More Den Treasures


Above is my copy of a 1957 hard-cover edition of The Hockey Handbook, by Lloyd Percival. This is the book that legendary Russian coach Anatoli Tarasov used as his "bible" during the beginnings of the rise of Russian hockey.




Here's two of my favourite Gretzky covers in my collection. The first is a kids magazine called Crackers which was put out by Scholastic Books in Canada in 1982. I actually received this in '82 as a subscription making this one of the very first pieces in my hockey collection. I have been to many collectable shows over the years, and have never seen another one of these magazines.
The next one is an Oilers game program from Gretzky's rookie season of 79/80, one of his first program covers ever. The game was against the Leafs on Jan. 26, 1980. Gretzky had 26 goals, 43 assists and 69 points through 46 games to that point in the season and sat fifth in league scoring. He was 22 points behind Marcel Dionne for the scoring lead.
From this point on The Great One notched 25 goals, 43 assists and 68 points in his last 33 games played. He pretty much exactly doubled his output in 13 less games.


And once again, the "piece de resistance" of the Den. The autographed stick of the 1962/63 Maple Leafs. This has been in our family since that time when my father received it as a gift.
Below are closeups of Johnny Bower, Tim Horton, Frank Mahovlich and Red Kelly. This was the last time my Leafs both finished first in the league and won the Cup. I don't see that happening again any time soon.

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