Coast Guard team won battle, lost Walker Cup in New York

Legendary hockey reporter and analyst Stan Fischler is writing a weekly scrapbook for NHL.com this season. Fischler, known as "The Hockey Maven," will share his knowledge, brand of humor and insight with readers each Wednesday. Once a month, he will let a picture from his vast collection do the talking in his "Picture is Worth 100 Words" feature.
Today, he writes about the U.S. Coast Guard hockey team and one trophy they let get away.

After the United States joined World War II in 1941, the Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay, Baltimore found itself loaded with enlistees with big-time hockey experience. The team featured Art Coulter, the captain of the 1940 Stanley Cup champion New York Rangers. They won the U.S. Senior championships in 1943 and 1944, but it was the Cutters' Walker Cup win that created the best story. After former New York City mayor Jimmy Walker gave the trophy named after him to the team at Madison Square Garden, the Walker Cup was stolen. A few days later Rangers manager Lester Patrick discovered it in a pawn shop on Manhattan's Eighth Avenue, three blocks from the arena. It then was shipped to Curtis Bay where it belonged.