This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/7/2017
Nicknamed “The Great One”, Wayne Gretzky is considered the greatest hockey player of all time. For this lot, we are offering an incredibly rare shirt from his final NHL season which was gifted by the Rangers to the Hospice Care Organization on behalf of the New York Islanders.
When he retired, Gretzky was the NHL's all-time scoring leader in Goals, Assists & Points in both the regular season & Stanley Cup Playoffs. He led the NHL in scoring a record 10 times, was Captain of 4 Stanley Cup Championship teams, and was named the league's MVP a record 9 times. He is the only NHL player ever to score 200 Points in a season, and did so 4 times in the span of 5 years. A great ambassador of pro sports, he was also named the NHL's Most Gentlemanly Player 4 times and received the Order of Canada (their highest civilian honor) in 1998. Upon his retirement in 1999, his trademark jersey No. 99 was retired by the NHL.
For this lot, we are offering the extremely rare, “White Liberty” alternate New York Rangers style jersey. The style was worn during a few select games and remains on even the most advanced collectors want list. In addition, this shirt was obtained directly from the New York Islanders charity auction, and comes with their letter of authenticity.
NOTE: On behalf the collecting community, MEARS was asked to send the shirt to Barry Meisel of the MeiGray Group for additional evaluation. As the official supplier of Rangers shirt during the 1998-1999, MeiGray compared the shirt to period exemplars. Per their review, they determined that the 1998-1999 tagging was not consistent with the examples worn on the ice and that the lettering on the back of the shirt is not consistent with the period images of Gretzky on the ice. Therefore, we are offering this shirt an authentic 1998-1999 Wayne Gretzky jersey offered by the team as a charity shirt.
LOA from New York Islanders Charity.
(02D0536)