The Story

In 1972, “the” most famous sports uniform in Canadian history was created. At the height of the negotiations to start the Summit Series, Alan Eagleson, the corporate lawyer for the ad agency Vickers and Benson gave the agency 24 hours to come up with both a name and a sweater.

It was advertising copy-writer Terry Hill, an American from Detroit, who came up with the name “Team Canada.” The name seems obvious now — used by countless sports teams and trade delegations — but then, it was a clever and new solution.

The design of the sweater was assigned to Englishman John Lloyd, who had been in Canada for just two years. Lloyd bought two large red and two large white sweaters. He cut out the now famous stylized maple leaf in red and in white. He then (with the assistance of his wife Michelle) stitched the red on the white jersey for the home jersey and reversed the process for the away jersey.

The jersey Paul Henderson wore in Game 8 of the 1972 Summit Series where he scored the winning goal in, sold for a Guiness World Record price of $1.275 million in 2010, making it the most expensive hockey jersey sold at auction ever.