1971 O-Pee-Chee Don Jonas #16 Rookie Card Winnipeg Blue Bombers

Description

1971 O-Pee-Chee Don Jonas #16 Rookie Card Winnipeg Blue Bombers Every era of Canadian football has its instant folk hero, and for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the early seventies that man was Don Jonas, which is why this 1971 O-Pee-Chee Don Jonas #16 Rookie Card Winnipeg Blue Bombers card stands out as the key card of the Bomber run in the 1971 O-Pee-Chee CFL set. Jonas took the long road north, leaving Penn State as a thirteenth round pick of the Philadelphia Eagles in 1961, playing a single NFL game, and then spending seven years building a legend in the Atlantic Coast and Continental Football Leagues, where the card back notes he set numerous offensive records. Traded to Winnipeg in the off season from the Toronto Argonauts, he exploded onto the CFL stage in 1971 with 4,036 passing yards and 27 touchdown tosses, numbers that earned him the league's Most Outstanding Player award and made him the most feared quarterback in the West. He also handled place kicking, a dual role the front of the card trumpets in small caps, and he steered the Bombers all the way to the 1972 Grey Cup, where they fell 13 to 10 to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in one of the great heartbreakers of the decade. This is Jonas's true rookie card, his first of only two O-Pee-Chee issues, and it anchors the Winnipeg block of a 132 card series that every Canadian set collector knows for its red borders, white name plates, framed colour photography, and the football graphic above the team name. His portrait is a warm one, a broad smile in the blue and white uniform against the deep sky blue background that gives the 1971 series its signature look. this copy has been examined through the protective sleeve and shows sharp, well defined corners with only a negligible touch at the top-left, clean edges with no visible chipping or paper loss, and centering in the 55/45 range left to right with the white photo frame sitting very slightly toward the right, which is within the norm for this sheet layout. The surface is bright and unmarked, with no creases, wrinkles, or indentations, and the small specks visible in the red frame are printing flecks rather than wear. The bottom corners are square and the name and position lettering remain completely legible with no rubbing. The back is the classic Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back in English and French, and it is not a puzzle back, since the 1971 design uses the cartoon and biography layout rather than puzzle art, with the © O-PEE-CHEE and PRINTED IN CANADA line present. A conservative raw grade lands in the EX-MT range, and as the most significant card in this group of nine, it is the one any CFL collector will reach for first. Grade Estimate: EX-MT 6