Habs fans are rabid, their requests outnumber even my own Maple Leaf needs !!! To date we have, I believe, 76 Montreal players from 1940 to 1951 who never had a card issued. With that many to post this will be a pics only effort. Here are the first 15, in alphabetical order, from A-D.
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Had an interesting email yesterday concerning the 1951-52 Parkie Bill Hollett Boston Bruin card I posted earlier. Came from a Detroit fan who said:
Hi My Friend Did you know Flash Hollett also played for my Red Wings and in 1944-45 where he became the highest scoring defenceman in the NHL scoring 20 goals....that record stood until it was broken by Bobby Orr during the 1968-69 season......Allan That kind of production deserves a card so here is his Red Wings Variation: My Montreal collector's haven't requested many pre-1950 cards but we do have a few to post. We'll start with John Doran, at six feet and 205 pounds, John "Red" Doran was one of hockey's big boys when he played in the 1930s. When Doran joined the Canadiens in 1939-40, the Montreal Gazette newspaper reported on his arrival in creative fashion: "Doran is a chunky, hefty and lusty fellow who loves to throw his weight around with gay abandon and considerable destructive force as some of these same Canadiens can recall when Doran was handing out stiff body-checks on the Americans' rearguard." Doran never had a hockey card issued so we decided to create a 1939-40 OPC V301-1 style card to commemorate his 6 game stint as a Canadien. Leland Kitteridge Harrington, universally known as Hago Harrington, spent 20 years playing or coaching hockey, with all of them spent in his native New England except for a 24 game appearance with the Canadiens during the 1932-33 season. Again he never had a hockey card issued, we have produced a 1933-34 Ice Kings V357 style card from an old color litho found online. Jack Portland was a versatile athlete who, as a youngster, won the Dominion schoolboy championship for high-jumping in 1930. But Portland could also play hockey. He developed his skills in Collingwood, Ontario and prior to the 1933-34 season he signed a two-year deal worth $3,500 with the Montreal Canadiens. He skated that year with the legendary Howie Morenz and Aurel Joliat which must have been quite the adjustment for Portland. The native of Collingwood, Ontario apparently never played any serious level of organized hockey prior to turning pro! The only statistical reference for Portland playing prior to joining the Montreal Canadiens in 1933 was a season with the Collingwood Combines in an Ontario senior league! Perhaps Portland was too busy pursuing other athletic pursuits such as track and field. He participated in the high jump and triple jump events at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He was the national high jump champion in 1930, 1931 and 1932 and finished in 7th place in the LA Games. Not bad considering he was completely self taught. From there he went on to the NHL, but only after eschewing opportunities to play pro football both in Canada and the United States. He was also a notable baseball player. The Montreal Canadiens signed Portland at the recommendation of former NHL player turned scout Bert Corbeau. Portland would never have a hockey card produced so we created a 1933-34 Hamilton Gum V288 style card. Defenceman Harold "Twinkle" Starr played over 200 NHL games for four different teams in the 20s and 30s. He was a solid player in his own end who could play abrasively if the need arose. Born in Ottawa, Ontario Starr played senior hockey with the local Shamrocks before joining the NHL Senators in 1929-30. He played another NHL season with the Senators before joining the Montreal Maroons for 1931-32 and returned to Ottawa for 1932-33 only to be traded to the Canadiens in February 1933. He appeared in 15 games as a Hab never getting his name on the score sheet except for 6 penalty minutes. He was claimed by the Maroons off waivers next season and would go on to make NHL stops in Detroit and New York before the end of his playing career. We have created a 1933-34 Ice Kings V357 style card for him. Despite his 5'3" frame, the aptly named Roy "Shrimp" Worters seemed like a giant to opposing shooters. He became one of the NHL's all-time great goalkeepers, chalking up a phenomenal 66 shutouts in only 12 seasons. But because his tenure was chiefly with the Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Americans, Worters never felt the exhilaration of a Stanley Cup win. He was loaned to Montreal by NY Americans to replace an injured George Hainsworth on February 27, 1930 and earned the win (Montreal 6, Toronto 2).
He had a 1933-34 OPC V304A New York Americans card issued but we have created a V304B variation to mark his Montreal appearance. As hard as it is to understand for a die-hard Leaf fan, Montreal requests account for a lot of my business !!! Before I get started on the 1951-52 Habs Parkie cards I'll add some requests for non-North American born players that I have been asked for. First a 1933-34 Ice Kings Missing Link card of Gus Forslund, the first Swedish born NHL player, that I created for a Swedish collector. The same collector also wanted a card of Peter Wallin who played 40 games as a Ranger in 1981-82. And from Russia we had a request for the ill-fated Evgeny Belosheikin, nicknamed "Evgeny the Great" and touted as the next Tretiak, who led the Soviet Red Army to a New Year's Eve 1986 4-1 win over Canada. He was drafted by the Oilers in 1991 but never played an NHL game although he did play 3 with their AHL team in Cape Breton. Troubled by alcoholism he committed suicide on Nov. 18, 1999.
I'll start my hockey posts with the lost cards of the NHL players from the 1940's. After the OPC sets of 1937-38 and 1939-40 no major sets were produced until the 1951-52 Parkhurst series. Collectors were left with the Group 1 and 2 Beehive hockey photos as their only offering. The 10 year gap without a card set resulted in a multitude of "Missing Links" !!! I'll start with the reproduction Parkhurst card wrapper that I created and the four New York Rangers and Boston Bruins I've had requests for. You can purchase these cards. You can obtain a copy of these (or any of my custom cards) for $10.00 each, postpaid, or $7.95 each for three or more. E-mail me at [email protected] for ordering details, volume discounts are available on larger orders.
Very occasionally we get requests from collectors not in The Great White North for other sports besides our passion. This post is dedicated to those. We also get a few hockey related that are not NHL players or not players at all, I'll add them under this post also. I have a St. Louis collector who wanted a 1955-56 Parkhurst style arena card of "The Barn'. The fans in Newfoundland can never get enough of their native sons, here are some minor league creations of Newfoundland born players. Not to be outdone we have the following hometown Prince Edward Island players in the minors.
Here are some other non-sport cards that I have done by request, they are a fun change from creating numerous sports cards, especially when working on multiples for one year !! Thanks to my customers for the distraction !!!
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AuthorI am a lifelong Maple Leaf fan, now retired, who started creating custom cards for myself of Toronto players who never had a card issued in the Maple Leaf uniform. From posting some of these on eBay it has become the proverbial "snowball down hill" !!! Archives
March 2024
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