1972 O-Pee-Chee Mike Eben #36 Toronto Argonauts

Description

1972 O-Pee-Chee Mike Eben #36 Toronto Argonauts The 1972 O-Pee-Chee Mike Eben #36 Toronto Argonauts card features one of the most accomplished student-athletes ever to wear the Double Blue. Eben stands with a football in his hands beneath the large turquoise ARGONAUTS name, creating a clean, instantly recognizable portrait from O-Pee-Chee’s last CFL card set. The rich red frame, uncluttered field background and period uniform make this an attractive display card for Argonauts fans, University of Toronto alumni and collectors of Canadian football history. The 132-card 1972 release consisted of team-grouped player cards, fourteen Pro Action subjects and a checklist, with Canadian bilingual backs that distinguish the issue from American football products of the era. Although Eben is labelled as a flanker, modern collectors will recognize the role as a wide-receiver position. The photograph’s direct, documentary style gives the card considerable vintage character, while Eben’s unusual combination of athletic and academic achievements supplies a story with appeal well beyond a standard team-set common. Before his professional career, Mike Eben was a dominant receiver for the University of Toronto Varsity Blues. He helped Toronto win the first Vanier Cup in 1965 and scored the winning touchdown in that historic championship game. In 1967 he received the inaugural Hec Crighton Trophy as Canada’s outstanding university football player, establishing a place in the earliest chapter of one of U Sports football’s most prestigious awards. Selected first overall in the 1968 CFL draft by the BC Lions, Eben ultimately spent most of his ten-season professional career with the Toronto Argonauts, playing for the club in 1968–69 and again from 1971 through 1977. He also had a one-year stop in Edmonton and brief time with Hamilton and Ottawa. A sure-handed target, Eben earned three divisional All-Star selections, including recognition in both the West and the East, and helped Toronto reach the 1971 Grey Cup. His life after and alongside football was equally distinctive: he completed a doctorate in German literature and built a career as a teacher and coach. Those achievements make this card a strong fit for collectors interested in Canadian university athletics, first-overall draft selections and players whose influence extended into education. This is an original, ungraded card reviewed from the supplied scans while housed in a protective sheet. The front maintains pleasing colour, a clear portrait and a generally balanced frame. Centering is respectable for the issue, with only a small difference between the left and right white margins and a mild vertical shift. The corners are lightly softened rather than sharply square, with the upper pair and the lower-left showing the most visible touches of wear. The edges have fine rough-cut fibres and isolated white nicks, but there is no major chip or missing paper. Tiny pale specks appear in the sky, uniform and border, consistent with either print defects or light surface wear. On the back, the cream stock has uniform age toning and the blue-and-green printing remains vivid and fully readable. A faint short diagonal or curved line is visible near one back corner; because the card remains sleeved and the line does not clearly continue through the printed design, it cannot be confirmed as a card wrinkle rather than a plastic reflection. No definite full crease, tear, writing, heavy stain or pinhole is visible. This card has the proper Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual English/French player-biography back, which notes Eben’s return to Toronto and Western Conference All-Star season. It does not have a puzzle back. The scan also shows several long, fine horizontal page marks that should not automatically be attributed to the card itself. Raw Grade Estimate: VG-EX