SEPTEMBER 2008
09/06/2008... Please excuse the dust as we finish our overhaul. Like any good team, we need to go through a rebuilding process from time to time. Don't worry, we've put all the necessary parts in place and we hope you feel we're now back in championship form.
We would welcome any comments about the changes we've made, either positive or negative. Maybe what looks good on our end, might need some improvement for the browser you use. Please take the time to let us hear from you so we can continue to build a site that runs smoothly for all of our visitors. If you happen to find something that isn't working properly, please let us know.
In the last few months, Johnson's Jerseys has acheived two major milestones. Our collection is now comprised of over 300 game worn jerseys which incluces more than 200 from colleges / universities and almost three dozen from Michigan Tech alone. Our jersey archive also features more than 100 jerseys formerly in our collection. Be sure to check it out!
NOVEMBER 2007
11/22/07... Happy Thanksgiving! We've kicked off the holiday shopping season by adding another two dozen college jerseys as well as a few minor league jerseys as well. One of the highlights since our last update was an informal gathering of some of the greatest college hockey jersey collectors in the country where we displayed a large portion of our collection. The gathering was a blast and some rare jerseys were on display including many from past Frozen Four participants.
The college hockey season is now in full swing and a month into the season the WCHA was upside-down with Michigan Tech and Minnesota Duluth first and second with University of Wisconsin and University of Minnesota in last and second to last. I think it will be a while before we see that again. All told, Michigan Tech got off to a great start with a splits vs #1 North Dakota and Wisconsin after starting the season with a sweep of Minnesota State.
SEPTEMBER 2007
09/16/07... Thanks to some large college purchases, we've greatly expanded our college section over the last couple months with almost two dozen new jerseys. Each conference now has its own page to increase loading speed. Johnson's Jerseys is now home to more than 120 college hockey jerseys and includes teams from every division I conference across the country! And for you professional hockey fans, don't worry. We've added another dozen jerseys from the NHL, AHL, ECHL and other leagues as well. - Enjoy!
MARCH 2006
03/09/2006... Well it has been another good six months for us as we've acquired several more MTU jerseys from
a variety of different years ranging from the late 90's to Tech's most recent release of throwback jerseys. This season
Tech moved out of the cellar up to 8th place this season, got points from both Wisconsin and Minnesota (when each was
ranked number one in the country), and had a strech of six weekends in a row where they added to their point total.
All of which bodes well for the future. Hopefully Tech can still get a couple more wins this season as they take on
Wisconsin in the first round of the WCHA playoffs. As the league playoffs wrap up, look for the WCHA to again put five
teams in the 16 berth tourney. As of this posting Minnesota (1), Wisconsin (4), Denver (8), Colorado (9),
and North Dakota (10) all will be shooting to bring the WCHA its 36th NCAA championship, and the league's 6th in 7 seasons.
In other hockey news, the world proved at the Olympics that hockey is no longer Canada's game, and it isn't even
North America's game as several European teams had solid showings. Congrats to Sweden on their gold medal performance.
Former MTU player Jarkko Ruutu came up just short as Finland took the Silver. In the NHL, the new look league gets ready
for the stretch run after the close of the trading deadline. Not many blockbuster deals, but several teams made moves to
shore up their ranks in the hopes of hoisting the Stanley Cup in a few months.
OCTOBER 2005
10/01/2005... Let's drop the puck..FINALLY! Well at the cost of a full season, many upset fans, and losses beyond
measure league wide, the NHL finally returns this week. A host of rule changes along with dozens of star players
on new teams and dozens more retiring, this is shaping up to be an exciting early season. Personally I'm so lost with
all the roster changes I'm sure it will be the All-Star break before I can even find all of my favorite players.
Let's hope it all works out as the lockout was certainly a PR disaster for hockey. I'm sure hindsight would tell everyone
involved it was NOT the best idea for the growth of hockey in North America.
In positive news, the WCHA continues rolling right along and is also ready to kick off the season just a few days
after the NHL. Last season was one of unprecedented success for the WCHA as they added a record 35th
NCAA title since the league's founding in 1951. It was the fourth straight, and fifth in the last six seasons.
North Dakota won the Frozen Four in 2000, Minnesota won in both 2002 and 2003, and Denver won in 2004.
The only loss in the past six years was a 3-2 overtime decision by Boston College over the Sioux in 2001.
Heck, the title was in the bag before the Frozen Four even started as the WCHA swept all top four spots with Colorado
College, University of North Dakota, University of Minnesota, and now back-to-back champions University of Denver.
It was a first for the Frozen Four and a testament to the strength of the WCHA.
Without further delay, here are our additions since the last update:
So what else is new? Well college hockey in general is sure to get a major boost in exposure this year along with the pro minor leagues as the NHL are locked out and it doesn’t look like the situation will get fixed any time soon. It is hard to image why a group of people (the owners AND players) who stand to make millions of dollars when they get their act together, don’t seem to have much urgency in their actions. Oh well, hockey will go on with out them and jersey collectors will just have to focus on the minors for their new acquisitions.
Our web site got some nice exposure in the September issue of Canadian Sports Collector magazine. Ryan was interviewed about his WCHA collection and his goal of getting a home and road jersey from every team in the league. Also a focused collection of our Michigan Tech jerseys was used in the 2003-04 MTU Hockey Yearbook. The University used a nice full color collage photo of the jerseys for the inside back cover and then did an overlay of the season’s schedule. We were proud to see the best part of the collection used in such a unique way and quite surprised to find it there. The photo shoot had been done on the Michigan Tech campus several months earlier, but no plans were discussed at that time how the photos might be used.
In jersey collector expo news, we attended the Boston expo this past spring and visited with our good friend Anthony Grasso. Anthony is certainly one of the great college hockey collectors our there and a super guy as well. Nothing like watching the Frozen Four (oops who dropped the Frozen Four satellite feed?) with a group of fellow collectors.
New additions since the last update... well there's a ton of them to be honest:
|
| 20+ Mens/Womens Basketball Jerseys |
We also learned the hard way about how to ship a jersey to Canada and how not to ship a jersey to Canada. We had already been warned of the outrageous fees and surcharges that UPS adds to their deliveries, but that was nothing next to the FOUR MONTHS of sleepless nights as a high value jersey we traded sat in limbo with the USPS & Canada Post somewhere between us and new owner. Next time it is FedEx next day air or nothing, regardless of the price!
|
|
The other jerseys from pro leagues that we acquired include two from Europe ( Pat Mikesch - Kassel Huskies and Jamie Steer - Ayr Scottish Eagles) along with a Brent Peterson Atlanta Knights from the defunct IHL and another Andre Savage jersey, this one from the Philadelphia Phantom's team auction.
One last jersey that we picked up was for no other reason than the name on the back, literally. The other Ryan Johnson, who started out playing for North Dakota, and went on to play with Florida, Tampa Bay, and now St. Louis in the NHL, always seems to catch my eye for some unknown reason when I'm watching SportsCenter on ESPN. And by a stroke of luck, Brent Johnson was still on the roster so the nameplate was made up as "R.JOHNSON" for Ryan's jersey. If nothing else, it will give me something to wear to the game this February when I travel to St. Louis to watch the Blues take on Mario Lemieux and the Penguins. I never got a chance to see Gretzky play in person so I'm not going to miss out on another of the league's great players before he hangs them up. It should be a great time.
Two words come to mind this month regarding our recent pick-ups: Brent Peterson. In the last six months we have added two of his jerseys and a third one is in the works. The most recent addition is Brent's Tampa Bay Lightning home jersey. It features the John Cullen patch and is a nice addition his Admirals jersey from that season which is also in our collection. In the next month or so we will also be adding another Peterson jersey from the Atlanta Knights. Check back next month for more details.
We have also added our second Damian Rhodes jersey since the start of the year. This one is from his days with Toronto and is a nice addition from one of the NHL's original six.
If you think you have seen our latest Northern Michigan jersey (#3 Mike Johnson) here before, you are correct. We previously had this jersey until 2001 when we traded it away for a Mankato State jersey. Eighteen months ago NMU jerseys were a dime a dozen, now they are a tough find. This jersey has seen two owners since we had it last, but we're glad we got the chance to get it back. We promise not to let it slip away again. You can view it in the college section along with other WCHA jerseys.
|
|
I think the rapid rise of MSU in the WCHA is reason enough for any Michigan Tech fan to keep their head up high. With our new coach Jamie Russell now in place, we can now continue building and keep the program moving in the right direction. I'm already counting the days until the season opener! Best wishes to former Coach Sertich and his family as they move on to life after hockey. From a fan's point of view, the last few years have been great and it can only get better from here. Tech pulled some stunners in the last few seasons and it's great to see MTU getting some time in the spot light for the right reasons. Let's go Tech!
But it's not all doom and gloom, I did manage to bring in a few jerseys during this time. They include an Ottawa Senators from former MTU player and coach Scott White, another Kentucky Thoroughblades jersey from Andy Sutton's rookie season, a pounded ECHL gem from the rookie season of Davis Payne with the Greensboro Monarchs, a jersey from the very first Atlanta Thrasher, Damian Rhodes, and another jersey from Andre Savage, this time from his year with the Manitoba Moose.
In other news, next Saturday is the Detroit Game Worn Jersey Expo. I'll be there with a display table so please stop by and say hello. There will also be a hockey game after the Expo that night. If you are within driving distance of Detroit come on down and join us.
I've been on a roll lately, and have added several new college jerseys to my collection. I'm still waiting for a couple of them to arrive but photos will be posted for all of them eventually. The list includes University of Denver Bruce Hill #27 Road, Colorado College Tim Budy #18 Home, and St. Cloud State Ryan Forbes #23 Alternate. You can view my college collection starting from the College Main Page.
The next jersey I have lined up, but has yet to arrive, is another first for Johnson's Jerseys: A pre-college game worn jersey of 2002-03 MTU freshman Nick Anderson. The jersey is from his 2001-02 season with the Chicago Steel of the USHL and comes to my collection thanks to Don Grasso.
Anthony Grasso also has a great jersey from the University of North Dakota set aside for me as well. Of course it has no direct connection to MTU hockey, but how often do you see one of these on the market? It will certainly make a nice addition to my small, but growing, WCHA collection. More details and photos of these jerseys will follow as they arrive.
6/2/02... Well my Paul Cabana jersey arrived yesterday and I finally understand why it was described as having good visible wear: It does! A team media guide and program were sent along with the jersey, and as I looked through the media guide I noted that Bryan Helmer was listed as #28. So I looked at the jersey and sure enough, there was an obvious nameplate change. I'm assuming that Bryan wore this jersey between 9-26-01 (Send down from Vancouver) and 12-29-02 (recalled to Vancouver) and that Cabana was the next person to wear the jersey when he joined the team 4-2-02. A little research clears up quite a bit sometimes.
I also acquired via trade another St. Cloud State home jersey. This one is Bauer knit from former SCSU captain Kyle McLaughlin and if my research is correct this set of jerseys was worn from 1997-99, which was Kyle's last season. You can view more photos of it on my NCAA jersey page.
4/8/02... The last few months have been somewhat of a dry spell for new additions. However, with the hockey season winding down for teams not headed to the playoffs, the new jerseys should starting becoming available as we head into summer. Two new jerseys were added in early April, Jarkko Ruutu Syracuse Crunch (99-00) and Steve Smith Calgary Flames alternate (98-99). Yes, I know Steve never played at MTU, but I've always wanted one of the Flames alternates since they came out in 1998. The money raised from the sale also went to help keep the Flames in Calgary and that alone is a good reason to make the purchase.