1970 O-Pee-Chee Ted Page #19 Hamilton Tiger-Cats EX 5

Description

1970 O-Pee-Chee Ted Page #19 Hamilton Tiger-Cats EX 5 If you love lockdown defensive backs from footballs golden age in Canada, this 1970 O-Pee-Chee Ted Page #19 Hamilton Tiger-Cats EX 5 deserves a close look at Alex Collect. The front shows Page in his black number 15 jersey with gold pants, standing tall at the stadium with a white wrist wrap, his name and Hamilton Tiger-Cats Defensive Halfback credit printed crisply above the leaping Tiger-Cats emblem. It is a clean confident portrait that highlights why Tiger-Cats fans of the late 1960s trusted Page on the corner against the leagues best import receivers. This copy presents as one of the sharper examples from this nine card sheet, with strong color saturation and excellent readability that will upgrade many mid grade sets and team collections instantly. This card comes from the classic 1970 O-Pee-Chee CFL series, a 115 card set produced in Canada that remains a favorite for its white bordered fronts, vivid stadium photography, and tough black bilingual backs with humorous green cartoons. This is a Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back with English and French text and a green cartoon panel, not a puzzle back, marked PRINTED IN CANADA. The design is instantly recognizable to Canadian collectors, and the Hamilton cards are particularly popular because the Tiger-Cats were perennial Eastern contenders around 1970, coming off Grey Cup victories and building toward another championship run in 1972. Because the black ink on the reverse scuffs and chips with the slightest handling, finding Hamilton commons and semi stars with solid eye appeal in EX range has become steadily harder, especially with centered fronts and clean cartoons like this one. Ted Page has a terrific story that adds real collector interest. Born June 11, 1942 in North Bay, Ontario, he played college ball at Compton Junior College and California State Los Angeles before beginning his CFL career with the Montreal Alouettes from 1962 to 1964 where he appeared in 38 regular season games. He then joined the Hamilton Tiger-Cats from 1965 to 1970 and became a key piece of two Grey Cup championship teams in 1965 and 1967, finishing his career with the Edmonton Eskimos in 1971. Primarily a defensive halfback and corner, he intercepted a career high four passes in both 1965 and 1969, and he also contributed as a punt returner and kick returner, even scoring a return touchdown in 1964. Canadian defensive backs who could cover American speedsters while also handling return duties were highly valued in that era, and Page proved that little guys could thrive in professional football as his card back notes. front centering is approximately 60/40 top to bottom and close to 55/45 left to right with all four white borders intact and the Tiger-Cats logo fully visible, surface gloss is strong with bright golds and deep blacks, corners show only light touches with minor whitening at the tips under magnification, edges are clean with very light toning on the white stock, back number 19 roundel is bold and text is sharp, black areas show only light edge chipping with a few tiny white specks and light corner touches but no heavy flaking, cartoon panel is clean with vivid green and no staining, no creases, wrinkles, pinholes or writing detected from the high resolution sheet photos. The conservative grade estimate explanation is EX 5 because while eye appeal approaches higher, the slight corner touches and minimal back edge specks keep it safely in the excellent range for an ungraded raw vintage card. Grade Estimate: EX 5