A hockey stick said to have been owned and signed by Bill Barilko, the Toronto Maple Leaf who scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal in overtime in 1951 and died at age 24 in a plane crash that summer, is on the auction block.
Miller and Miller Auctions, based out of New Hamburg, Ont., is selling the “game-issued” wooden stick from the 1950-51 season. The stamped “5” near the top of the stick indicates it was issued to Bill Barilko as it was his number that season, the auction house says.
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 marker 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, 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.
Benjamin Pernfuss, consignment director in the sports category at Miller and Miller, called the stick a “unique find.”
“It’s one of those items that gives you a rush when you hold it in your hand, just knowing that you’re touching a piece of history,” Pernfuss told CBC Kitchener-Waterloo’s The Morning Edition.
“Every day, I’m in different people’s collections and seeing items, and it’s not every day that I see something I haven’t seen before. But this is one of those items and it really brought me a lot of joy to source it and offer [it] for sale.”
After mysteriously vanishing, the Toronto Maple Leafs wouldn’t win another Stanley Cup until Barilko’s remains were found 11 years later.
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.
It’s stamped with the name Love & Bennett, which at the time supplied hockey sticks to the Maple Leafs.
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 says 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
Miller and Miller Auctions notes the signatures of Rollins and Sloan also help date the stick to the 1950-51 season.
“These two players did not cross pass on the Toronto Maple Leafs until the 1950-51 season and Barilko did not play after that season, thus indicating the stick was signed during the famous Stanley Cup winning year,” the auction house says.
Miller and Miller anticipates the stick will go for between $3,000 and $5,000 — bids close Sunday evening — but Pernfuss said because it’s so rare, “the sky is the limit” when it comes to what someone may pay.
“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.”
The Morning Edition – K-W4:11A piece of Maple Leafs hockey history goes up for auction
Toronto Maple Leafs player Bill Barilko’s hockey stick is on the auction block at Miller and Miller Auctions in New Hamburg. Benjamin Pernfuss, the consignment director in the sports category, talks to us about the history behind the stick and why it’s a hot commodity for the auction.
