- Title: USA: ICE HOCKEY: Eruzione's jersey expected to fetch over $1million at auction
- Date: 22nd February 2013
- Summary: PAN ON STILL PHOTO FROM GOLD MEDAL TO ERUZIONE
- Embargoed: 9th March 2013 12:00
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- Location: Usa
- City:
- Country: USA
- Topics: Quirky,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky,Sports
- Reuters ID: LVA7RIBICUCPQXO8D8GHQZWOOZWZ
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- Story Text: The jersey of team captain Mike Eruzione of the U.S. hockey team that beat the U.S.S.R. in the "Miracle on Ice" at the 1980 Winter Olympics expected to sell for over $1 million at auction.
Thirty-three years ago today, on Friday, February 22, 1980, Mike Eruzione scored the goal of his life.
With ten minutes left on the clock, the captain of the U.S. Olympic ice hockey team fired the puck past Soviet goaltender Vladimir Myshkin to beat the vaunted U.S.S.R. 4-3 in what was later dubbed 'The Miracle on Ice' and paved the way to only the second hockey gold for America.
"We didn't know what was going on around us. Clearly, it was more than a hockey game for a lot of people. I think that's what separates this particular Olympic moment or sporting event from other sporting events," Eruzione told Reuters, 33 years to the day, as he prepares to auction off his collection of Olympic items.
"It's not like the Red Sox playing the Yankees or a Super Bowl game, this was the United States. This was, you know, the Olympic games and a whole nations was looking for something to feel good about. . .It was a big question mark as to what was happening in the world, and the country was looking for something, and it happened to be us,"
The unique circumstances that led to the Miracle on Ice being named the greatest moment in American sports in the 20th Century pushed auction estimates for the white jersey worn by Eruzione to over $1 million (USD). And the jersey is only one of the 22 items from Eruzione's collection that go on the block on Saturday (February 23).
"We're estimating the collection at $1.5 million-plus," said Chris Ivy, Director of Sports Auctions for Heritage Auctions who are managing the sale.
"So we think it's going to be somewhere in that $1.5 to $2.5 million dollar range in total, but we wouldn't be surprised to see it go for more than that."
Eruzione decided to part with all of his Olympic paraphernalia last year after learning how much the price tag would be following the 2010 million dollar sale of the jersey of Paul Henderson who scored the game winner to clinch the 1972 Summit Series for Canada. He will part with everything except his gold medal to start a trust for his children and fund his local charity in his hometown of Winthrop, Massachusetts.
"It was all sitting in my hockey bag in my attic in a trunk. And about a year and a half ago, I realized that the two jerseys could be worth some money, so I took them out of the trunk, out of the attic, out of my hockey bag and put them in safety deposit box. But other than that, everything else is basically stayed in that hockey bag for all those years," said Eruzione.
He will also sell his alternate blue jersey worn in the final match against Finland in which the U.S. again came from behind to clinch the win and the gold medal. It is expected to sell for over $200,000.
Also included in the sale is the gold medal of teammember Steve Christoff, who is only the second of the 20-member U.S. squad to sell their medal from the 1980 Winter Olympics.
"It really runs the gamut," Ivy said of the sale.
"Obviously, the Eruzione and the 'Miracle on Ice' collection is headlining the sale, but we've also got some great baseball material; vintage material, including Lou Gehrig's 1928 game-worn jersey all the way up to Curt Shilling's blood sock from the 2004 World Series. We've got material from the world of golf with some Masters winners medals, as well as tennis and football."
The Platinum Night Sports Auction starts at 7:30 EST in New York on Saturday, February 23rd. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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