1970 O-Pee-Chee CFL Joseph Poirier #38 Bilingual Back Ottawa Rough Riders EX 5

Description

1970 O-Pee-Chee CFL Joseph Poirier #38 Bilingual Back Ottawa Rough Riders EX 5 This is the marquee card of the group, both for the sharpness of the copy and for the résumé of the man in the number 17 jersey. The 1970 O-Pee-Chee CFL Joseph Poirier #38 Bilingual Back Ottawa Rough Riders EX 5 captures The Fox in the last of his twelve professional seasons, and twelve is the operative number, because John Joseph Poirier never missed a single game from 1959 through 1970, a streak of 168 consecutive regular season contests that remains one of the most remarkable durability records in Canadian football. Born in Verdun, Quebec, he starred at Loyola College and then McGill before signing in Ottawa, where he immediately won the Gruen Trophy as the best rookie in the Eastern Conference in 1959. He was named an East all star five times and a CFL All Canadian in 1966, the year he led the league with nine interceptions, and he finished with 47 career interceptions and 658 return yards, both franchise records, with two picks returned for touchdowns. He appeared in four Grey Cup games and won three of them in 1960, 1968 and 1969, and he was inducted into the Loyola Sports Hall of Fame in 1968 and the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame in 1999 before passing away in December of 2021. Cards of genuine Ottawa legends from the 115 card 1970 O-Pee-Chee CFL set carry a premium over commons, and this one is the highest grade single in the group. The reverse is a Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back with the biography in English and French, white type on black stock, a green cartoon panel explaining that Joe is known as The Fox, and the Printed in Canada credit at lower left. It is not a puzzle back, and the panel lists him as a non import at six foot one and 180 pounds out of Loyola. the front is free of creases, wrinkles and marks, the black jersey and white pants hold strong contrast with no fading, the borders are clean with only faint uniform toning, three corners are close to square while the bottom left shows the slightest touch of fuzz, edge chipping is negligible with no visible flaking, and centering runs approximately 50/50 left to right and 50/50 top to bottom, while the black reverse is solid and clean with light whitening at the corner tips and along the bottom edge. The conservative grade estimate of EX 5 is deliberately cautious for a card that presents at the EX-MT level, since scans can hide microscopic corner wear on black backed stock. Grade Estimate: EX 5