A Bill Barilko hockey card signed by the Tragically Hip is going to help CK Community Foundation. (Photo courtesy of Blair Babcock via e-Bay)A Bill Barilko hockey card signed by the Tragically Hip is going to help CK Community Foundation. (Photo courtesy of Blair Babcock via e-Bay)
Chatham

Hockey Card That Inspired 'Tragically Hip' Song Now Helping CK

A Bill Barilko hockey card signed by the Tragically Hip is going to help the Chatham-Kent Community Foundation.

Blair Babcock has ties to the area and has the card up for auction on e-Bay.

Babcock's father died in 2007 from the same cancer that killed Hip front man Gord Downie.  Some of the proceeds will be donated to the Larry Babcock Memorial Fund at the Chatham-Kent Community Foundation.

Babcock says the card was signed for him by the band around 1998 and Gord Downie's signature is in the bottom right corner.

A Bill Barilko hockey card signed by the Tragically Hip is going to help CK Community Foundation. (Photo courtesy of Blair Babcock via e-Bay)

Hugh Logan, executive director of the foundation, says it's a great gesture that came out of the blue.

"This one caught my attention because of the connection to the Tragically Hip song 'Fifty Mission Cap' and the fact that Gord Downie referred to Bill Barilko and learned about Bill off a hockey card. Well this is the hockey card that he's referring to in that song," says Logan.

The Hip wrote the song "Fifty Mission Cap" from the information on this hockey card.  Barilko scored an overtime goal in 1951 to win the Leafs the Stanley Cup.  The 24-year-old disappeared that summer during a fishing trip and his body wasn't found until 1962, the next time the Leafs won the Cup.

Logan says the card is up for auction for a few more days and he would love to see a local win the bid.

"The more promotion we can get, we can attract more people locally who might see an opportunity to purchase something that is part of a Canadian icon. I think it would be a wonderful thing to bring the money to Chatham-Kent and bring the card home to Chatham-Kent," Logan says.

He says the foundation expects to donate just over $400,000 this year to about 40 local organizations.

"We are doing our best to improve the quality of life in Chatham and it's nice to see that the Babcock family is looking at helping us with that," says Logan.

The rest of the auction proceeds will go to the Gord Downie Fund for Brain Cancer Research and to the Stratford-Perth Community Foundation.

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