Mike Bossy's Islanders Stanley Cup rings, other memorabilia up for auction

Josiane Bossy called it “a decision that’s very personal,” but in the end, she chose to part with her share of her late father Mike’s hockey-related memorabilia.

“I never really grew up being that much of a hockey fan,” she told Newsday in an interview to promote an ongoing auction of 144 items. “I know this sounds maybe a little bit weird to some people, but for me, Dad was Dad.

“As much as he was the best dad he could be, when I look at the hockey things, I think it really belongs to the people who love hockey and who love him for the hockey player he was.

“That’s why I thought it would be best to get it to fans or collectors or people that would see the value of it.”

Heritage Auctions is handling the event, which runs through Feb. 25. It's a trove that Mike Provenzale, sports operations supervisor, rated the firm’s most extensive for a hockey player, rivaled perhaps only by that of 1980 Olympic hero Mike Eruzione.

“But that was pretty much all ‘Miracle on Ice’-related,” Provenzale said. “This Bossy collection spans not only his entire career but his entire life.”

The costliest items are likely to be Bossy’s 1980 and ’81 Stanley Cup rings as an Islander, which Heritage estimates will go for more than $40,000.

Provenzale said championship rings owned by non-players such as coaches or support staff are one tier of auction value. Those of lesser players are another. Rings from a player of Bossy’s stature are rare.

“When you have Stanley Cup rings from one of the best players to ever play the game,” he said, “those are huge items that are going to realize a large price and generally go into somebody's collection, are treasured and disappear [from the market].”

What about Bossy’s other two Cup rings, from ’82 and ’83? They are not for sale, because they are in the other half of Bossy’s collection, the half that belongs to Josiane’s younger sister, Tanya, who opted not to auction them off.

Josiane said Tanya and her family, including Tanya’s two children, spent more years in and around the family home near Montreal than Josiane did, and thus had a stronger connection to the objects than she did.

Josiane said Tanya and their mother, Lucie, understood her decision, and vice versa.

“I think the important thing was for me to be supportive of her decision and for her to be supportive of mine,” Josiane said. “My mother also was very supportive of both decisions.

“We knew our father, and the important thing [to him] was to be respectful of each other and not judge anybody.”

Josiane said the physical items have little sentimental value to her.

“I have to say my dad was very much my dad when he got home,” she said. “He was nothing hockey. So he never really exposed these things to us. He never talked about it.

“When I think of my dad, I don't associate him necessarily with the rings and all the things he had.”

A portion of proceeds will go to the Mike Bossy Memorial Fund. His daughters set it up to help increase awareness of the importance of lung cancer screening. Bossy died of the disease in April 2022 at age 65.

“He was diagnosed very, very, very, very late in the process and it was too late,” Josiane said.

Josiane said she was too young to remember much about her father’s heyday on Long Island. But she was happy to see the Islanders hire Patrick Roy, a former neighbor of the Bossys in Quebec, as their coach.

Josiane and Tanya both babysat for Roy’s two oldest sons.

“His kids were a handful,” Josiane said, laughing. “I remember them being very active. I remember one of them locking me out of their home.”

The collection, which is available for viewing and/or bidding on Heritage’s website, includes everything from game-worn jerseys to personal effects and runs from his first youth hockey trophy in the mid-1960s to his Hockey Hall of Fame ring.

After Mike died, Josiane said she gained a greater appreciation of what he meant to fans.

“I learned so much about my father in the hockey world,” she said, “and it really, really touched me to see how many people he touched and how many people loved him, literally. So I thought [his memorabilia] belongs to these people.”

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.