1972 O-Pee-Chee CFL Bill Baker #85 1971 WFC All-Star Saskatchewan Roughriders

Description

1972 O-Pee-Chee CFL Bill Baker #85 1971 WFC All-Star Saskatchewan Roughriders The most interesting thing about the 1972 O-Pee-Chee CFL Bill Baker #85 is that O-Pee-Chee accidentally printed the player's name right through his own jersey number, and vintage collectors will pay a premium for exactly that kind of factory flourish when they understand it. Baker's card comes from the Riders sequence in O-Pee-Chee's 132-card CFL set, the final CFL issue of that series, packaged in ten-cent wax packs with eight cards and bubble gum. That same set carries Joe Theismann's coveted rookie card at number 27, fourteen Pro-Action inserts at 118 through 131, and the checklist at 132, but it is the odd name placements, the red ink of BAKER and DT sitting across the white 65, that make each Riders card individually memorable. The back explains why the printers bothered. Bill was entering his fourth season with the Roughriders and was one of the top Canadian defensive tackles in the league, a Western Football Conference All-Star in 1971 according to both the English bio and the French caption sur l'equipe d'etoiles en 71. At 6-foot-4 and 250 pounds, he was the anchor of a front seven that wore down conferences and propelled Saskatchewan into a deep Grey Cup run the following November, when the Riders reached the 1972 title game against Hamilton. For team collectors, Baker at 85, Bahnuik at 86, Brandt at 87, and McQuarters at 83 form a complete defensive-front and interior-line story of this franchise in one purchase. the front shows soft, rounded corners without chipping, a light line of edge wear along the top border, and a small dark printing block behind Baker's neck that is an original factory defect rather than damage. The photo stays glossy with strong green saturation, centering is close to ideal, and the red name overprint is fully intact. The reverse has bright blue borders, sharp bilingual text, and only a few tan speckles in the blank field. This is a true Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back with parallel English and French text, not a puzzle back. Our estimate is VG-EX 4. The rounded corners and top-edge line hold it under Excellent, while the eye-catching overprint quirk may tempt a premium buyer. The raw 1972 O-Pee-Chee CFL Bill Baker #85 ships in a penny sleeve, soft holder, and rigid mailer. Grade Estimate: VG-EX 4