Flashback: 1978-1979 Capitals Team Picture
Another giveaway from the olden days at Cap Centre. The Washington Capitals 1978-79 team picture. You have to love all the mustaches!
Memorabilia Collecting Experiences in Detroit during the 1950s
by Jack CrossRecently Rodger asked me if I still had any of my hockey autographs and pictures from my boyhood years and if so, would I copy and send them on to him for The Capital Power Play. He also asked if I would write a short piece about how he and I collected these items back in Detroit when we were youngsters living in the same neighborhood.Back in 1950 I began by at first collecting just baseball cards and later football cards. About 1953 Rodger introduced me to writing to the players to request their autographs either on gum cards or asking a player to send a signed postcard. After the football season had ended, we started writing to the hockey players (especially the Red Wings) to keep our interest going before baseball started back up in the spring. This is how I came to have these hockey players which are posted on the site. Jack Adams was then the GM of the Red Wings and he was very accommodating. I would send him a sheet of typing paper with the title of the RED WINGS at the top and he would get all the players to sign it. I would then paste as many pictures that I could find of the players whose signatures were on this sheet. We used to also get autographs of the players outside of their locker rooms when they would come out to board a team bus. It was great fun and I still enjoy looking through my collection today. I hope you might also find it a bit interesting to see these old time pictures yourself.I'll add a bit of an addendum here to explain my entire collection. In 1972 Rodger paid me a visit from his home in Sterling Virginia to my current home of Dallas. We talked about old times and he rekindled my interest in again collecting cards and autographs of the current players. I did this for about three or four years before I gave it up. Collecting became more of a business rather than a hobby and players started charging for their autographs. People were always asking what something was worth. The fun of collecting became less, so I just quit. I retired in 1999 and with the extra time I had, I started to organize my entire collection. I separated all the sports: baseball, football and hockey and within each sport I further separated each team in to albums. So, in hockey I separated the six NHL teams of that time: the Red Wings, the Bruins, the Blackhawks, the Rangers, the Maple Leafs and the Canadians. Since I didn't have that much hockey material, I could fit it all into one album Today I still get pleasure out of perusing through my collection and thinking back to all the fun we each had.
Caps First Collectible: 1977-78 Washington Capitals Photo Set
By Rodger M. Wood
The earliest Capitals collectible I can recall was a set of fifteen 5x7 black and white photos. They were sold either at the old Capital Centre or sent/given by the Capitals players at team festivities and in response to mail requests during the 1977-1978 season.The “hot” photos in the set were of 36 – goal scorer Guy Charron, #1 draft pick defenseman Robert Picard, and all star defenseman, Ivan Labre.
Since the team finished fifth in the Norris Division that season well behind Montreal, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Pittsburgh with a 17W-49L-14T record, and put an average of 8,000 fans in the stands each home game there was not a large demand for the photo set. Very few photos are seen today at trade shows or advertised for sale on the internet.
The following players were in the 1977-78 Washington Capitals 5x7 black and white photo set:Bob Girard LWBob Sirois RWBryan "Bugsy” Watson DCraig Patrick RWDave Forbes LWGarnet “Ace” Bailey LWGerry Meehan CGordie Lane DGordie Smith DGuy Charron CJack Lynch DMichel Bergeron RWRick Green DRobert Picard DTom Rowe RW
Caps Still Sign Autographs
By Rodger M. WoodCollectors Corner will focus on Washington Capitals autographs, photos, sports cards, game used sticks, jerseys, and other Capitals hockey memorabilia from the present back to the Capitals’ inception in 1974.There will also be an occasional article about my Detroit childhood collecting of Red Wings and other NHL teams’ memorabilia in the 1950s.
In olden days the Washington Capitals players were very generous to their fans. They always had enough time to sign cards, photos, team pictures, everything you’d ask them to sign at the Tyson Corner practice facility, before or after the game outside the waiting room at the old Capital Centre, at the hotels they stayed at on the road, or requests by mail. They never said “no” to my three children or their young friends.The Capitals were truly our hockey team both on and off the ice, and we loved them despite their lowly win-loss record for the first ten seasons.Last week at the Kettler Capitals Iceplex, I thought I’d test our present day Capitals to see if their attitude toward the fans had changed with the great success they’re realizing this season. I was worried in these days of “high cost autographs,” our present day Caps might have changed their attitude about signing an autograph for their fans.
I was hoping Brooks Laich would sign an 11x14 canvas photograph and other Capitals would sign some 4x6 photos I had taken for my young grandson’s “TJ” sixth birthday presents.After practice, Capitals players, Brooks Laich, Quintin Lang, Nicklas Backstrom, Jeff Schultz, and Brian Pothier came over to sign autographs graciously for all who wanted them. They turned out to be just like the good old Caps after all.I was pleasantly surprised - and they made TJ a very happy little boy when I gave him his birthday presents this past Sunday. Thank you very much!