The original captain of the Nashville Predators, Tom Fitzgerald led the room from the inception of the Preds organization through it’s first four seasons. Considered to be one of the best leaders in franchise history, Fitz had an important impact on the club in those early years.
As the captain of a burgeoning franchise, Fitzgerald was tasked with helping head coach Barry Trotz and general manager David Poile establish a new hockey culture in Nashville.
This jersey was worn by Fitzgerald at some point in the 1998-1999 regular season. When? That remains a mystery because there are no identifying markers or writing on the jersey itself, and the team LOA also does not establish a set number.
Furthermore, for a jersey with many obvious marks, repairs, and wear which should be visible in photos….there are next to no photos to be found.
In a strange quirk that may be related to the franchise’s infancy, both AP Images and Getty Images have primarily road photos (navy jerseys) of the Nashville Predators from 1998-1999. This has made discovering the set/timeframe the jersey was worn in a struggle, and a potential photomatch much harder to find.
Those issues aside, Fitz’s game worn jersey has a lot of character.
The right sleeve has a long blue mark below the sleeve numbers that stands out really starkly. There is also a large glue repair next to the sleeve numbers above that mark. Below that is a large black stick mark that runs sideways across the elbow.
The crest, sleeves, and front of the jersey all have multiple markings from sticks and pucks, and there is a good amount of pilling on the left and right sleeves near their sleeve numbers. The back of the jersey also has a few markings. There is also a large repair on the back of the left sleeve near the shoulder.
There aren’t very many Nashville era Tom Fitzgerald jerseys in the wild.
I’ve owned three different ones in my time (including this one), and those are three of the four I’ve laid eyes on in the hobby. The lone exception is the “mustard prototype” Tom Fitzgerald discovered by Preds & Threads. That one was not worn in a game, however.
Thus far, research has been able to deduce that the Predators wore multiple different styles of customization in their inaugural season before settling on the now familiar one you see above.
In Fitzgerald’s case, he wore three differently styled captain’s patches in his time.
The first style, shown here in the Nashville Predators very first game in franchise history, featured a tripled-layered twill white “C” with yellow and navy blue layering.
The second iteration of the customization is possibly the weirdest, however.
The second style featured a gnarly navy blue “C” with yellow and white layering in yet a another triple-layered twill setup. This inaugural Tom Fitzgerald gamer was sold by Classic Auctions in 2010.
Since there are so few pictures of the Predators in white beyond opening night in 1998-1999, it is hard to tell how quickly the Preds went through these iterations or when they were worn. What we do know is that eventually the Predators settled on the customization shown in this inaugural gamer in my collection.
Here we have the familiar white lettering with a yellow border. This customization was adopted and used by the Predators for many seasons. The card pictured is as close to a photomatch as I’ve been able to find for this game worn jersey.
Mysteries aside, this inaugural gamer is one of the most prized jerseys in my collection.
This, along with the one sold by Classic Auctions, are the only two inaugural Fitzgerald’s that I’ve found record of in the hobby.
Where the rest are, well…that is the question isn’t it?