Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1215906
MARCH 2020 USAHOCKEYMAGAZINE.COM // 31 nir pin that the tournament sells for $5. While most current pins tend to trade one-for-one, some pins can fetch two or more pins in trade, either for the pin's looks or the reputation of its organization or a combination of both. Schmidt likes to amass extras to give to hardworking tournament volunteers such as Danon Sandoval. He wore much of his collection on his coat, which was a shiny advertisement that he was up for trades. "I just enjoy meeting the kids and watching them grow up," Sandoval says. "These are up-and-coming players" who someday might allow him to say, 'Hey, I knew him!'" Indeed: The Port Huron Finals website keeps an ever-growing list of NHL players who played here and it's 19 pages long, with 46 players on a page. As today 's young prospects ran around before the opening ceremonies, volunteer Jim Feher was "scavenging " for gifts of pins, since he'd traded all 40 of the pins he had available. "I've been part of this since I was 4 years old," says the 49-year-old. He still has three b i g f r a m e s h i s d a d m a d e h i m — f r o m h i s wooden hockey sticks and burlap — to dis- play a collection of pins that has since way o u t g r ow n t h a t t o n u m b e r a n e st i m a t e d 7,000 to 10,000. He keeps at it "just for the nostalgia," he says. "I'll never let it die." Like other savvy collec- tors, Schmidt hangs onto extras that will be rarer, a n d t h u s m o r e c o v e t e d , next season and beyond. Some of his favorites this year were of the new breed of larger pins, including one with a dog from the Anaheim Ice Dogs and one with a cat from the South Hills (of Pittsburgh) Panthers. A n o t h e r o f t h i s y e a r 's m o s t p o p u l a r pins was a big one that was traded by both teams from the Protec Ducks in Somerset, N. J. Ho c ke y d a d a n d f o r m e r c o a c h S a m Rutkowski designed it with hidden silver sticks in the team logo, with a map out line to show what state the organization is in and an American flag. "Not out of any overly jingoistic notion, but just because the Canadian teams generally have the maple leaf imagery on theirs and it helps promote the truly international nature of the event," he says. "We are fortunate to keep qualifying for the Silver Stick finals and do our best to pay tribute to the tradition of the trad- ing of pins as a part of the event experience." Amateur associations trade pins at other big hockey tournaments, too, and while it seems like an old-fashioned thing, companies such as HockeyTradingPins.com offer new elements such as glitter, blinkers (flashing lights), crystals, spinners, sliders, danglers, bobbleheads, even glow-in-the-dark ele- ments. There are other hockey pins collectors can buy, such as those made as souvenirs for pro teams, and there are pins in other sports, amateur to pro. Plus, collecting hockey pins at Olympic Winter Games is a frosty epicen- ter of that hot hobby. "In 2002 I saw firsthand the pin trad- ing phenomenon in Salt Lake," says Craig Campbell, manager of the D.K. (Doc) Seaman Hockey Resource Centre of the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. But he recalls trad- ing hockey pins with his teammates at the Quebec Peewee Tournament in 1977. And yes, there are youth hockey association pins in the hall's collection. One pin he's pretty sure isn't there is the Silver Stick championship pin, which players and coaches receive if they win the finals. Those small and simple pins—a green S with a stick—are made of sterling silver. More than one Port Huron local proudly pinned theirs to their coats during January's tournaments and it didn't take much prompt- ing to get the story behind how they won them. George Moss Jr., the second deputy com- missioner of International Silver Stick, wore his for the event, during which people usually ask if it's up for trade. "They get the same response," he says with a smile. "You have to earn it." P Bob Batz Jr. is a Pittsburgh-area hockey dad and assistant coach whose son has a collection of pins from two Silver Stick finals that he's been blessed to play in so far. Peewee participants in the 2020 International Silver Stick Finals tournament in Port Huron, Mich., trade pins in the pro shop at McMorran Place Sports & Entertainment Center with Ron Churchill, who for decades was the marshal of the storied tournament and whose collection of pins numbers in the thousands. Jim Feher shows off one of three frames that his dad made from wooden sticks and burlap to display his collection of hockey pins that he started when he was a child. He has three such frames at home, plus bags and boxes full of pins that he guesses number between 7,000 and 10,000. He still trades them with young players.