1973-74 O-Pee-Chee Gary Bergman #65 Detroit Red Wings Defense Summit Series

Description

1973-74 O-Pee-Chee Gary Bergman #65 Detroit Red Wings Defense Summit Series Round out your Red Wings build with this 1973-74 O-Pee-Chee Gary Bergman #65, a vintage single of the dependable Detroit defenseman known to teammates as Dutch and to hockey fans as a proud member of the 1972 Team Canada squad. Gary Bergman was the kind of blueliner coaches loved, a steady, physical defender who patrolled the Red Wings lineup for nearly a decade and hit a pair of career milestones in the 1972-73 season shown here, skating in his 600th NHL game and reaching his 250th career point, both milestones called out on the card back. Beyond his NHL service, Bergman earned a place in hockey history when he was chosen for Team Canada in the landmark 1972 Summit Series against the Soviet Union, the unforgettable eight-game clash that galvanized the sport, making his cards a natural cross-over piece for Summit Series collectors. The front shows the veteran defender in his white Red Wings jersey with the alternate captain's A, leaning on his stick in the classic 1973-74 O-Pee-Chee red-bordered design, and the back cartoon explains that teammates nicknamed him Dutch. The reverse is a Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back, printed in Canada with English and French text, his 1972-73 season record of 3 goals and 28 assists for 31 points, and a cartoon panel, rather than a puzzle back, and this copy is on the standard darker gray stock. Examining the scans, the card shows light to moderate corner rounding with the bottom corners a touch softer, minor edge nicking along the red frame, a bright front image with a small dark print spot on the glove and a tiny mark near the left border but no crease, and centering that is fairly even with a slight shift toward the bottom. The back is clean and unmarked with gentle edge wear. With modest corner and edge wear but a crease-free surface and a clean reverse, a conservative raw grade of EX 5 is the fair estimate, as the small surface spot and corner wear hold it just below the EX-MT level. Grade Estimate: EX 5