New Search

Trace the Information: Is this the face of hockey goalie Terry Sawchuck?

SKILL: Trace the Information

DIFFICULTY: Challenging

SUBJECT(S): Pop Culture, History

Students will trace the history of this image using a reverse image search to learn these grisly injuries on hockey goalie Terry Sawchuck’s face were recreated using makeup.

Related Lesson

CTRL-F Lesson 4: Trace the Information (sign-in required)

Link to Example

Terry Sawchuck (Tweet)

Background

Terry Sawchuck (1929-1970) was a Canadian professional ice hockey goalie who played 21 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL). He was a four-time Stanley Cup champion, was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, and was named by the NHL as one of the greatest “100 Greatest NHL Players.”

Terry Sawchuck played in the NHL before the mainstream adoption of goalie masks. 



About the Example

This tweet claims to show a photo of Terry Sawchuck, a hockey goalie who played before it was the norm for goalies to wear masks.

To learn more about this photograph we can trace its history using a reverse image search. In this case, the search results are not very helpful as there are no links to fact checking sites or major news organizations. The first entry is from a site called Rare Historical Photos. It isn’t a known source, but it seems the most promising, so we can click there to see if we can find a new lead.

The website shows the same photo, and the first paragraph of the article explains that this is a recreation of all the injuries Sawchuk sustained over his career. Sawchuk did have all of these injuries, but his face never looked like this. At this point, you may decide to end your investigation, but you could also keep tracing just to be sure that this information is accurate.

The article doesn’t say where it got its information, but if we scroll to the bottom, it does say that the photo is from Life Magazine. With this new clue, we can try a keyword search (‘sawchuk life magazine scars’).

In this case, we see that there’s a Wikipedia entry about Sawchuk that mentions a LIFE Magazine article. 

Using the CTRL-F technique to quickly locate “Life Magazine” on the page, we see that this confirms that the photo is the result of a makeup artist applying scars to Sawchuk’s face. The Wikipedia entry includes a specific reference (the ‘[6]’), to a Life article from March 4, 1966. You can click through to see an archived version of the image.



Activities 

  1. Show students the tweet and ask them to identify the claim.
  2. Have students perform a reverse image search using the following steps:
    • Right click on the image and select “Search Google for this image.”
    • Select “Find image source.”
  3. Have students click into the first entry from Rare Historical Photos to find more context about the photo and identify its source (Life Magazine).
  4. Have students perform a keyword search (‘sawchuk life magazine scars’) and click into the Wikipedia entry about Sawchuk 
  5. Show students how to use the CTRL+F skill (CMND+F on a Mac) to quickly locate the mention of  “Life Magazine.”
  6. Have students click through the reference ([6]) to the archived image in Life Magazine.

Guiding questions: 

  1. Is this a real photo of former NHL goalie Terry Sawchuk? Why or why not? What did you learn about the photo during your investigation?
  2. At what point in your investigation were you satisfied with the information you had found? Explain your reasoning.


Related Resources