Reader Submission - 2003-04 Columbus Blue Jackets Tyler Wright Jersey

Our latest reader submission comes from Charles Cordle, and it's a valuable lesson in doing your research into game worn jerseys, a search in this case with some surprising and detailed results!

Here is Charles' fascinating story about his jersey and and the unique series of events that he was able to discover about his special jersey.

In mid December of 2011 I won a game worn Tyler Wright 3^rd jersey off of eBay.  The jersey did come with a COA from the Blue Jackets but had no information on it as to what game(s) it had been worn in.  The jersey also did not have a set tag.  The only thing I could be sure of was that it had been worn sometime during the 2003-2004 season since it was a Koho branded jersey and this was the only season that these jerseys were branded as such.

After having no luck photo matching the jersey I decided to ask the seller if he had any additional information on history of the jersey.  He was only able to tell them that he got the jersey from a member of gameworn.net whose name he did not remember and that he had gotten the jersey directly from the team.  With this information I decided to do a search of gameworn.net to see if the original owner had ever made a post about this jersey.

I was able to find to find a post dated 10/13/03 (same date as the debut game for the 3^rd jerseys).  The post read as follows.

“The team actually gave away 8 of the new 3rds. Local radio station 610 sponsored a special ticket deal with the team, and had a contest where a player called in each day the week before the game, and asked a trivia question. The person who answered the question correctly got 2 seats in Executive Suite #1 for the game, and the jersey off the back of the player they answered the question for.  

The winners watched the game from the fully catered suite, and then were taken down to a room just off the locker room where the sweaters they had won were presented to them by Geoff Sanderson. The Game-worns given away through the contest were: Marc Denis, Geoff Sanderson, Daryl Sydor, Tyler Wright and Jody Shelley.   

You might ask how I know all that. That's because I'm wearing the Tyler Wright jersey I won as I type this. It's officially game worn, but as he was injured 1:48 into the game, there isn't a lot of wear. I'll provide pics later this week, and www.610wtvn.com will have pics once they get them developed. Like I said, the jersey isn't hammered, but the fact that it was worn for the inaugural 3rd jersey game makes it cool to me.  

Additionally, there seems to be no indicator of any kind inside the jersey itself that it was customized, and carries no game worn tag. None of the jerseys worn for that night did, however the team is providing COA's for them upon request.”  

Reading that a Tyler Wright jersey was given away that night and that the jerseys did not have any type of set tag or markings I decided to dig some more.  I now ran a search of all of the posts from the author of the quote above and was able to find a for sale posting for the Wright jersey he had along with a post from the buyer of the jersey. The buyer turned out to be the same person that I had gotten the jersey from on eBay. 

Being able to track down the history of this jersey made me very happy.  Also to find out that it had been worn on the ice during the first period of the game that the jersey debuted made it ever more special to me since I had attended that game and remember how much excitement there was for the Blue Jackets to finally have a 3^rd jersey. 

To view more of my Blue Jackets Jersey collection and to see a complete history of the Blue Jackets Jerseys please visit my site at: www.sites.google.com/site/columbusbluejacketsjerseyguide/

Thanks to Charles for taking the time to photograph his jersey and share the story of the unique origins of his jersey which originated as a prize in a radio contest. We really appreciate the efforts involved when our readers take the time and effort to share their jerseys.

Be sure to take the time to look through Charles' jersey collection on his website. It's really extensive and well done. You can really tell he's passionate about his team and knows his stuff. Plus, he has an eye for unique jerseys with extra patches, something we always appreciate.

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!