More Bruins One Year Wonders.

 I thought I would continue with more of the obscure Bruins autographs. In the early years the teams would actually loan players to other teams. The first player to discuss is Jack Shill. Shill played his first year with the Toronto Maple Leafs during the 1933-34 season playing 7 games and adding 1 assist. The following season 1934-35 he was loaned to the Boston Bruins, and he played 45 games with them scoring 4 goals and adding 4 assists for 8 points. One thing to note it seems players that appeared in a few games the fans did not try getting their autos. It appears that these players signed either team photos or signed a page from an autograph book. The autograph books were common years ago and it was easy telling them apart because the paper had a flat edge on one side with rounded corners and they common color was a dull olive green and others were gold pages. The autograph of Shill is from a fans paper of athletes of other sports along with other notable hockey players. As you can see in the photo the autograph of Joe Primeau and a wrestler named Hap Watson and the next player at the very bottom of the photo Eddie Burke but before I get into Burke let me add that the wrestler Watson I believe used to wrestle at Maple Leaf Gardens and this all makes sense that the original owner of this autograph sheet was a collector who attended events at Maple Leafs Gardens which is why Joe Primeau's auto is on the sheet.

Eddie Burke played 16 games for the Boston Bruins during the 1931-32 season scoring 3 goals and then went on to play 3 years with the New York Americans from 1932-35. He played a total of 106 games in the NHL and the final three years 90 games with the Americans. His totals 106 games played, 29 goals and 20 assists for 49 points. If you look at his autograph, you can see these players took their time to sign but if you have seen other vintage autographs from the 30's and 40's the formation of letters in that era all looked relatively close which I assume these players all had learned to write during their school years and today I have asked the students today if they have a class on penmanship and I am told no.

It appears that Eddie Burkes auto is a tough one to locate but I honestly believe that his auto may be a bit easier to find than that of Jack Shill. I say this because Burke passed away October 7, 1993, at the age of 86 and Shill passed away October 25, 1976, at the age of 63. The difference being that the 23 years older Burke was to Shill, and that Burke passed away during the 90's when autograph collectors were doing through the mail auto's but as the evidence in the sheet autograph photo, we know his autograph came from this sheet and along with Shill's auto being on the same sheet. Burke was born in 1907 and Shill was born in 1913. One-year wonders for the Bruins but just six years apart.