1971 O-Pee-Chee CFL Rod Woodward #83 Ottawa Rough Riders

Description

1971 O-Pee-Chee CFL Rod Woodward #83 Ottawa Rough Riders This 1971 O-Pee-Chee CFL Rod Woodward #83 Ottawa Rough Riders card delivers something increasingly hard to find: a clean, full-body vintage pose from the CFL's classic era, shot kneeling on the turf in Ottawa's black, red, and white number 26 jersey with the stadium rising behind him. The 1971 O-Pee-Chee CFL issue — 132 red-bordered cards printed only in Canada — is the flagship set for collectors of Canadian football's golden age, and the Ottawa team cards showcase a club sitting between its 1969 and 1973 Grey Cup triumphs. Rod Woodward brought a great story to the nation's capital. A 6'1", 200-pound non-import defensive half who played his college ball at the University of Idaho, Woodward came to Ottawa from the Montreal Alouettes in the trade involving the great Gene Gaines, as the card back recounts. He had been one of the shining lights of the Alouettes' 1969 lineup before injury struck — the O-Pee-Chee cartoon notes that Rod broke his arm in the first game of the previous season, the kind of quirky biographical detail that makes these backs so collectible. Woodward rebounded to become a dependable member of Ottawa's secondary in the early 1970s. The reverse is a true Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back, with parallel English and French text and the "©O-Pee-Chee / Printed in Canada" credit; this set used biography backs, not puzzle backs. The front is one of the stronger presenters from this collection, with bold red borders, a bright white inner frame, and vivid photo colour. Centering is approximately 55/45 left-to-right and close to even vertically. The corners show only light whitening under magnification, most visible at the bottom-left, and edge chipping along the red border is minimal compared to its sheet-mates. The back shows even light-tan toning, sharp bilingual print, and no marks, stains, or handwriting. No creases or wrinkles are detectable in either scan. Even so, red-bordered 1971s hide micro-flaws poorly under grading lights, so we hold the estimate to a cautious mid-grade rather than projecting higher. Whether you are completing the 132-card run or building an Ottawa secondary shrine alongside Al Marcelin, this 1971 O-Pee-Chee CFL Rod Woodward #83 Ottawa Rough Riders single is a sharp, honest example with real eye appeal for the grade. Grade Estimate: EX 5