A game-issued hockey stick owned and signed by Toronto Maple Leaf legend Bill Barilko — who scored the Stanley Cup-winning overtime goal in 1951 — has sold for $60,000 at auction.
Miller and Miller Auctions, based out of New Hamburg, Ont., sold the “game-issued” wooden stick from the 1950-51 season on Sunday.
The auction house had put an estimate of between $3,000 and $5,000 on the stick. But Benjamin Pernfuss, consignment director in the sports category at Miller and Miller, said before the auction that how much the rare item would go for was unclear.
“There’s not a lot of his memorabilia out there, and the stick was owned by Barilko and signed by him as well. So it’s a significant piece and a rare item in hockey history,” Pernfuss said before the auction.
On Monday, Pernfuss said seeing the stick go for $60,000 “just shows the significance of owning a piece of Toronto Maple Leafs history.”
“Bill Barilko is one of those names that sort of stands alone on the top of Toronto Maple Leafs history and history of hockey in Canada,” Pernfuss said.
Pernfuss was not able to share who bought the stick or where it’s going next.
Plane crash a tragic end to Cup hero’s life
Barilko, born in Timmins, Ont., played 252 games in the NHL, spending his five seasons with Toronto. The defenceman’s aggression on the ice earned him the nickname Bashin’ Bill.
For many, his Game 5 goal against the Montreal Canadiens on April 21, 1951, is one of hockey’s most celebrated. It helped captured the Maple Leafs’ fourth Cup in five years.
But it was also Barilko’s last goal.
In August the same year, at age 24, he was on a fishing trip to James Bay when the plane he was in went down. The Leafs didn’t win another Cup until 1962. Six weeks later, the crash site and Barilko’s body were located.
His story inspired the Tragically Hip song Fifty-Mission Cap.
Stick has names of other famous players
The stick is taped for game use in a way that matches Barilko’s style, and puck marks and wear in the lower hand-grip area indicate the stick was likely used in a game, although Miller and Miller Auctions is unable to confirm that.
The stick was stamped “5” near the top, which indicates it was issued to Barilko as it was his number that season, the auction house says.
It’s also stamped with Love & Bennett, which at the time supplied hockey sticks to the Maple Leafs.
After mysteriously vanishing, the Toronto Maple Leafs wouldn’t win another Stanley Cup until Barilko’s remains were found 11 years later.
The stick was purportedly a gift to the owner of a northern Ontario cottage who hosted Leaf players in the off-season after their Stanley Cup win, Miller and Miller Auctions said on its website.
Pernfuss said the stick includes other “identifiable” signatures, including: Turk Broda, Ted Kennedy, Joe Klukay, Cal Gardner, Fleming Mackell, Ray Timgren, Howie Meeker, Harry Watson, Bill Juzda, Sid Smith, Max Bentley, Al Rollins and Tod Sloan, who were all on the 1951 team.
