150-year-old Hockey Stick to be Auctioned during Olympics

A curved piece of wood controversially billed as “the world’s oldest hockey stick” — and reputedly appraised at $4-million — is to be auctioned in Vancouver next month during the Winter Olympics.

The object known as the “Rutherford Stick” has been displayed at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto and was offered at auction two other times in the past decade but didn’t sell.

Said to be at least 150 years old, it drew a top bid of $2.2-million on eBay in December 2006.

But the hickory-wood relic — owned by Cobourg, Ont., resident Gordon Sharpe, who inherited the stick from a great-uncle and claims it was hand-carved by a family ancestor in the 1850s — did not exchange hands at the time, nor during a previous auction in 2001.

Now, the stick touted as “the single most important piece of hockey memorabilia in existence” will be available for viewing in Vancouver from Feb. 12 to 28 before being sold by the online auction firm VIPthrills.com.

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