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There are so many sports jerseys in the closet in Jim Watson’s City Hall office that not even Ottawa’s mayor, renowned for remembering faces and names, can recall all the stories.

Consider, for example, a hockey jersey bearing a giant Cougars team crest and a smaller logo for the 2009 world junior hockey championship.

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“I honestly can’t remember, and I’m sure I’m going to get in trouble with the Cougars organization,” Watson says with a chuckle. “I’m sure they’re good people. … That was some time ago.”

An inventory of the mayor’s collection reveals more than 30 jerseys in total, including three each from the National Hockey League’s Ottawa Senators and the Canadian Football League’s Ottawa Redblacks, two each from Ottawa Champions of the Can-Am baseball league and Canada Soccer national squads, plus single examples with noteworthy tales:

Photo by Chris Donovan / Postmedia

• One of the Canucks jersey presented by Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson to participants in the Big City Mayors’ Caucus in June 2011, shortly before the Canucks lost Game 7 to the Boston Bruins and the downtown core of B.C.’s largest municipality was heavily damaged by rioters;