By Matt Blittner, The New York Extra/TheNYExtra.com
In this, The Digital Age, you can find almost anything your heart desires with the click of a button, or a tap on a screen. Videos, articles, you name it, you can find it. Well, actually, that’s not entirely true.
When it comes to video footage of old sporting events most of the readily accessible materials only go back to the 1980s. Sure, for a millennial that might suffice. But for everyone else? Not so much. You see, television networks didn’t do a very good job of properly cataloging and storing the footage of games prior to the 1980s. So, it’s infinitely more difficult to find videos of your favorite hockey team prior to that decade.
Enter Paul Patskou. This Toronto native has made it his mission to find and collect as much old, rare hockey footage as he can get his hands on. In fact, many believe Patskou owns the largest private collection of early NHL/Original Six Era footage.
With this footage at his disposal, Patskou has helped the NHL, the Hockey Hall of Fame and countless other outlets solve various hockey related mysteries. But he doesn’t just rest on his laurels. No, Patskou is constantly searching for more and more footage to add to his collection.
And it all started because he watched, with his dad, the Maple Leafs make a run to the playoffs in 1959. Unfortunately, his father passed away not long after and in an effort to relive that magical run, Patskou went searching for the footage of those games. To his dismay, he initially came up empty and was told by others that the tapes simply did not exist.
Unwilling to give up, his persistence led him to the National Archives in Ottawa. There Patskou found the footage he was searching for and his collection was born.
Whatever the origins of the collection may be, there’s no denying it has proven useful over the years. And interesting too.
As more and more of the NHL’s older stars pass on to the big hockey rink in the sky, more and more of their amazing feats fall through the cracks of time. With Patskou’s help, we can ensure the legacy of these players, the teams they played for and the NHL, is never forgotten.
Patskou doesn’t play favorites regarding which teams he collects footage of. But, if you’re a fan of the NHL’s two NY teams then Patskou’s collection, which he is working to digitize, is definitely worth checking out.
Among the rare footage he has uncovered are: the announcement of the Islanders as a new franchise; the building of Nassau Coliseum; Ed Westfall’s 1975 Game Seven game-winning goal vs. Pittsburgh; the Rangers’ 1940 Stanley Cup dressing room celebration; and Bernie Geoffrion and Ed Giacomin on the Johnny Carson show.
That’s just the “tip of the iceberg” as Patskou likes to say.
He’s even uncovered videos from the Spring of 1959, when the Rangers and Bruins went to Europe. According to Patskou, “the players were given movie cameras and there is incredible footage of (the) players clowning around; visiting the sites in Europe and London and even seeing Phil Watson smiling!”
What fan wouldn’t find this stuff interesting? Plus, Hockey’s “Treasure Hunter” has no plans to stop anytime soon. He wants to uncover as much never-before-seen footage as possible. So for all you history buffs out there, you’re in for a real treat.
