This road red dureen gamer by Wilson and Gunzo’s was first worn by the Chicago Black Hawks circa the early to mid 1970’s. This jersey comes from the recently discovered Gunzo’s collection. There were 11 of these vintage red dureen game worn jerseys in the collection. Each was originally worn as a full time regular season and/or playoff road jersey in the 1970’s and then was later recycled by the Black Hawks for use during training camp in the years that followed. At some point after the season ended, the original player number was stripped and new higher numbers were added for use during training camp. This helps solve the mystery of where so many of the Hawks vintage dureens disappeared to.

With access to a few random early 1980’s Chicago Black Hawks training camp rosters we were able to confirm that Steve Larmer wore the player number 41 during both the 1980-81 and 1981-82 Black Hawks training camps! The Black Hawks drafted Larmer in the 1980 NHL Entry Draft, meaning that this sweater would have been his first ever as a Hawk, worn over the course of two seasons in camp. Larmer became a regular the following year and assumed his patented number 28. As a rookie in 1982-83 he would capture the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s rookie of the year thanks to a 43-goal and 90-point effort while going an impressive +44. Larmer spent 13 years all told wearing the Chief Indian Head crest and admirably representing the city of Chicago. His final 2 years in the NHL were spent with the New York Rangers, where, in 1993-94, he won his only Stanley Cup. In 1006 career games, Larmer netted 441 goals and 1012 points. He had five different 40+ goal seasons during his career and played in 2 NHL All Star games. On the international stage Larmer played for Team Canada in the 1991 Canada Cup and scored 6 goals and 11 points in 8 games of action.

This striking red dureen was originally worn circa the early to mid 1970's by a yet to be determined Black Hawks player. It features a crossover collar and is without a year tag. The Wilson and Gunzo’s tags have fallen out of the collar, lost to history. The outlines of the original player numbers reveal themselves upon close inspection on these vintage dureens. For a Chicago collector with the time and inclination, this would prove a fun task to determine which former Chicago icon originally wore your new acquisition. The most beautiful logo in sports, Chief Indian Head, is hand stitched in all its vintage glory on the chest of this jersey. The game wear on this sweater is solid and features stick marks, board burns, board paint transfer, un-repaired holes and runs, heavy inner pilling and some great team-sewn repair work. An exciting new discovery brings this previously unknown gamer to the hobby, good luck in your pursuit of Steve Larmer’s first Chicago Blackhawks jersey.