Anonymous Canadian Wins Bid For Oldest Hockey Stick
Posted December 22, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
For the modest sum of $2.2 million, what’s believed to be the oldest hockey stick in existence is now the property of an anonymous Canadian buyer.
And despite spending all that money on what has the potential to be a great conversation piece, they’ve agreed to put the stick, believed to have been carved between 1852 and 1856, on display in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Gord Sharpe, the stick’s previous owner, was relieved to learn the buyer is Canadian. It’s a family heirloom that’s been in his possession since he was nine.
There were 26 bids submitted from around the world and inquiries were fielded from places including Dubai, Australia and Germany. There were more than 20,600 visits to Ebay from people interested in learning about and perhaps bidding on the stick.
“When the bid came in, I didn’t know if it was from a Canadian,” Sharpe said.
“I feel a lot better now that I know it was purchased by a Canadian.”
Sharpe’s $2.2 million will go to fanscharity.com and its World Charity Award program, both run by Sharpe with the goal of promoting the importance of charities and awareness of charities among children.
“I can still see the stick if I want in the Hall, and it meant a lot of money going towards our charity programs,” Sharpe said. “That was more important than keeping it.”
Sharpe lives near Cobourg, Ont., and says the stick was carved by Alexander Rutherford Sr. and handed down to him by his great uncle Melville Rutherford, who owned a farm near Lindsay, Ont.
The Hockey Hall of Fame hasn’t confirmed that Sharpe’s stick is the oldest, but did provide an “authentication facts” for sticks of that era. The oldest stick on display in the Hall today is from 1881.
But David Romeo, CEO of Auctionwire.ca who handled the sale, said it’s the real deal and was viewed by several appraisers.
“It was recognized as the oldest known hockey stick,” he said. “The stick looks archaic but there is something special about it – it has many elements about it that are still used in modern stick design such as its one-piece construction, however they weigh a lot less.”
Prior to the auction, Sharpe’s stick was on display in a glass case in Wayne Gretzky’s downtown Toronto restaurant, and he said an private appraiser valued it at $4.25 million, meaning the new owner got a great deal.
The stick was originally to be sold six years ago, but was withdrawn after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks because Sharpe felt it was inappropriate to be auctioning for his charities while monies were being collected to aid victims and their families.
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