CHICAGO – The hockey stick that a 13-year-old Wayne Gretzky used to score the 1,000th goal of his lifetime sold for US$38,838 at a recent sports memorabilia auction.

The Koho-brand stick, signed in blue ink by the Great One after he scored the landmark goal in 1974, was sold to an anonymous bidder Thursday at a sports auction managed by Heritage Auctions.

The stick was being auctioned for the first time. It had belonged to the family of Ron St. Amand, Gretzky’s coach on the Brantford Turkstra Lumber squad. Gretzky gave the stick to St. Amand after the game.

“This is a great price and a very unique piece of memorabilia, certainly a house record for a Gretzky stick sold at Heritage from any period of his playing days,” said Chris Ivy, director of sports auctions at Heritage. “Most of us, when we’re 13 years old, are not producing future pieces of great memorabilia, obviously.

“Gretzky, however, was already headed for immortality by the time he was 13. The result is that this stick, which scored his 1,000th goal, is now an important artifact relating the greatest skater the NHL has ever known.”