A highly coveted hockey trophy that has been missing for almost 70 years was handed over Saturday to the Windsor Hockey Heritage Museum.

The Starr Shield used to be presented to the top senior hockey team in the Maritimes, but the trophy went missing sometime around 1947.

"Moncton was the last team as far as I know to win this trophy, back in 1947," said David Carter.

He calls himself a hockey heritage detective and is the man responsible for solving the mystery of the Starr Shield.

An eBay find

Historians have long believed the trophy was lost in a terrible fire at the Moncton Library 68 years ago, but this summer Carter found a man from B.C. was selling it on eBay. Carter discovered it when he did a Google search for Starr Manufacturing, a Dartmouth company that was a leader in the production of ice skates until the 1930s.

"Up popped the Starr Shield," said Carter. "It was much to my surprise and I almost fell off my chair. I just couldn't believe that it was actually still in existence."

"The seller actually had it for about 20 years," said Carter. "He had found it in a flea market in British Columbia."

Carter helped set up the purchase of the Starr Shield and handed it over Saturday to the operators of the Windsor Hockey Heritage Museum. The museum paid $2,000 to buy the shield on eBay.

Representatives from many of the towns that had won the trophy attended Saturday's ceremony.

"People by the thousands would come out [for the hockey games]. At one point, 8,000 came out for a game in Halifax against Bathurst," said Truro Mayor Bill Mills. "In Truro, I know our capacity for fans was probably broken many times. Crowds of 3,500 were quite common."

The Truro Bearcats won the Starr Shield six times.

Dave Wilson's father was a defenceman on the 1926 championship team.

"He used to tell me they would have the Truro band down and they would really get the fans going," said Wilson.

The Starr Shield is now being displayed with other hockey artifacts in the Windsor museum, which is located about two kilometres from Long Pond, where the game of hockey was first played.

Markings on the trophy make it look like it did go through a fire.

Carter said he has some information on the trophy, but he would like to get more.