AUTOGRAPHED
COPY OF OFFICIAL SCORESHEET DETAILING RON HEXTALL OF PHILADELPHIA
FLYERS BECOMING FIRST NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE GOALIE TO SCORE A GOAL BY
SHOOTING THE PUCK INTO A NET.
This
historic event occurred Dec. 8, 1987, in the Flyers' 5-2 victory over
the Boston Bruins at The Spectrum in Philadelphia, Pa. With 1 minute and
12 seconds left in the game, Boston having pulled its goalie (Rejean
Lemelin) for an extra skater and trailing, 4-2, Hextall fired the puck
down the ice and into the empty net. Until that game, the only other NHL
goalie credited with a goal was Bill Smith of the New York Islanders
who was the last Islander to touch the puck before the Colorado Rockies
shot it into their empty net on Nov. 28, 1979, at Denver.
As a
sportswriter at the time, I covered the game in which Hextall scored
his goal. When copies of the official scoresheet were made available to
the press, I collected five copies, each measuring 14 inches high by 8
1/2 inches wide. After I had interviewed him, I had Hextall sign the
scoresheets. From what I recall of that game nearly 37 years ago, I saw
no one else ask Hextall to autograph any of them. So it is likely that
the one offered here is the only one in existence opened for purchase.
The sheets were kept in a trunk since shortly after that game and are in
mint condition, as are the autographs.
For fans of the NHL,
and of Ron Hextall and the Philadelphia Flyers in particular, this is a
piece of memorabilia unlike any other.