1971 O-Pee-Chee CFL Dave Braggins #79 Ottawa Rough Riders

Description

1971 O-Pee-Chee CFL Dave Braggins #79 Ottawa Rough Riders Step back to the golden age of Canadian football with this 1971 O-Pee-Chee CFL Dave Braggins #79 Ottawa Rough Riders card, a vintage single from one of the most beloved Canadian-issued football sets ever produced. The 1971 O-Pee-Chee CFL series spans 132 cards organized by team, and its bold red borders — echoing the classic 1971 Topps NFL design — make it instantly recognizable to collectors on both sides of the border. The set is famous as the home of Joe Theismann's first professional card, and the Ottawa Rough Riders run is a fan favourite thanks to the club's dominance in the era, fresh off their legendary 1969 Grey Cup championship under Frank Clair. Dave Braggins arrived in Ottawa out of Florida State, a 6'2", 245-pound import lineman who patrolled both sides of the trenches as a guard and defensive tackle. The card back notes he was "one of the most versatile linemen in the C. F. L., extremely rugged and aggressive," entering his third season with the Riders in 1971 — the kind of unsung workhorse who anchored Ottawa's championship-calibre rosters of the early 1970s. The front features a smiling portrait framed by the bright red border with the galloping Rough Riders logo, while the reverse carries the signature O-Pee-Chee cartoon ("Dave wears a sombrero with a feather") alongside full bilingual English and French text. This is a true Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back — not a puzzle back — clearly stamped "Printed in Canada," which is exactly what set-builders and CFL specialists look for. The front presents with strong red colour and a clean, glossy portrait. Centering is slightly shifted, approximately 55/45 left-to-right and a touch high top-to-bottom. All four corners show light touches of whitening with mild rounding at the lower corners, and there is minor edge chipping along the red border, most noticeable on the bottom edge. The back displays even cream-to-tan toning typical of 50-plus-year-old O-Pee-Chee stock, with legible print and no writing, stains, or paper loss. No creases or wrinkles are visible under review of both scans. Given the corner wear and border chipping, we grade this conservatively rather than optimistically — a solid mid-grade survivor. This 1971 O-Pee-Chee CFL Dave Braggins #79 Ottawa Rough Riders single is a perfect pickup for vintage CFL set-builders, Rough Riders team collectors, and anyone chasing authentic Canadiana from football's classic era. It ships carefully protected from our Ontario shop. Grade Estimate: EX 5