1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Stan Mikita #156 In Action Chicago Blackhawks

Description

1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Stan Mikita #156 In Action Chicago Blackhawks Before Wayne's World made Stan Mikita's Donuts a pop-culture punchline in 1992, the real Stan Mikita was simply the most complete forward on the planet, and this 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Stan Mikita #156 In Action Chicago Blackhawks card puts the master at work against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the city his family chose when they left Czechoslovakia and where a young Slovak immigrant learned the game. The front carries the series caption Chicago vs. Toronto down the left border and the starburst designation Chicago Centre above the NHL ACTION banner, with Mikita in the famous red Black Hawks sweater digging for position near the blue paint. His resume is staggering even by the standards of the era celebrated on this card back, which itself records that he won the league scoring title on four different occasions: the Art Ross trophies came in 1964, 1965, 1967 and 1968, with back-to-back Hart Trophies as league MVP and back-to-back Lady Byng Trophies sandwiched in between. That Lady Byng double is one of hockey's great redemption stories, since Mikita famously remade himself from the most penalized player in the league into its most gentlemanly star, a transformation almost unheard of in professional sports. Alongside Bobby Hull he also pioneered the curved stick blade that changed shooting forever, and he raised the 1961 Stanley Cup as part of the beloved Mr. Black Hawk legacy that carried him to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1984. The reverse is the Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back carrying the full English and French bio above the O-Pee-Chee copyright line, not a puzzle back, which is the version Canadian collectors grew up with while American kids got the shorter English-only Topps issue. the upper left and upper right corners show light tip wear with tiny chipping at the top edge beside the upper right corner, the lower right tip carries a small white nick where the gold border meets the edge and a matching tiny white nick sits on the bottom edge just right of center below the photo frame, the lower left corner is softly touched, and centering is close to even left to right at about 55/45 with a slight top-heavy lean of roughly 55/45 top to bottom. No creases, wrinkles or surface indentations appear on either side and print registration remains crisp. Those small edge nicks and the tip whitening are exactly why we grade conservatively, giving this handsome raw copy an EX 5 estimate rather than pushing it higher. A Hall of Fame action card with real eye appeal. Grade Estimate: EX 5