1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Bill White #248 NHL All Star Chicago Black Hawks

Description

1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Bill White #248 NHL All Star Chicago Black Hawks Half of the most reliable defense pairing in the NHL during the early 1970s, Bill White earns his All-Star recognition on this 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Bill White #248 NHL All Star Chicago Black Hawks card. This card belongs to the O-Pee-Chee exclusive All-Star subset found in the Canadian high number series and was never released by Topps in the United States. The design departs from the standard player cards with a sky blue background, black vertical 1971-72 NHL ALL STAR lettering, a yellow nameplate, and a white star in the lower right announcing his 2nd Team Defense honour. White is shown in the classic red Chicago Black Hawks sweater, stick raised, with a calm and focused expression that suits his reputation as a steady stay at home defender. Bill White, a Toronto native, spent years starring in the minors before finally getting his NHL chance with the expansion Los Angeles Kings in 1967 at age 28. Traded to Chicago in 1970, he formed a legendary partnership with Pat Stapleton and was named a Second Team All-Star in three consecutive seasons from 1972 to 1974. He played all eight games for Team Canada in the 1972 Summit Series, scoring a crucial goal in Game 7 in Moscow, and later served as interim head coach of the Black Hawks in 1976-77. The reverse is the Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back, printed in Canada under the heading NHL All-Stars and Etoiles de la LNH, listing his All-Star Game statistics from 1968-69 through 1971-72 with dual language column headers and a cartoon of a star covered hockey player. The front displays vivid blue color and clean gloss with no creases, wrinkles, or surface marks observed. Centering is slightly shifted toward the left with a marginally wider right border, and top to bottom is nearly even. The corners show light to moderate softening, with the upper left and lower right corners showing the most rounding. The edges are generally clean with faint fuzzing along the bottom and no significant chipping. The back shows the typical even toning of 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee stock with crisp printing, no writing, and no staining. Factoring in the corner wear against the clean surface, a conservative raw grade of EX 5 is fitting. This All-Star card pairs perfectly with its Stapleton counterpart and appeals to Summit Series collectors, Black Hawks fans, and OPC high number set builders. Ships in a protective sleeve and rigid top loader from Alex Collect in Ontario, Canada. Grade Estimate: EX 5