1970 O-Pee-Chee Wayne Harris #89 Calgary Stampeders CFL Football Card EX-MT 6

Description

1970 O-Pee-Chee Wayne Harris #89 Calgary Stampeders CFL Football Card EX-MT 6 The reverse cartoon says it plainly, declaring Wayne the most popular player ever to wear a Calgary uniform, and the 1970 O-Pee-Chee Wayne Harris #89 backs up that claim with a stunning action photograph of the legendary linebacker prowling in his red number 55 jersey, a card widely regarded as the crown jewel of the Calgary series in the 176 card 1970 set. Harris arrived from the University of Arkansas, where the bilingual biography notes he was honored among the school's best athletes in 1960, and he proceeded to build one of the greatest careers in CFL history, winning the Schenley Award as the league's most outstanding player in 1964, a nearly unheard of achievement for a defensive player and one that still defines his legend more than fifty years later. The card lists the American import at six feet and 195 pounds and describes him as very aggressive, an understatement to anyone who watched him Patrol the middle of the Stampeder defence with relentless precision season after season, and history would soon add the perfect final chapter, because Harris anchored the Calgary defence when the Stampeders won the 1971 Grey Cup the season after this card was issued, en route to eventual enshrinement in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. Key card collectors, Grey Cup historians and Hall of Fame profile builders all target the Harris as the essential Calgary card of this issue, and the striking running photograph gives it display appeal that few vintage football cards of any era can match. The back is the classic Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back, black bordered with the English and French biography side by side, the green cartoon panel at the foot and the PRINTED IN CANADA imprint, and it is a bilingual text back, not a puzzle back. the front shows sharp corners with only pinpoint touches at the very tips of the top corners, clean well defined edges, centering of approximately 55/45, a bright glossy photograph with rich, unfaded red color and no creases, wrinkles or surface marks, and a black bilingual back with light, even corner wear and crisp, fully legible English and French text beside the intact green cartoon panel. Graded conservatively at EX-MT 6 because the pinpoint top corner touches and the modest centering bias are the only things keeping this exceptional copy from a higher technical grade, making this 1970 O-Pee-Chee Wayne Harris #89 a premium, honestly graded key card for the serious vintage CFL collector. Grade Estimate: EX-MT 6