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Mario Lemieux's Complete Card Collection Website and the creators

My Uncle Johnny played ice hockey in high school at the Mckees Rocks Ice Rink for the Bellevue Raiders. He was a goaltender that would drop to his knees for a butterfly style of play, long before goaltender leg pads were altered for that style of play. His coach would routinely tell him to stay up on his skates, as that was the style of play back in the 1940's. Johnny joked that his coach wasn't a goaltender by experience and constantly told Johnny to get up, even as he was making the save. "I'd wait until the shooter got in close and tried to make a move around me, then I would drop down to take away the lower part of the net." Johnny would recount to our family.

After serving in the Navy during the Korean war followed by graduating from renowned University, Johnny never lost his passion for ice hockey. He frequented the Pittsburgh Hornets minor league ice hockey team before they disbanded. Johnny was a season ticket holder for the Penguins, starting with their inagural season in 1967-68. In the 1970's, He moved to Detroit for new employment and had season tickets to the Red Wings for about 10 years. Johnny's employer transfered him to Los Angeles for a promotion in 1981, so he of course had season tickets to the Los Angeles Kings. Johnny was in attendance at the Great Western Forum for the "Miracle on Manchester", biggest single-game comeback in Stanley Cup playoffs history. The Kings started the third period down 5–0 vs the Gretzky lead Oilers dynasty to win that playoff game in overtime, and the Kings would go on to win the series. Once the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim joined the National Hockey League in 1993, he was a season ticket holder for both teams for a few years. As the millenium passed, Johnny would keep his Ducks ticket plan and attend Kings home games infrequently as many times both teams would have home games on the same night. During all that time my Uncle Johnny would always be generous with NHL souvenirs and story telling about his favorite sport. He would talk to me about John Gibson, two years before Gibson's NHL debut.

My parents started taking me to Penguins games when I was 3 years old, because a NHL ticket back then was cheaper than getting a babysitter. My first reccollection of an NHL game was when I was 5 years old. At that time they had Randy Carlyle and Rick Kehoe, but I was more interested in cheering for any physical checks being thrown by our home team. We saw the Penguins loose that day, and typically normal for most sporting events my Dad made our family of four leave early to beat the traffic out of downtown. As we were leaving our seats, a bench clearing brawl ensued and we raced back into the arena to see the melee occuring on the ice. I have horrible vision and didn't have glasses at that young age, so I would get the Flyers and the Red Wings logo's confused. It was probably against the Flyers, but it was exciting enough that I enjoyed going to Penguins games even when the team was atrocious.

At Christmas time my Uncle would always visit, and I can remember Johnny mentioning that December the Penguins had a good chance to draft Mario Lemieux. Johnny mentioned that Mario Lemieux could be the next Gretzky. I vividly remember my Dad saying, "That's a lot of pressure to put on a young player to compare Lemieux to Gretzky, before he's even played a game". I never had the chance to learn to play ice hockey until I left for college, but I would play bubble hockey, street hockey, floor knee hockey and any other hockey type games available. I remember being 8 years old and the Penguins drafting Lemieux to become their saviour, not realizing he would do it multiple times. Mario Lemieux was a one of a kind player, an amazing athelete that was just incredible to watch in his prime with his skill and artistry on ice controling the puck as if it was attached to a string on his stick. I started collecting cards around age 13, always hoping to pull a Lemieux in a pack of cards purchased at the locally owned convience and pharmacy store. After my children were born, I was going through many boxes of things delievered by my Mom that were stored from the house where I grew up. I came accross my card collection going through the sports, teams and players. I realized hockey was by far my favorite sport and Lemieux's cards were my most treasured, far and above other sports stars, ballyhooed hyped prospects and flash in the pan brief success stories. I decided to see if I could organize the Mario Lemieux cards that I had and then see which cards from sets over the years that I didn't have in my collection. That journey started when my son was just born almost two decades ago, and I had no idea how large, comprehensive this list would end up taking to complie. This expanding list continues to baffles me with it's size. My initial estimates would never have been in the ball park of the number of documented cards that are cataloged. I hope you enjoy using this website, and I hope to continue to add new features and functionality for those interested in utilizing it.

Mario Lemieux's
Complete Card
Collection

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