Blue & White Monday: A rare photo

There are times when doing a little research for a post is fun.  When the research is focused on one of your favorite players growing up, it makes it that much more enjoyable.

Darryl Sittler was one of my favorite players in my pre-teen years.  Darryl was the captain of the Leafs between the 75-76 and 81-82 seasons (there was a time during the 79-80 season where Sittler was in a dispute with the Leafs, and tore the C off his sweater).

I must have seen dozens of cards, and thousands of photos of Sittler over the past 35-40 years, and all of them with Darryl wearing the 'C'.  But check out this card that I picked up at the card show last month...

This is a SPxcitement card from the 2008-09 SPx set.  Darryl's wearing an 'A' here, which for me is a first.  I always enjoyed the 70's style lettering on the Leafs sweaters, the A with the line across the top is unique to Toronto.  I'm guessing that this picture would have been taken during the 73-74 or 74-75 season.  I wasn't able to find an A on any of his cards pre 75-76, so it's difficult for me to tell when this actual picture may have been taken.  I'm sure that there are some other Leafs fans out there who have better memories than I do that could probably pinpoint the time frame in which this picture was taken.

thanks for reading, Robert