1971 O-Pee-Chee Ron Lancaster #101 CFL Most Outstanding Player Saskatchewan Roughriders Card

Description

1971 O-Pee-Chee Ron Lancaster #101 CFL Most Outstanding Player Saskatchewan Roughriders Card Ask any Canadian football fan who is the greatest quarterback the game has ever produced and Ron Lancaster's name will come up first. This 1971 O-Pee-Chee CFL card, number 101, captures the man at the height of his fame, wearing the green Saskatchewan jersey number 23 in a portrait that radiates the quiet confidence of a four time Grey Cup champion. No other card in this nine card group carries the historical weight of this one. O-Pee-Chee's 1971 CFL release runs to 132 cards, organized club by club across the nine teams in the league, with the Saskatchewan block occupying the 90s and 100s. The front design, with its bright red border and clean white frame, is the same look O-Pee-Chee used across the set, and the reverse is the classic Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back, presenting Lancaster's biography in English and French beneath the O-Pee-Chee trademark and the printed in Canada line. This is not a U. S. puzzle back; it is the bilingual Canadian design that collectors of CFL cards look for. Lancaster's card is widely regarded as the key player card of the 1971 O-Pee-Chee CFL set. The card back notes that Lancaster, at 5 foot 10 and 185 pounds, was an import from Wittenberg College before joining Saskatchewan in 1963 after three seasons with the Ottawa Rough Riders. In Regina he rewrote the record books, leading the Riders to Grey Cups in 1965, 1968, 1969, and 1970, and the back records that he won the Schenley Trophy as the Most Outstanding Player in the league in 1970, the year Saskatchewan defeated Toronto in the final. His career passing records stood for decades, his number 1 was retired by the Roughriders, and he was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. The 1971 season was one of his final years, which gives this card a special place in CFL card history. this is the sharpest card of the nine shown. The photos reveal only light rounding at the corners, a faint mark at the lower left corner, and modest edge wear along the bottom edge, with no chipping, no creases, no repair, and no writing on either side. The portrait is well centred, estimated near 50/50, and the green of the jersey and the red of the border are both strong and even. Sleeve glare visible in the photos is not a surface defect. Weighing the vintage against the clean appearance, a conservative raw estimate is EX 5, and the card could grade slightly higher under magnification. The 1971 O-Pee-Chee Ron Lancaster #101 CFL Most Outstanding Player Saskatchewan Roughriders Card is the marquee single in this group, and it is priced accordingly. Grade Estimate: EX 5