1969-70 O-Pee-Chee Tim Ecclestone #179 St. Louis Blues (VG)

Description

1969-70 O-Pee-Chee Tim Ecclestone #179 St. Louis Blues (VG) Rounding out this nine-card St. Louis Blues group is a second copy of the Tim Ecclestone 1969-70 O-Pee-Chee card #179 — in fact, one of the sharpest, best-presenting cards in the entire collection. Tim Ecclestone's career path is the kind that resonates with hockey romantics: a Toronto kid who dominated with the Kitchener Rangers in Junior "A," was snatched up by the expansion St. Louis Blues ahead of their inaugural season, and stepped directly into the NHL as a 20-year-old rookie with zero minor-league seasoning. That confidence wasn't misplaced — Ecclestone became a reliable two-way winger for Scotty Bowman's Blues, chipping in secondary scoring, killing penalties, and contributing to those three straight Stanley Cup Final runs before being traded to Detroit in 1971 and later returning home to finish his career with the Maple Leafs and then finishing strong with the Atlanta Flames, where he posted his two highest-scoring NHL seasons. The 1969-70 card captured him right as he was establishing himself as an NHL regular, making it a fun "early career" piece for Ecclestone collectors and Blues fans alike. This copy features the same beloved green-background action pose and the famous "Tim was married this past summer" wedding cartoon as its companion card — a cartoon panel that has made #179 one of the most recognisable and sought-after commons in the 1969-70 OPC Blues subset. The front shows Ecclestone in his blue #2 sweater, hands on knees, with the green Wing position disc, the red hockey stick graphic, the circular Blues crest patch, the black name strip, and the red "BLUES" slug all perfectly composed in the classic stick-border layout. The reverse carries the full bilingual O-Pee-Chee treatment: English bio heralding "a great future in the N. H. L.," the parallel French text, the wedding-day cartoon panel, year-by-season stats through 1968-69 (68 GP, 11-23-34, 31 PIM), lifetime NHL totals, and the vertical © T. C. G. PRINTED IN CANADA line confirming this is the genuine Canadian O-Pee-Chee print and not the English-only US Topps parallel. This copy matches or slightly edges the other Ecclestone in overall eye appeal. Corners: all four corners are quite well-preserved for a 56-year-old card, with only very light touches and no heavy rounding or blunting. Edges: minimal wear along the white border, with no visible chipping, nicks, or edge fraying. Surface: the light-green photo background is bright and even, the blue jersey ink is rich, and no creases, wrinkles, stains, or gum marks are visible on the face; a few tiny, age-consistent print dots may be visible under magnification but nothing detracting from presentation. Centering: a very slight horizontal shift comparable to the other Ecclestone in the lot, with strong top-bottom alignment. The back shows light, even paper ageing without heavy tanning or foxing, clean edges, and fully intact text and cartoon work — a very attractive reverse. Grade Estimate: VG