of various layers held together by waterproof glue. Everden sought and was granted a patent for a three-piece stick where the shaft and blade are separate, held together by a wooden wedge and glue. Not only was the laminate stick easier to make, there was less waste.

“We can use a lot of lumber in making these that would otherwise have to be scrapped. You see, it’s much easier by this process to make sure that both the blade and the handle are straight-grained and that a light stick will stand up in play,” explained Ed Choquette. (2)

The great Rocket Richard picks a stick from a pile of CCM lumber.

As time went on, players in the NHL began to ask for lighter sticks. While the standard weight for a stick had been 26 ounces, players looked for sticks that were as light as 17 or 18 ounces. It was a request that didn't sit well with team owners, who were now being forced to pay for an increasing number of broken sticks. Among them was Conn Smythe, the frugal owner of the Maple Leafs, whodemanded his players use 25 ounce sticks no matter what their preference.

While hockey sticks were generally made to a club’s guidelines, there were a few players who could ask that their sticks be made to their own specifications. It was a practice that never found favour with CCM for it usually left the company holding a number of unwanted sticks. A player, having had the company make twelve different styles of sticks, then picked one leaving CCM holding eleven. Often the left-over sticks found their way, as “autographed models,” to be sold in Doug Laurie’s sports shop at Maple Leaf Gardens.

By 1940 the Jos. Choquette Wood Specialties Co. Ltd. was a wholly-owned CCM subsidiary known as Cho-Wood Products Ltd. By this time the company was producing 240,000 hockey sticks annually, including 125 different custom-made models for NHL players. In 1946 the company suffered the loss of Joe Choquette who died in a Montreal automobile accident. An avid amateur baseball player, in his early days Choquette had played on a ball team with Howie Morenz and Odie Cleghorn. At the height of the Canadien-Maroon rivalry, when players didn't mingle much, it wasn't uncommon to see the likes of Nels Stewart, Hooley Smith and Howie Morenz together at the same time looking for a hockey stick. It was said that when the players visited Joe Choquette, “they met on common ground.”

For many years the CCM sporting goods line was overseen by George Parsons (1914 – 1998), a former member of the Maple Leafs, who had played in two Memorial Cup tourneys before turning pro in 1935. Parson’s playing career was cut short in a game against the Chicago Blackhawks on Mar. 3, 1939, when the blade of a stick accidentally clipped his left eye cutting the retina and causing him to lose sight in that eye. Denied permission to continue playing, Parsons became a fulltime employee of CCM and eventually its Vice-President in Charge of Product Development.

It was Parsons who oversaw the development of the CCM AcuFlex hockey stick, designed to match the strength of the player with the strength of the stick. Stronger players, according to Parsons, needed a stiffer stick. With each of the AcuFlex sticks marked with bright colour bands, dealers were given a device known as a “Dynamometer”. Developed in conjunction with Dalhousie University in Halifax, the "Dynamometer" was used to measure the strength of the athlete’s grip. Once the appropriate colour was determined based on where the needle of the dynamometer pointed when gripped by the player, the dealer was then able to select the appropriate stick with the matching colour band.

One of the most colourful sticks produced by CCM was for American daredevil Evel Knievel. An avid hockey player, who once played with the Charlotte Clippers of the Eastern Hockey League, Knievel was hired by Toronto Toros' owner John Bassett to take four penalty shots on team goaltender Les Binkley between periods of a WHA game on April 11, 1975. To accomplish the task Knievel was given a CCM stick decked out in his signature red, white and blue colours. With Frank Gifford on hand to cover the event for ABC’s Wide World of Sports, Knievel used the stick to score twice, earning himself $20,000. Meanwhile Binkley used the $2,000 given him for his two saves to take his teammates out for dinner and drinks after the game.

Unfortunately, time and neglect would eventually catch up to the CCM sporting goods factory in St. Jean, Quebec, just as they would to the company's bicycle plant in Weston, Ontario. In November 1982 when Cooper Canada Ltd. was considering making an offer for the St. Jean plant, they a sent a couple of company representatives out to take a look at the operation. What they saw didn't impress them.

When Henry Nolting and Jerry Harder of Cooper Canada Ltd., visited the St. Jean plant, they found only a hundred or so workers still there, most of whom were said to be apathetic and listless. The research and development department (two people) was said to be experiencing problems with their Propacs (CCM’s version of the Cooperall) and working with the Quebec Nordiques to improve the product.

The factory itself was in no better shape. The roof in the stick-making section was leaking; the offices were said to be in a mess and the warehouse was full of old stock. The boot-making operation had fared a little better, according to Harder, and could be transferred to Cooper Canada Ltd.’s Toronto location. In the end, Nolting and Harder determined the assets of the operation were certainly worth no more than “book value” and even that was a stretch. (3) It was a sad end to what had once been a glorious enterprise.

Original Article by John - Submitted to http://www.vintageccm.com/

1. "Modern Plant Turns Out 240,000 Hockey Sticks For Twenty-Four Countries," VIM, Vol. 22, No. 2, 1935

2. ibid.

3. Donald H. Thain, "Cooper Canada Ltd.," London: Ivey Publishing, 1983

James T Sutherland - Father of Hockey - Ice Hockey Pioneer

James Thomas Sutherland (10 October 1870 in Kingston, Ontario, Canada – September 30, 1955 in Kingston) was a Canadian ice hockey player, coach, administrator, and developer. He is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Often referred to as the “Father of Hockey”, Sutherland was an ardent supporter of the game who worked diligently on its behalf. He made his hometown of Kingston a famous ice hockey centre during the years prior to the First World War. As coach of the Kingston Frontenacs junior team, Sutherland guided them to several championships. He served overseas with the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War, reaching the rank of Captain. Sutherland first became connected with the Ontario Hockey Association as a district representative, and his drive and keen interest shot him up through executive ranks until he became president in 1915, holding the position until 1918. In 1919, Sutherland served as the President of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association. He was instrumental in the founding of the Memorial Cup in 1919; the tournament serves as the championship of the Canadian Hockey League. He also helped establish the annual exhibition match between the Royal Military College of Canada and West Point in 1923. Sutherland was the driving force behind the creation of the International Hockey Hall of Fame in 1943, and a major reason why the National Hockey League and the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association selected Kingston as its original home. On September 30, 1955, Sutherland died. The IHHoF took his honour one step further by naming one of the display halls after him. Sutherland was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in December 1947

More Information about James T Sutherland http://FatherofHockey.ca

ICE & ROLLER POLO PLAYERS Invented Hockey Nets

Roller Polo and Ice Polo started in the early 1880s. Roller Skating was a very popular sport throughout the world in the 1870s and 1880s, and Ice Skating was also very popular in the Northern Regions throughout the World. The Polo Players from both Ice & Roller Polo were the 1st to use a actual net that stopped the balls after being shot into the net. The nets also prevented any passes from behind the net being made through the goal area. These Nets were known as Cages.

These photos from 1890-91 shows The Storrs Agricultural School Ice Polo team in about 1891 with a Wooden Cage and Fishnet they use as a Net while playing on Duck Pond (Swan Lake), along with the Ball they play with, equipment such as Sticks, Skates, Pads & Jerseys. Photos Courtesy of University of Connecticut

ICE HOCKEY

Frank S. Stocking of Quebec, Canada did make the 1st Steel Cage in 1897 .

The Quebec Hockey Club were also adopting the "Net of Quebec" and "Net of Montreal in the late 1890s. The Southern Ontario Hockey League adopted the "Ontario Nets" also late 1890s

LONGEST GOAL IN ICE HOCKEY HISTORY - EVER !

Hardy Sauter ,

Head Coach and Director of Hockey Operations at Idaho Steelheads Hockey Club in the ECHL.com once scored a goal that may well be THE LONGEST GOAL SCORED IN ICE HOCKEY HISTORY.

Hardy played for the Oklahoma City Blazers as a defenceman, and during a game on March 2, 2001, with lucky 13 seconds to go in the 1st period, Hardy slapshotted a puck from behind his own goal line the length of the ice. Guess what happened after after 2 bounces - YES THE REST IS HISTORY, it went in.

Check out the video here.