1971 O-Pee-Chee CFL Tom Schuette #80 Ottawa Rough Riders

Description

1971 O-Pee-Chee CFL Tom Schuette #80 Ottawa Rough Riders Add some old-school toughness to your collection with this 1971 O-Pee-Chee CFL Tom Schuette #80 Ottawa Rough Riders card, a genuine Canadian-printed vintage single from the iconic red-bordered 132-card set. Issued only in Canada by O-Pee-Chee of London, Ontario, the 1971 CFL series mirrored the look of the 1971 Topps NFL release while capturing a league at the height of its cultural pull, and it remains the go-to set for collectors of the era — anchored by the Joe Theismann pre-NFL rookie and stacked with Ottawa's Grey Cup-winning core. Tom Schuette was the definition of an anchor up front. A 6'1", 238-pound import guard out of Indiana University, Schuette drew rare praise from his college coach: the back of this card notes that legendary Hoosiers coach John Pont considered Tom an all-time guard at his alma mater. The O-Pee-Chee cartoon adds the boast that Tom "says he is the strongest player in the C. F. L.," and the biography confirms he was regarded as one of the strongest men in the game. Schuette spent his entire professional career in Ottawa's trenches, protecting quarterbacks through the club's championship years. The reverse is a true Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back — English and French text with the black cartoon panel — not a puzzle back, and it carries the "©O-Pee-Chee / Printed in Canada" imprint that authenticates the Canadian issue. The front shows vivid red borders and a sharp, well-focused portrait with his trademark moustache. Centering is approximately 55/45 side-to-side with the image sitting slightly low in the frame. Corner wear is a bit more pronounced on this card than others from the same sheet: the top corners show visible whitening and softening, and the bottom-left corner has light rounding. There is scattered edge chipping along the red border on the top and right edges, a common trait of this condition-sensitive red design that reveals every flake of lost ink. The back shows warm, even toning with clean print and no marks, stains, or handwriting. We found no creases or wrinkles in either scan, but the combined corner and edge wear leads us to a deliberately conservative grade. For 1971 OPC CFL set-builders and Rough Riders faithful, this 1971 O-Pee-Chee CFL Tom Schuette #80 Ottawa Rough Riders single is an affordable, honest mid-grade example of a card that rarely surfaces outside Canada. Grade Estimate: VG-EX 4