1970 O-Pee-Chee CFL Mike Strofolino #17 Centre Linebacker Hamilton Tiger-Cats

Description

1970 O-Pee-Chee CFL Mike Strofolino #17 Centre Linebacker Hamilton Tiger-Cats Every set has a card that quietly out-charms the stars, and in the Hamilton run of the 1970 O-Pee-Chee CFL issue that card might belong to Mike Strofolino. This listing offers a single raw copy of card number 17 from the set, pictured in the bottom-right front slot of the nine-card sleeve, catching Strofolino in a ready crouch wearing number 65, fists clenched, eyes up, the very picture of a player asked to do two jobs and happy to volunteer for both. The bilingual back tells the tale with typical O-Pee-Chee economy: centre and linebacker, it reads, came to the Tiger-Cats late last season but proved a very capable performer, listing the import at six feet and 235 pounds. Then the green cartoon panel delivers the gem, announcing in English and French that Mike is a native of Brooklyn, New York, which means this unassuming black-backed card happens to be a tiny treaty between Brooklyn grit and Hamilton steel, printed in Canada at the dawn of the seventies. Utility players who could snap on offence and stuff the run on defence were the connective tissue of CFL rosters in that era, six-day-a-week professionals whose versatility kept game-day squads flexible, and cards honouring them have developed a devoted following among collectors who love the league's working-class soul. The 1970 OPC CFL design shows Strofolino beautifully, the white-framed colour portrait catching the empty stands behind him, his name in red beneath, the Tiger-Cats roundel bright at lower right, while the reverse splits English and French across the dramatic black background with PRINTED IN CANADA down the edge. Hamilton completists need this name to finish the run, and collectors of New York-born players in Canadian football have an irresistible oddity here. Searching 1970 O-Pee-Chee CFL Mike Strofolino #17 Centre Linebacker Hamilton Tiger-Cats EX-5 brings you to a copy that easily holds its own in the grade range. the front shows light wear concentrated at the two upper corner tips, mild wear along the right border edge, and near-even centering, with the photo surface free of creases, wrinkles and stains and colour remaining deep and true; applying the page-flip mapping, this card's reverse sits at the bottom-left of the back scan and presents cleanly, showing slight corner whitening only, sharp bilingual text and a bright green cartoon panel with no surface damage of note. This is the Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back version of the card, not a puzzle back.