Reader Submission - 2004-05 Toronto Leaside Wildcats Jersey

Our latest reader submission is from Steven Radcliffe, aka Mr. Goalie, and he has submitted a pair of jerseys and has a story to share, so without any further delay, here is Steven's story.

Today’s jersey is from the 2004-05 hockey season. It is a 30^th anniversary commemorative home jersey of the Toronto Leaside Wildcats, a girls’ minor hockey rep program in the central Toronto community of Leaside. This jersey was worn only for the 30^th anniversary season, following which the players were allowed to keep their jerseys.

The Wildcats is the rep program of the Toronto Leaside Girls Hockey Association (TLGHA), which began in 1974 as a 2-team girls’ House League division that was born out of the Leaside Hockey Association (primarily a boys’ association).

The 1974-75 Leaside Lancerettes

Note that the team captain, seated in the front row, is the daughter of Hall of Famer and 14-year captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, George Armstrong. The TLGHA’s membership continues to grow each season. They anticipate having more than 1000 girls and women registered for the upcoming 2011-12 season, playing on 46 House League teams (37 girls’ teams and 9 women’s teams) and on 22 rep teams (20 girls’ teams and 2 women’s teams). I am a member of the association’s executive. www.leasidehockey.org

I was the President of the TLGHA at the time we were planning for and during the 30^th anniversary season. I had the responsibility of designing and procuring the jerseys and socks for the 15 rep teams for the ’04-05 season. I liked the design so much that I ordered a jersey for myself too!

My jersey is today’s featured jersey. I wanted a retro look while maintaining the long-standing colour combination (red, black and white) of the Wildcats’ rep teams. As a goaltender myself, I have been a long-standing fan of Glenn Hall and the uniform of the early 1960’s Chicago Black Hawks. As for the logo for the anniversary jersey, I copied the font (Pro Block) from the Lancerettes’ jersey logo for ‘Leaside’ and combined it with Athletic Script lettering for ‘Girls Hockey’, with a Sweep Tail on the letter ‘y’ at the end of ‘hockey’. I further kept with the retro theme, by having the logo silk screened on the jersey, including the mandatory Canadian flag.

As for the numerals, I opted to use single colour (black) sewn-on tackle twill on the back and on the arms, in keeping with that retro look and feel. I continue to wear this jersey while I play recreational hockey around Toronto, hence the ‘well worn’ appearance.

Today’s bonus jersey is a home jersey of the Toronto Leaside Wildcats from the 2005-06 season. This is the jersey that my daughter wore that season and the following season too. She played her entire minor hockey rep career, 10 seasons, as a member of the Wildcats. Please note that the front crest had reverted back to the traditional sewn-on tackle-twill patch with the Wildcats logo silk-screened onto the fabric patch.

As for the numerals, we also reverted back to the previous Wildcats look of 2 colour (and 2-layer) sewn-on tackle twill material. The jersey is an Athletic Knit Pro Series mesh, with reinforced elbows and shoulders, with coarser mesh under-the-arm inserts. The jersey blank was the Team Canada pattern in use that season.

Thanks to Steven for taking the time to submit the jerseys and share his story about his design and inspirations with us. We bet everyone would love the chance to be able to design a jersey and then actually see it worn on the ice.

If you have a jersey in your collection that you'd like to share with us and your fellow readers, please submit your pictures and a story to go with it, no matter how brief or detailed, to spyboy1@gmail.com and we look forward to seeing your favorites!