1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Pittsburgh Penguins #14 Team Logo Insert NHL

Description

1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Pittsburgh Penguins #14 Team Logo Insert NHL The 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Pittsburgh Penguins #14 Team Logo Insert NHL captures the franchise before black and gold became its permanent visual identity. The circular dark blue emblem surrounds a skating penguin and gold triangle, with PITTSBURGH PENGUINS lettering creating a wonderfully period-specific expansion-era design. The card is shown upside down in the supplied sheet scan, but the logo itself is complete and can be displayed in its proper orientation when photographed individually. O-Pee-Chee placed Team Logo inserts in third-series wax packs during 1972-73, and the resulting 30-card checklist united NHL teams with the upstart WHA. The physical card is unnumbered, while #14 is the accepted checklist reference. Pittsburgh entered the NHL in 1967, and the triangle behind the skating penguin symbolized the city’s Golden Triangle. Blue shades and warm gold defined the early uniforms before the club changed to black and gold at the end of the 1970s. The period around this insert featured talented Penguins such as Syl Apps Jr., Jean Pronovost, and Ron Schock, players who helped establish an audience well before the franchise’s later championship eras. Mario Lemieux transformed the organization in the 1980s and led Stanley Cup titles in 1991 and 1992, while Sidney Crosby captained championship teams in 2009, 2016, and 2017. As a result, an early blue-circle logo insert offers a compelling visual contrast to the modern Penguins brand while still featuring the skating bird that has endured through generations. This Canadian-made O-Pee-Chee insert was designed as a push-out, and its circular die-cut remains seated in the rectangular surround. The reverse is plain brown adhesive-style stock with the circular cut line visible. It is not a Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual statistical back and it is not a puzzle back. The four outer corners appear lightly softened but not heavily rounded, and the perimeter has minor age wear with no severe edge chipping. A faint handwritten pencil 5 is visible in the cream field above the blue ring when the card is viewed as scanned. The dark blue ring and white inner field show scattered small specks, including a tiny white chip near the upper part of the ring, plus light surface traces consistent with handling. No obvious full-card crease is visible on the front or the evenly toned brown back. The die-cut channel remains complete with normal tab interruptions. Centering is respectable side to side, though the round emblem is placed somewhat high in the card in its scanned orientation. The pencil notation and surface wear lead to a conservative EX 5 raw estimate rather than EX-MT. This is a highly recognizable early Penguins collectible with appealing vintage colours, complete construction, and direct relevance to both logo-history and championship-franchise collectors. Grade Estimate: EX 5