1989-90 CCM Road Game Worn Jersey
#11 John Cullen
Manufacturer: CCM
Size: 52
Purchased From: The MeiGray Group
Lettered by: Century Sports/NJK Lettering
The Story: I've referred to a few jerseys on this website as "The One." That's synonymous with an important jersey for me and it's a bit of an inside joke in my house, as my wife always teases me about a particular jersey being "The One" when I add it to my collection. However, in all my years of collecting, never had I searched for a jersey for this long. This really is "The One!"
I had always wanted a black CCM Ultrafil jersey to complete the set with my white team-issued 1992 Ron Francis jersey, and I've kicked myself for years for not getting one when they were available. I've come across a number of them, but there was always something precluding me from getting one. Either the size wouldn't fit me, or the lettering wasn't quite right, or - usually - it was just too expensive. I had seen this jersey listed on The MeiGray Group's website for years. The price was really high and there was something that just wasn't right. It was listed as a 1988-89 gamer, which would've been John Cullen's rookie year, but the placement of the nameplate (just below the shoulder seam, as opposed to over the shoulder seam, closer to the rear collar) was consistent with 1989-90 jerseys. But like I do, I kept an eye on it and when I saw a price reduction, I mentioned to my wife (who, to this day, I can't believe supports me in this hobby to the extent that she does) that the jersey I had been watching finally came down in price and, knowing that I got a Christmas bonus at work, she told me to either buy the jersey or she'd go online and buy it, but she'd probably buy the wrong one, so I better do it. The price was still pretty high though, but she convinced me to make an offer in the hopes that I could negotiate a deal. She can be pretty convincing when she wants to be!
On Christmas Eve, 2018, I made my offer, and Barry Meisel of MeiGray and his team were great to work with. We came to a price that was acceptable to both of us and I pulled the trigger. I then questioned MeiGray on the year of the jersey and explained why I was skeptical about it being a rookie year jersey, and I even cited the fact that Casey Samuelson of PenguinsChronicles.com, who has a Penguins jersey and memorabilia collection to die for and the guy who is the foremost expert on Penguins jerseys that I've ever heard of, had this jersey on his website as a 1989-90 jersey. Get this: MeiGray agreed with my research! Some random collector from Pittsburgh was able to convince MeiGray that they needed to change the details on one of their jerseys! I guess I've learned a few things over the years, and they knocked a couple more dollars off the price since this wasn't a rookie year jersey.
The first hockey jersey I ever bought, way back in 1990, was a John Cullen 1990-91 Home Replica Jersey. He was the first player I ever considered my favorite, because through the eyes of a young hockey fan, he could do it all. When Mario Lemieux was out, "Cully" was a team leader and was one of the top scorers in the NHL. At the same time, he wasn't afraid to drop the mitts or do whatever he needed to do to help his team. He was never flashy, cocky, or arrogant; he just took a workmanlike approach to every shift, which I always admired and respected. He was named an alternate captain in only his second year in the league (I'll get to that in a minute) and, with Lemieux out of action for an extended period in 1990-91, was even one of the guys who rotated the team's captaincy, along with Paul Coffey and Randy Hillier. I was ecstatic when he was voted to his only All-Star Game appearance in 1991 and equally...let's say HIGHLY ticked off...when the Pens traded Cullen, along with defenseman Zarley Zalapski and prospect Jeff Parker, to Hartford at the 1991 trade deadline in a deal that is considered by many to be the most important trade in Penguins history, as it brought future Hall of Famer Ron Francis, Ulf Samuelsson, and Grant Jennings (and, arguably, the Stanley Cup) to Pittsburgh. The Pens, evidently, always thought highly of Cullen as well. After stays in Hartford and Toronto, he came back for a second stint in Pittsburgh, where he scored at almost a point-per-game rate in 1994-95 before moving onto Tampa Bay, and even though he wasn't a Penguin when they raised their first two Stanley Cups, he's always invited to those teams' Stanley Cup Championship reunion events.
While in Tampa, Cully's career and life took a sharp turn. After two full seasons with the Lightning, where he led the team in scoring and to the first playoff appearance in team history, he started dealing with flu-like symptoms that he couldn't shake. He played through the season and, after a few months, his wife finally contacted team trainers and asked them to look into his illness. An x-ray showed a large black shadow in his chest, which turned out to be a baseball-sized malignant tumor. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma and missed the entire 1997-98 season in treatment. While he was out, the Lightning players all wore green shamrock-shaped patches on their jerseys with his jersey number "12" on them in support of their teammate. He returned to the Lightning for four games to begin the 1998-99 season before being sent to their minor league team in Cleveland for a conditioning assignment. He played six games for the Lumberjacks (yes, those Lumberjacks, the former Penguins farm team), scoring an IHL-record seven points in one of them. However, a bout with bronchitis led him to think his cancer was back. Tests came back negative, but with this scare, he decided that he and his family weren't cut out for life in Cleveland anymore. He retired a few days later and immediately took a job as an assistant coach for the Lightning.
That season, the NHL awarded Cullen with the Bill Masterton Award for his dedication and perseverance to hockey, and the IHL renamed their Comeback Player of the Year award The John Cullen Award. The Lightning also started an initiative to raise cancer awareness, which expanded to the NHL's Hockey Fights Cancer program that we know today. In November of 2018, to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of Hockey Fights Cancer, Cully dropped the ceremonial first puck at Amalie Arena in Tampa on Hockey Fights Cancer Night.
Now, about this jersey: there are a lot of interesting details about this one! First, this jersey is part of the Penguins' first set of 1989-90 jerseys. The NHL implemented a rule that no local advertising, including team customizer Century Sports, could appear on jerseys. As a result, the Penguins only wore these "Set 1" jerseys for the pre-season and their first five road games, so it's Cully's only 1989-90 jersey without an alternate captain's "A" on the front shoulder. He was named an alternate captain on November 1, 1989. Prior to moving to Set 2, the Penguins actually used yellow tape over the Century Sports logo on the rear hem. As expected, the tape didn't last, though you can still see marks of where the tape was on this jersey. Cullen missed a few road games early in the season, so this jersey was only worn in the pre-season games he dressed for and two regular season road games. But as gritty a player as Cully was, this jersey shows an awful lot of wear. There are some very thin spots on the elbows and stick marks everywhere, including one high on the left sleeve where a stick blade literally burned the jersey. That's the main drawback of Ultrafil jerseys - they're easily marked by sticks, pucks, and board burns. In addition, there are red and blue paint transfer marks - Cullen was always aggressive in the corners - and that's just what's visible on the lighter-colored portion of the jersey. The black parts, I'm sure, hide a lot more wear. The lettering, which Century Sports contracted out to NJK Lettering in Avella, PA (owned by a sweet little lady who I got to know over the years), is striking in its inconsistency. Remember, this was an era before laser-cut twill came into existence, so each letter was stenciled and cut out by hand. There were no pre-made lettering kits back then, so there's some uneven spacing, rounded corners, and not-quite-ninety-degree corners on the numbers. But I've seen a lot of jersey lettering fray and come apart after a few years, while this one is almost 30 years old and the lettering is still holding up very well! All these subtle details make this a really neat jersey. Even the crest has a little quirk, as it includes an embroidery error that colored the toe of the penguin's leading skate gold. This was corrected in time for the Pens' Set 3 jerseys. The first "1" on the back is signed boldly, and the neck tag features the number "11" handwritten in marker by the Pens' Equipment Manager at the time, Steve Latin. Add the uniqueness of the Century Sports name and the old style, small block CCM logo being embroidered into the rear hem and this jersey is truly a one-of-a-kind.
John Cullen was not only a hero to a lot of Penguins fans during his time here, but he was a hero to so many more who have battled cancer. While his play inspired his teammates and fans, his comeback from cancer has served to inspire countless more over the last 20 years. I'm truly honored to own this piece of Penguins history, which brings back so many good memories of my own. This one really is "The One!"
Size: 52
Purchased From: The MeiGray Group
Lettered by: Century Sports/NJK Lettering
The Story: I've referred to a few jerseys on this website as "The One." That's synonymous with an important jersey for me and it's a bit of an inside joke in my house, as my wife always teases me about a particular jersey being "The One" when I add it to my collection. However, in all my years of collecting, never had I searched for a jersey for this long. This really is "The One!"
I had always wanted a black CCM Ultrafil jersey to complete the set with my white team-issued 1992 Ron Francis jersey, and I've kicked myself for years for not getting one when they were available. I've come across a number of them, but there was always something precluding me from getting one. Either the size wouldn't fit me, or the lettering wasn't quite right, or - usually - it was just too expensive. I had seen this jersey listed on The MeiGray Group's website for years. The price was really high and there was something that just wasn't right. It was listed as a 1988-89 gamer, which would've been John Cullen's rookie year, but the placement of the nameplate (just below the shoulder seam, as opposed to over the shoulder seam, closer to the rear collar) was consistent with 1989-90 jerseys. But like I do, I kept an eye on it and when I saw a price reduction, I mentioned to my wife (who, to this day, I can't believe supports me in this hobby to the extent that she does) that the jersey I had been watching finally came down in price and, knowing that I got a Christmas bonus at work, she told me to either buy the jersey or she'd go online and buy it, but she'd probably buy the wrong one, so I better do it. The price was still pretty high though, but she convinced me to make an offer in the hopes that I could negotiate a deal. She can be pretty convincing when she wants to be!
On Christmas Eve, 2018, I made my offer, and Barry Meisel of MeiGray and his team were great to work with. We came to a price that was acceptable to both of us and I pulled the trigger. I then questioned MeiGray on the year of the jersey and explained why I was skeptical about it being a rookie year jersey, and I even cited the fact that Casey Samuelson of PenguinsChronicles.com, who has a Penguins jersey and memorabilia collection to die for and the guy who is the foremost expert on Penguins jerseys that I've ever heard of, had this jersey on his website as a 1989-90 jersey. Get this: MeiGray agreed with my research! Some random collector from Pittsburgh was able to convince MeiGray that they needed to change the details on one of their jerseys! I guess I've learned a few things over the years, and they knocked a couple more dollars off the price since this wasn't a rookie year jersey.
The first hockey jersey I ever bought, way back in 1990, was a John Cullen 1990-91 Home Replica Jersey. He was the first player I ever considered my favorite, because through the eyes of a young hockey fan, he could do it all. When Mario Lemieux was out, "Cully" was a team leader and was one of the top scorers in the NHL. At the same time, he wasn't afraid to drop the mitts or do whatever he needed to do to help his team. He was never flashy, cocky, or arrogant; he just took a workmanlike approach to every shift, which I always admired and respected. He was named an alternate captain in only his second year in the league (I'll get to that in a minute) and, with Lemieux out of action for an extended period in 1990-91, was even one of the guys who rotated the team's captaincy, along with Paul Coffey and Randy Hillier. I was ecstatic when he was voted to his only All-Star Game appearance in 1991 and equally...let's say HIGHLY ticked off...when the Pens traded Cullen, along with defenseman Zarley Zalapski and prospect Jeff Parker, to Hartford at the 1991 trade deadline in a deal that is considered by many to be the most important trade in Penguins history, as it brought future Hall of Famer Ron Francis, Ulf Samuelsson, and Grant Jennings (and, arguably, the Stanley Cup) to Pittsburgh. The Pens, evidently, always thought highly of Cullen as well. After stays in Hartford and Toronto, he came back for a second stint in Pittsburgh, where he scored at almost a point-per-game rate in 1994-95 before moving onto Tampa Bay, and even though he wasn't a Penguin when they raised their first two Stanley Cups, he's always invited to those teams' Stanley Cup Championship reunion events.
While in Tampa, Cully's career and life took a sharp turn. After two full seasons with the Lightning, where he led the team in scoring and to the first playoff appearance in team history, he started dealing with flu-like symptoms that he couldn't shake. He played through the season and, after a few months, his wife finally contacted team trainers and asked them to look into his illness. An x-ray showed a large black shadow in his chest, which turned out to be a baseball-sized malignant tumor. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma and missed the entire 1997-98 season in treatment. While he was out, the Lightning players all wore green shamrock-shaped patches on their jerseys with his jersey number "12" on them in support of their teammate. He returned to the Lightning for four games to begin the 1998-99 season before being sent to their minor league team in Cleveland for a conditioning assignment. He played six games for the Lumberjacks (yes, those Lumberjacks, the former Penguins farm team), scoring an IHL-record seven points in one of them. However, a bout with bronchitis led him to think his cancer was back. Tests came back negative, but with this scare, he decided that he and his family weren't cut out for life in Cleveland anymore. He retired a few days later and immediately took a job as an assistant coach for the Lightning.
That season, the NHL awarded Cullen with the Bill Masterton Award for his dedication and perseverance to hockey, and the IHL renamed their Comeback Player of the Year award The John Cullen Award. The Lightning also started an initiative to raise cancer awareness, which expanded to the NHL's Hockey Fights Cancer program that we know today. In November of 2018, to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of Hockey Fights Cancer, Cully dropped the ceremonial first puck at Amalie Arena in Tampa on Hockey Fights Cancer Night.
Now, about this jersey: there are a lot of interesting details about this one! First, this jersey is part of the Penguins' first set of 1989-90 jerseys. The NHL implemented a rule that no local advertising, including team customizer Century Sports, could appear on jerseys. As a result, the Penguins only wore these "Set 1" jerseys for the pre-season and their first five road games, so it's Cully's only 1989-90 jersey without an alternate captain's "A" on the front shoulder. He was named an alternate captain on November 1, 1989. Prior to moving to Set 2, the Penguins actually used yellow tape over the Century Sports logo on the rear hem. As expected, the tape didn't last, though you can still see marks of where the tape was on this jersey. Cullen missed a few road games early in the season, so this jersey was only worn in the pre-season games he dressed for and two regular season road games. But as gritty a player as Cully was, this jersey shows an awful lot of wear. There are some very thin spots on the elbows and stick marks everywhere, including one high on the left sleeve where a stick blade literally burned the jersey. That's the main drawback of Ultrafil jerseys - they're easily marked by sticks, pucks, and board burns. In addition, there are red and blue paint transfer marks - Cullen was always aggressive in the corners - and that's just what's visible on the lighter-colored portion of the jersey. The black parts, I'm sure, hide a lot more wear. The lettering, which Century Sports contracted out to NJK Lettering in Avella, PA (owned by a sweet little lady who I got to know over the years), is striking in its inconsistency. Remember, this was an era before laser-cut twill came into existence, so each letter was stenciled and cut out by hand. There were no pre-made lettering kits back then, so there's some uneven spacing, rounded corners, and not-quite-ninety-degree corners on the numbers. But I've seen a lot of jersey lettering fray and come apart after a few years, while this one is almost 30 years old and the lettering is still holding up very well! All these subtle details make this a really neat jersey. Even the crest has a little quirk, as it includes an embroidery error that colored the toe of the penguin's leading skate gold. This was corrected in time for the Pens' Set 3 jerseys. The first "1" on the back is signed boldly, and the neck tag features the number "11" handwritten in marker by the Pens' Equipment Manager at the time, Steve Latin. Add the uniqueness of the Century Sports name and the old style, small block CCM logo being embroidered into the rear hem and this jersey is truly a one-of-a-kind.
John Cullen was not only a hero to a lot of Penguins fans during his time here, but he was a hero to so many more who have battled cancer. While his play inspired his teammates and fans, his comeback from cancer has served to inspire countless more over the last 20 years. I'm truly honored to own this piece of Penguins history, which brings back so many good memories of my own. This one really is "The One!"