Siblings Curtis Lahey and Jennifer Lahey, Hall of Fame hockey player Syd Howe’s great-grandchildren, look through a family scrapbook of photos of the Detroit Red Wings’ NHL star.Melissa Tait/The Globe and Mail
In something that sounds like an Agatha Christie mystery, a Stanley Cup ring stolen 85 years ago has been found and is being returned to a family that has searched for it for generations.
Syd Howe – no relation to Gordie – received the ring in 1937 as a member of the Detroit Red Wings. Two years later, while he played cards with teammates on a train between Chicago and Detroit, the historical piece of jewellery went missing.
In a remarkable turn that seems too improbable to believe, Syd’s family in Ontario was alerted that the ring was being sold by a New York auction house along with other hockey memorabilia. With little time to spare family members pooled their resources and bought it back for US$15,000, plus a US$3,000 fee from Heritage Auctions.
The ring is currently en route to the family that has experienced an emotional journey and had lost hope it could ever be found.
“It’s a truly remarkable story,” Curtis Lahey, a Toronto lawyer and Syd Howe’s great grandson, said this week. “It seems like a movie plot. I am shocked. We had not seen or heard much of anything about the ring for eight decades.
“It’s a part of our family’s folklore. I am 34 and have heard about it for 30 years.”
You likely have never heard of Syd Howe because the highlights of his amazing career have faded through the pages of time. He played in the NHL for 17 years and when he retired in 1946 he was the league’s leading scorer with 529 points in 698 games. He won three Stanley Cups with the Red Wings and in 1965 was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
A family scrapbook photo of Syd Howe from his playing days wearing his long-lost Stanley Cup ring.Melissa Tait/The Globe and Mail
He was the first player in what is considered to be the NHL’s modern history to score six goals in a game – for Detroit against the New York Rangers on Feb. 3, 1944. At one point he also held a league record for the fastest overtime goal during the playoffs – 25 seconds on March 19, 1940 in a 2-1 Red Wings victory over the New York Americans.
He was so famous that when Gordie Howe joined the team the season after Syd retired, he was the lesser-known Howe.
“Heck, the only thing people asked me when I came to Detroit was whether I was related to him,” Mr. Hockey once said.
Scrapbook clippings of Hockey Hall of Famer Syd Howe. Mr. Howe grew up in Ottawa and signed with the hometown Ottawa Senators at age 18 in 1929.Melissa Tait/The Globe and Mail
Syd grew up in Ottawa and honed his skating skills on the Rideau Canal. He was a multisport athlete and was offered a football scholarship to Notre Dame by the legendary coach Knute Rockne. He decided to play hockey instead – a wise choice, it seems – and signed with the hometown Ottawa Senators at the age of 18 in 1929.
He also lined up for the Philadelphia Quakers, Maple Leafs and St. Louis Eagles before he was sold to Detroit in 1935 for $35,000. He was a left wing but was so versatile that at one time or another he played every position on the ice other than goalie.
He received his first Stanley Cup ring following the 1935-36 season and his next – the one that disappeared – the following year. He won his last in 1942-43.
In 1939, while riding the train, he went to the washroom and took off the ring before he washed his hands. Then he accidentally left it by the sink. He remembered it an hour later, but when he went back to look it was gone.
Police were called and an investigation ensued but the ring was never seen again.
For nearly a century family members had conducted an extensive search and more recently on a few occasions reached out to the Hockey Hall of Fame for help. They wanted to be certain no stone had been left unturned. They exchanged e-mails with Craig Campbell, who is an archivist and in charge of the Hall of Fame’s resource centre.
Last month Campbell received a message from someone to alert him that interesting pieces of hockey memorabilia were being auctioned off in New York. The hall has no budget to buy artifacts but receives them as donations. Still, Campbell’s curiosity was piqued.
When he went to the auction’s website and perused items, Syd Howe’s long-lost ring was listed there.
1936-37 Detroit Red Wings Stanley Cup Championship Ring Presented to Hall of Fame Left Wing Syd Howe.Heritage Auctions
Quickly he contacted the family.
“You can imagine our surprise,” Curtis Lahey said.
The family sent a letter to Heritage Auctions and notified it that the ring was stolen and requested that it be returned. The company has done that in the past – notably a few years ago when NBA Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas discovered that a stolen most-valuable-player trophy from an all-star game was listed on its website. Thomas was able to immediately provide a police report as proof.
In this case, however, Syd Howe’s family had no idea what happened to a police report filed 85 years earlier and had nothing official to show the ring’s provenance.
As a last resort and at the last minute they purchased the swiped heirloom back.
“We were over-the-moon excited,” said David Lahey, Syd Howe’s grandson. “If we didn’t buy it now, then when? It seemed like karma. We had to reunite the ring with our family.”
Syd died in 1976 at 64 from throat cancer. David remembers his grandfather making a backyard rink for him when he was three years old. Right before he passed away, Syd gave him his Stanley Cup ring from the 1935-36 season.
“He was a great man,” David says.
Syd Howe (far left) with his Detroit Red Wings teammates in an undated photo saved in his family's scrapbook.Melissa Tait/The Globe and Mail
Bobby Bauer, Boston forward, has just fired the puck past goalie Johnny Mowers of the Detroit Red Wings to score the goal that clinched the Stanley Cup for the Bruins in four straight wins over the Red Wings. Syd Howe, Wing forward, attempted to block Bauer's shot. The Bruins scored again, the final score being 3-1.Bettmann/Getty Images
The Red Wings honoured him by staging a Syd Howe Night at the Detroit Olympia Stadium before a game against Chicago on Jan. 29, 1942.
The club asked him what kind of gift he would like. He asked for a piano.
That night before the puck dropped the piano was wheeled out to centre ice and Syd played Bye Bye Blackbird in uniform and skates. Afterward, he scored the only goals in a 2-0 victory.
The stolen ring and Syd Howe both represent treasured relics from the past. He is a throwback to a time when hockey players rode trains, packed their own bags, used straight wooden sticks, wore no shoulder pads, no helmets and no masks.
When he retired his wife told him, “Now you have to get a real job.” Then she took his collection of hockey souvenirs and left them on the curb. Syd went to work for the civil service in Ottawa and for a few years operated a sporting goods store. It went under because Syd kept giving away hockey sticks to kids who couldn’t afford to buy them.
“His business acumen was a little lacking,” David says.
Curtis was given Syd’s 1942-43 ring. The family plans to have the stolen ring cleaned and then will donate it to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.
On its website, Heritage Auctions described the ring as having a diamond set in the centre and shanks that resemble pucks and crossed sticks. “S. Howe” is engraved inside the band. It was in the same auction that also included the famous unsealed case of O-Chee-Pee hockey cards, which likely featured Wayne Gretzky’s rookie card. On Feb. 25, that sold for US$3.72-million.
For now, the family is awaiting for Syd’s stolen ring to be delivered. It has spent years searching for things connected to him and have put together a scrapbook and photographs. David has the aforementioned piano at his home in Whitby, Ont.
“When I saw the ring on the auction site I had to rub my eyes,” Jennifer Lahey said. She is 32 and Syd’s great granddaughter. “I thought it might not be real.”
She and her father and brother then set about buying it.
“It was a group task,” she said. “We had a family chat and asked each other how high we should go. To us, it’s priceless. We are still trying to wrap our heads around what happened.”