1972 O-Pee-Chee CFL Pete Ribbins #112 Base Set Winnipeg Blue Bombers CFL

Description

1972 O-Pee-Chee CFL Pete Ribbins #112 Base Set Winnipeg Blue Bombers CFL An Irish born receiver who became the first name called in a Canadian college draft is exactly the kind of story that only Canadian football can produce, and that story lives on the back of this 1972 O-Pee-Chee CFL Pete Ribbins #112 Base Set Winnipeg Blue Bombers CFL card. The front shows Ribbins in the royal blue Winnipeg jersey with gold and white sleeve striping, number 73 across his chest, framed by a bright yellow border with the bold black BLUE BOMBERS band above him. Once turned over, the reverse reveals the classic Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back rendered in blue and green ink on grey cardboard stock, with the biography printed in both French and English, so collectors can immediately see that this is a true Canadian bilingual back rather than a puzzle back. The text reports that he was born in Ireland, stood six foot two and weighed 196 pounds, came to the Blue Bombers as the number one draft choice in the 1971 Canadian College Draft, brought excellent speed from the University of Ottawa, was chosen an All Canadian on the university gridiron in 1970 and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree, a detail the back celebrates with a cartoon scholar clutching a diploma. That combination of a science degree, an Irish birthplace and a first overall draft slot makes Ribbins a wonderful piece of Canadian football trivia, and it places him squarely inside the CFL's golden age of Canadian university talent. By 1972 the league was scouting the country's campuses harder than ever, and players like Ribbins were expected to be more than roster filler in an era when the ratio demanded homegrown starters. Winnipeg in that period had just witnessed Don Jonas win the 1971 CFL Most Outstanding Player award after throwing for 4,036 yards and 27 touchdowns, and the Blue Bombers were building a fast, aggressive Western Division club around Canadian speed. The 1972 O-Pee-Chee issue, 132 cards deep with 13 players per team, 14 Pro Action cards and a checklist at number 132, was the last CFL football set the London, Ontario company would produce, which makes every card from the run a small monument to a league that still felt like the heartbeat of Canadian sport in the fall. a light vertical surface line runs through the right shoulder and sleeve area, and there are a few pinpoint white scuffs on the chest to the left of the number 7, both of which are surface issues rather than creases. Corners are generally crisp with slight softening at the bottom left, the yellow border shows light print snow, and centering sits near 52/48 left to right. The reverse is clean and evenly centred with only a mild cream hue in the stock and no writing, staining or hidden bends. A conservative grade assessment places this card at the EX 5 level. The corner and edge structure would support a higher number, but the light surface line and the pinpoint abrasions on the chest are the sort of defects graders punish hardest, and vintage O-Pee-Chee stock is notoriously unforgiving, so EX 5 is the honest, defensible call. Grade Estimate: EX 5