England’s Triumph

A pair of pre-war postcard sets highlight a moment when Britain ruled the hockey world

For a moment, hockey was Great Britain’s game. at’s what winning on the biggest stages will do for a sport’s popularity. And for the period between the two world wars, the Brits ranked among the very best in the world.

e British Ice Hockey Association first made its mark at the Chamonix Olympics of 1924, where it finished third with a roster comprised primarily of Canadian players. at success led to increased interest in the domestic game. By the time they finished fourth at St. Moritz in 1928, the sport became more than a passing obsession.

“Once upon a time only Manchester Ice Palace had staged training and matches, but now London was in on the act,” Daniel Harris wrote in Eurosport. “Wembley’s Empire swimming pool was frozen in the winter, and there were also rinks at Westminster, Earl’s Court, Golders Green, Hammersmith, Park Lane, Richmond, Streatham and Queens – as well as Hove, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Glasgow, Grimsby, Oxford, Southampton, Liverpool and Purley. Attendances at Wembley reached 10,000, twice a week, players were paid £10 a week, more than Division 1 footballers, and circulation of Ice Hockey

World hit 50,000 a week.”

A er GB finished third at the 1935 World Championships, all eyes turned to the team’s chances at the 1936 Winter Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

Recognizing an opportunity, a pair of newspapers used hockey as a means to hook young readers.

e Triumph (“e Boys’ Best Story Paper”) and e

Champion (“e Tip Top Story Paper For Boys”) were inexpensive journals (just two pence an issue) filled with tales of adventure and derring-do – making the exotic allure of hockey a perfect fit.

Both papers routinely included cards as an inducement to convince youngsters to part with their pennies. ese premiums featured a variety of images geared to appeal to active lads, including battle scenes from e Great War, famous film stars and well-known athletes from the fields of cricket and football (1st, 2nd and 3rd Divisions as well as the Scottish League). And they’d issue them in series to ensure those boys returned to their newsagents every week for the duration of the promotion.

While boys across the land would soon be enthralled by the heroics of GB captain Carl Erhardt and goaltender Jimmy Foster, the papers chose better known stars for their promotions.

From Jan. 18 to Mar. 7, 1936, the papers each issued a 10card set of NHL heroes. e Champion set was titled “Stars of the Ice Rinks” while e Triumph version was called “Famous Ice Hockey Players.” Both are loaded with future Hall of Famers, including Lional Conacher, Eddie Shore, King Clancy and Aurèle Joliat. All are shown in their NHL kits, except for Detroit star Herb Lewis. Although it’s possible that the Red Wings logo and all striping was blacked out, it appears more as though his head may have been awkwardly pasted on to another player’s body. The reasons for this choice are lost to history.

The borderless and unnumbered cards measured approximately 3 ½” by 5 ½” and featured black-and-white, on-ice photos with the player’s name and team affiliation listed along the bottom. e interesting thing is that, unlike other similarly sized collectibles, these were actually intended to be used as postcards. Flip them over and you can see both a place for a stamp as well as address instructions on the right, and a brief bio of the player on the le . Also included is the name of the magazine and the date on which it was inserted.

Those dates are important. As the promotion rolled on, the British team began making noise in Germany. ey knocked off Sweden and Japan in the opening round, then stunned the heavily favored Canadians, 2-1, in the second round on Feb. 11. Interest in hockey picked up. So did newspaper sales.

Five days later, GB claimed Olympic gold. And for a brief moment, the sport became a national obsession, which explains why some of the singles offered later in the promotion are more readily available.

Nearly a century later, these postcards are relatively easy to track down … if you’re not picky about condition, anyway. Most copies offered for sale suffer from creases or corner damage from mishandling. Some are found with glue damage from having been affixed into an album, and occasionally they’re marred by writing on the back. Depending on the level of damage you can stomach, some singles can be found for as little as $20.

Premium copies are few and far between. PSA has graded just 182 Champion postcards, with the three best copies earning a NM-Mint 8. Just two Triumph singles have earned an 8. e majority of graded singles fall in the VG to EX range.

Collectors seeking a real challenge can focus on the wallets that were made to store them. ese giveaways were also inserts with both e Triumph and e Champion on Jan. 18, 1936. Constructed of sturdy paper stock, each is illustrated with drawings of unidentified players on the front and back, while inside there’s a place for a boy to mark his ownership on the le and, on the right, a list of the available players.

Despite their scarcity, some of these sleeves have sold for as little as $50, although others have reached upwards of $250 at auction.

While collectors tend to see these simply as pre-war NHL sets, they’re best viewed as mementos from the time when Britain ruled the hockey world.