1970 O-Pee-Chee Doug Strong #68 CFL Rookie Card Winnipeg Blue Bombers VG 3

Description

1970 O-Pee-Chee Doug Strong #68 CFL Rookie Card Winnipeg Blue Bombers VG 3 Few vintage football issues capture the colour and character of Canadian football quite like the 1970 O-Pee-Chee CFL set, and this 1970 O-Pee-Chee Doug Strong #68 CFL Rookie Card Winnipeg Blue Bombers VG 3 is a genuine piece of that era. Strong is pictured in the classic crouched three point stance in the Bombers white road jersey with gold pants and the blue and gold striped socks that define the look of Winnipeg football at the turn of the 1970s, photographed against the empty stands of a prairie stadium under a bright summer sky. The 1970 O-Pee-Chee CFL release ran 115 cards and remains one of the most collected Canadian gridiron issues ever printed, largely because it married American style photography with distinctly Canadian production values from the London, Ontario candy company that also produced hockey and baseball cards for the domestic market. Doug Strong came out of Waterloo Lutheran and made an immediate impact as a defensive halfback, and the card back notes that he was a key factor in the Bomber defensive corps during a standout rookie season, with the cartoon panel joking that Doug is also a good hockey player, a nod to the multi sport Canadian athlete of the period. This is a true Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back, with the biography presented in English and then repeated in French, and the green cartoon panel carrying captions in both languages, a format that collectors prize because it is unmistakably Canadian and has no American Topps equivalent. the card presents with a warm, original surface and strong colour saturation on the front, but the black back shows the typical chipping this set is famous for, with noticeable white flecking along all four edges and the most concentrated wear at the upper right and lower right corners, which are softened and slightly rounded with light fraying; the lower left corner shows a small ding, the front displays moderate chipping along the right border, centering is roughly sixty to forty left to right and sixty to forty top to bottom, and there is light surface handling with a faint diagonal impression on the back, though no crease breaks through to the front image. Given the black border chipping and corner softness, a conservative raw grade is appropriate, and buyers should expect a solidly presentable collector grade example rather than a high grade piece. This is exactly the kind of affordable, honest vintage CFL card that anchors a Blue Bombers or 1970 O-Pee-Chee set build. Grade Estimate: VG 3