1970 O-Pee-Chee Harry Olszewski #108 Montreal Alouettes VG-EX 4

Description

1970 O-Pee-Chee Harry Olszewski #108 Montreal Alouettes VG-EX 4 Here is a genuine piece of Canadian football history, the 1970 O-Pee-Chee card of Harry Olszewski, the powerful offensive guard who anchored the Montreal Alouettes line during one of the most dramatic turnaround seasons in franchise history. The 1970 O-Pee-Chee CFL set holds a special place in the hobby as the first Canadian football issue in more than five years, arriving just in time to document an Alouettes team that would storm through the 1970 playoffs and capture the Grey Cup, their first title since 1949. Olszewski's biography on the reverse tells the story of a "graduate" lineman in the truest sense: a 250 pound All-American from Clemson University who signed with the Cleveland Browns organization, took a brief detour through the Continental Football League in 1969, and then crossed the border to become a reliable import blocker in Montreal, where he doubled at linebacker when the roster demanded it. Cards of Canadian football linemen from this era are genuinely scarce, because the entire 115 card print run was distributed only in Canada, and survivors of hardworking linemen like Olszewski are far rarer than those of star quarterbacks. The card features the classic English and French bilingual O-Pee-Chee back with the cartoon panel celebrating his All-American pedigree, and it is not a puzzle back, which distinguishes it from the puzzle-backed issues that followed in 1971 and 1972. the top left corner shows the most noticeable rounding with visible softness, the remaining three corners carry light but honest wear, the edges are intact with minor chipping along the top, a faint diagonal line visible in the upper right sky on the front appears to be sleeve refraction or light surface abrasion rather than a full crease, and centering is slightly to the right, while the black reverse displays a surface scratch in the upper right quadrant along with modest corner wear on an otherwise clean and glossy back. With the rounded top left corner and the surface imperfection in view, a conservative raw grade of VG-EX 4 is the fair call, and we prefer to under promise so the buyer always feels the card over delivered when it is examined in hand or under a grading lens. Grade Estimate: VG-EX 4