DULUTH — How much is a Hobey Baker Memorial Award worth?
According to bidders at Classic Auctions,
That’s how much the
1985 Hobey Baker of Minnesota Duluth forward Bill Watson
sold for at auction this winter. It’s believed to be the first time the award has ever been offered for public sale.
“For me, that’s a really, really important trophy and I don’t see that necessarily another one to come up for sale anytime soon,” Marc Juteau, the president and founder of
Classic Auctions Inc. in Montreal, Quebec,
told the
shortly after Watson’s trophy was put up for auction.
Watson is the second of
an NCAA-record six Bulldogs to win
the most prestigious individual award in men’s college hockey. Two versions of the 41.5-pound trophy are awarded each season — one to the individual winner and another to the school. Watson’s personal 1985 trophy was put up for sale in early November with a starting bid of $5,000. The auction closed Dec. 3.
In addition to the trophy, Watson’s 10K Hobey Baker Memorial Award ring was
A 1986-87 game-worn and signed Chicago Blackhawks jersey of Watson’s
while his 1983-84 game-worn and signed Bulldogs jersey
The starting bid on both jerseys was $300.
Minnesota Duluth’s 2012 Hobey Baker Memorial Award winner, Jack Connolly (center), poses with past winners from UMD Bill Watson (left) and Tom Kurvers (right) after winning the award in Tampa on April 6, 2012.
Larry Radloff / File / For the News Tribune
Now in his early 60s, Watson said he put the items up for auction in part because he and his wife, Molly, are starting to downsize.
they would like to put the proceeds toward a couple of things they support, including the scholarship they started at UMD’s Labovitz School of Business and Economics in memory of their son, Jack, who died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
“Somebody else is going to see some nice value in it, and God bless them. There’s so many of those rabid collectors out there,” Watson said in November. “There’s some good causes that will get funded because of it.”
Co-host of the Bulldog Insider Podcast and college hockey reporter for the Duluth News Tribune covering the Minnesota Duluth men’s and women’s hockey programs.