The Legend of Taro Tsujimoto is one of hockey’s most intriguing and humorous anecdotes. While the Sabres are still waiting on their first Stanley Cup championship, this is one piece of history that other NHL teams cannot lay claim to.
Now, New Era has unveiled a limited edition cap to honor the legacy of Tsujimoto and his fictitious club, the Tokyo Katanas.
For those of you who aren’t fully educated on the legend, Tsujimoto was the 11th round selection (183rd overall) of the Buffalo Sabres in the 1974 NHL Draft. However, Tsujimoto never existed. The selection was made up by Punch Imlach as a form of protest over the tedious draft process of the league in the 70s.
As the story goes, Imlach sent a secretary to research common Japanese names to apply to the player he would select from the Tokyo Katanas – somewhat of a translation to Tokyo Sabres. The selection appeared in numerous record books before the hoax was discovered.
The New Era cap is a 59Fifty with the Tokyo Katanas logo adorning the front and the “team” wordmark on the back of the cap. A pair of katanas (or sabers) appear on the bottom portion of the brim. They also have a t-shirt to go along with the hat.
Personally, I think the hat looks phenomenal and I fully plan on adding it to my already overstocked collection. While the logo is more of an honor to the samurai, it works well and would certainly fit right in on a hockey uniform – fictitious or not.
The one thing about this hat is that it will only be available for a short time. So get down to the New Era Flagship store before you miss out on this piece of Sabres history.
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