Hockey fans are fierce and loyal creatures. The next best thing to wearing your favorite hockey "sweater" is to have it hanging on the wall for everyone to admire!

I wanted a way to enjoy my favorite team colors and crest even when my team wasn't playing. This desire inspired me to create a removable hockey jersey wall mount. Built from a broken hockey stick, epoxy and drywall anchors; this design enables any hockey fan to proudly hang their jersey (arms spread) during the day, easily take it down and wear it to the game at night.

Step 1: Procure a Broken Hockey Stick

The first order of business was to obtain a broken or retired hockey stick made out of wood or composite. An aluminum stick would need a special bonding agent to adhere to the metal. There was no sense in using a functional stick for this project because it had two spacers glued to it, rendering it difficult and downright dangerous to play with.

The stick I used was broken just above the blade so I used a clear drying two-part epoxy to mend the break because I wanted my hockey stick to appear as though it wasn't broken.

Step 2: Wall Spacers

In order to hang my hockey jersey on a hockey stick, the jersey was slipped over the stick and the arms spread out. The challenge was to devise a way to mount the hockey stick to the wall while it was inside the jersey. I decided to make two spacers that would attach at either end of the hockey stick shaft allowing for a place to mount it to the wall and room for the jersey in between the wall and the stick.

To create two spacers, a separate section of a composite hockey stick shaft was acquired. The composite shaft was cut into two sections about 3/4 of an inch in length. A section of composite stick was ideal for creating a spacer because it is strong and hollow.

One of the goals of this project was to create a mounting system that was easy to remove so that I could take the jersey down and wear it. To achieve this, I created a common picture hanger style mount as seen in the photos below. A large hole accepts the wall mounted screw and is then slid downwards over a smaller slot that accepts the screw shaft, but doesn't allow the head to pull back through.

To create this type of mount, two spacers were set on a scrap piece of cardboard hollow end up. I chose non-corrugated cardboard because it's thin. A generous amount of two part epoxy was mixed and each spacer was filled about 1/3 full of epoxy. The epoxy was allowed to dry completely. Two drill bits (one small and one large), created the picture hanger style holes. The holes were oriented so that the spacers were mounted to the hockey stick horizontally. This orientation was by design so that the spacer had the smallest visual footprint. The cardboard around the spacers was then cut to free them.

Step 3: Assembly

Used, battered and worn was the look I wanted my hockey jersey wall mount to exemplify. I wanted the hockey stick to look like it was used for a couple seasons and then hung right up on the wall. To maintain this look, I left the original tape on the blade and the original tape on the handle. But in order to ensure that the spacer near the end of the handle was adequately glued to the stick and not just the tape, I traced out the shape of the spacer, cut the tape with a razor blade and then removed it. Doing this allowed the spacer to be adhered directly to the hockey stick while keeping as much of the original tape as possible. The spacers were glued to the hockey stick making sure to center them in the middle of the width of the stick, the end with the cardboard faced out and the holes were oriented so that the blade of the stick was pointing up.

Step 4: Mounting on the Wall

There were two options to mount my hockey jersey wall mount horizontally: measure down from the ceiling or use a carpenter's level. I chose to use a level. Although a typical hockey jersey doesn't weigh more than a pound or two, because it was hung away from the wall by nearly an inch it created a moment force on the screw holding the mount to the wall. I didn't want to rely solely on a nail in the drywall to hold the hockey jersey mount steadfast to the wall, so plastic drywall anchors were utilized.

The two mounting screws were relatively far apart and if the mounting screws were installed just a fraction of an inch off target in any direction the mounting holes would not slide over the screws. To ensure that the drywall anchors were installed in the wall at exactly the right location, I created a procedure that would mark exactly where the holes needed to be drilled into the drywall.

A length of blue painter's tape was torn and a dot in the middle was marked with a black permanent marker. The dot was placed over the middle of the large hole in the spacer with the tape sticky side up. The ends of the tape were folded in backwards so that the sticky side adhered to the hockey stick. The ends of the tape were pushed down so that the tape over the spacer was tight and the dot was still centered over the large hole.

I held the carpenter's level in the middle of the hockey stick and slowly approached the wall at the desired height to attach the mount. Ensuring that the hockey stick was level, the spacers were touched to the wall and then pressed firmly so that the hockey stick didn't move. I took one hand off the hockey stick and removed the tape from each spacer. Once the hockey stick was pulled away from the wall, the blue painter's tape remained with two dots indicating exactly where to drill holes for the drywall anchors. Once the holes were drilled, the blue painter's tape was easily removed.

The drywall anchors were installed and the screws were threaded into them leaving about 1/4 inch sticking out. Finally, the hockey stick was fed through the sleeves of the jersey and then hung on the wall for all to admire!

For the die-hard NHL fan, pair this with a Hockey Themed Goal Light for an even better game-time experience!