1971 O-Pee-Chee Ross Richardson #25 Rookie Card Winnipeg Blue Bombers

Description

1971 O-Pee-Chee Ross Richardson #25 Rookie Card Winnipeg Blue Bombers Guards rarely get their due, which is exactly why this 1971 O-Pee-Chee Ross Richardson #25 Rookie Card Winnipeg Blue Bombers issue is such a satisfying find for collectors who appreciate the trenches. Richardson came out of the University of North Dakota on a football scholarship, and the card back notes he was in his third season with the Blue Bombers when this card was printed, making this his only O-Pee-Chee issue and therefore his rookie card. His claim to fame is written right on the back of the companion Slagle card in the same run, where the two men are described as having become one of the best guard combinations in the CFL, a pairing that anchored the Winnipeg offensive line through the early seventies. In an era before free agency and satellite television, offensive linemen like Richardson were the unheralded workhorses whose names appeared on only a single piece of cardboard, and that scarcity is precisely what makes his card desirable to Canadian set builders today. Visually, the card is a textbook example of the 1971 O-Pee-Chee CFL design, that bold red frame, white name block, framed colour photo, football graphic, and the heavy serif Winnipeg Blue Bombers lettering, and it is one of the best looking poses in the sheet, with Richardson down in a three point stance on the practice grass, moustache and all, staring down the camera. The photo captures the aesthetic of seventies Canadian football perfectly, from the gold pants and blue and white striped socks to the winged W patch on the chest. examined through the protective sleeve, this copy is one of the finer cards in the group, with sharp corners all around, at most a faint touch at the bottom-right, clean edges with no visible chipping, and close to even centering of roughly 52/48, with the photo frame sitting near optimum within the red border. The surface is bright and free of creases, wrinkles, or indentations, the photo area is clean, and the red frame shows only the light print flecks normal for the series. The back is the Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back, with the English and French panels on tan cardboard, and it is not a puzzle back, since the 1971 reverse uses the cartoon and biography format with the © O-PEE-CHEE and PRINTED IN CANADA line. A conservative raw grade lands in the upper EX-MT range, and this is a sharply presented rookie card of a key member of the Bomber line. Grade Estimate: EX-MT 6