SOLD 1971 O-Pee-Chee Jim Evenson #41 All-Star BC Lions

Description

1971 O-Pee-Chee Jim Evenson #41 All-Star BC Lions The 1971 O-Pee-Chee Jim Evenson #41 BC Lions card celebrates a bruising fullback who was announced for posthumous induction into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2026, a long overdue honour that has sent collectors scrambling for his early issues. Evenson arrived in Canada in 1968 out of the University of Oregon, and with the legendary Willie Fleming having just retired, the door was wide open for a new running back to capture the hearts of Lions fans, which is exactly what Evenson did. He eclipsed the 1,000 yard rushing plateau in each of his first four seasons, rolling up 1,220 yards as a rookie, then 1,287 in 1969, 1,003 in 1970, and 1,237 in 1971, numbers the card back proudly touts with the headline Rushed 1000 Yards Twice. He was a CFL All Star in both 1970 and 1971, won the Eddie James Memorial Trophy in 1971 as the West's rushing leader, and later earned a Grey Cup ring with the Ottawa Rough Riders in 1973. The card also notes that the Pittsburgh Steelers selected him in the fourth round of the 1970 NFL draft, making this a nice crossover piece for collectors who follow the American league as well. Evenson finished his CFL career with 7,060 rushing yards, and he was welcomed onto the BC Lions Wall of Fame in 2008, the same year of his passing. Evenson led the Western Conference in rushing in 1971 with 1,237 yards, the season captured on this card, and his four consecutive 1,000 yard campaigns from 1968 through 1971 stand among the great opening acts in Lions history. With his Hall of Fame induction now official, interest in his early O-Pee-Chee issues has risen sharply among CFL collectors, and this 1971 example is one of the most affordable ways to own a piece of that legacy. the surfaces are clean and free of creases, wrinkles, and surface marks at scan resolution, the red border remains vivid and evenly applied, and the corners and edges show no chipping visible in the scan, with centering that appears well within the normal tolerances for this frequently off centre issue. The reverse is the classic Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back with the biography printed in both English and French and the PRINTED IN CANADA line at the base, and this is not the puzzle back variation. With Hall of Fame demand now building, this 1971 O-Pee-Chee Jim Evenson #41 card is a clean original that belongs in any serious CFL collection. Grade Estimate: EX 5