Don’t know if NFL players still do this in the offseason, but there was a time when they’d get together over the winter and form a basketball team for charity events. This cap is for one of those teams, the 1970s “Good News (Chicago) Bears.” It’s signed by one of the team members but the seller doesn’t know who that is. Can anyone identify that autograph?
Now for the rest of this week’s picks:
- One more item for the Windy City’s football team, and a Christmas season item at that; a Chicago Bears Nutcracker.
- This 1950s ticket (must be retained by purchaser!) is for preferred standing room only — not just regular standing room — at the old Maple Leaf Gardens.
- This one’s been body-checked to death, but take a peek at this 1950’s Montreal Canadiens youth jersey.
- Last week we included a book about wonderfully named hockey pro “Turk” Broda. This week, it’s a 1950s matchbook for the “Toe” Blake Tavern in Montreal. See ya there, eh?
- Check out this 1975-era set of NFL helmet pins.
- This 1970s Pittsburgh Steelers spiral notebook includes referee signals on the back.
- I’ve seen these before and always liked them: This set of four 1970s NFL team helmet stickers from Chase & Sanborn includes the Baltimore Colts and San Diego Chargers, two teams that have since relocated.
- Here’s a 1970s Biederlack brand New England Patriots stadium blanket. Biederlack makes tremendous blankets; we have three of them at our house and my laptop is propped up on one of them right now. Collector’s Corner’s highest recommendation!
- Browns fans, wave this 1970s “Go Browns” flag at your next home game. Sponsored by WHK Radio 14, the voice of your Browns.
- Not sure of the year for this lightweight Swingster Chicago Cubs windbreaker. The seller says 1960s-1970s. They got the Cubbie logo right, but the C-ubs logo is just a bit off.
That’ll do it for this edition of CC. See you back here next week!
The Cubs jackets seems to be a poorly done 1957 logo.
The windbreaker seems to be handmade to me. I think the autographed Bears hat might be Bob Avellini who played quarterback for them in the 70’s
The single-bar helmet pins pre-date 1975, i.e. Bills standing buffalo, last used regularly in 1973.
The Rams and Chargers helmets are also pre-1975. However, the Steelers helmet has the inscription SUPER BOWL IX which was in January 1975.
The Oilers also feature a silver helmet, last worn in the 1971 season. A bit of a hodge-podge there.
Of course, when I see an address like the one on that Toe Blake Tavern matchbook, I have to look it up…
1618 St. Catherine St. W (or Rue Ste.-Catherine Ouest) is less than half a mile up the street from the Forum, so it was a logical spot for Toe Blake to put his pub. If 1618 was right on the corner of Guy Street, though, it’s not anymore; Faubourg Tower, part of Concordia University, opened on the corner in 1985, and has the street number of 1600, with a cafe facing St. Catherine having the street number of 1602. 1618 is down the street a little bit, part of commercial frontage attached to the tower, and is currently home to a liquor store.