Session 1 Live and On-line June 20th, 7:30 PM EST (Lots 1-43)

Lot #40B:

Type 1 Photo of Johnny Bower

This ‘Original News Service Photo’ is an authenticated (by PSA) TYPE 1 that was printed for ACME Newspapers, Cleveland Bureau right after 20-year-old Johnny Kiszkan, playing goal for the American Hockey League Cleveland Barons, shut out the Pittsburgh Hornets for his fourth shutout in his rookie professional season. This extremely rare photo of a future Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender was shot when the hockey world knew him as Kiszkan instead of Bower. In his first appearance in a Baron’s uniform in an exhibition game versus the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings, the five-thousand Cleveland fans in the stands might have suspected that they had found something special in the young kid from Saskatchewan. They likely didn’t know they’d just witnessed one the first performances of who’d become the greatest goalie in the league’s history. Young Johnny played with ill-fitting skates and a blocking glove that had seen better days. But that makes this picture more appealing. Johnny’s life changed when he nervously accepted the $50 bonus to leave Saskatchewan, had his name changed on the suggestion of the team and became the famous Johnny Bower that was an icon in the hockey world.