1973-74 O-Pee-Chee Detroit Red Wings #NNO Team Logo Pushout Insert 1st Series

Description

1973-74 O-Pee-Chee Detroit Red Wings #NNO Team Logo Pushout Insert 1st Series Some logos are so right that they outlive every roster, arena and era, and the Detroit winged wheel is the finest example in professional sport, essentially unchanged since the early 1930s when the franchise married a spoked wheel to a feathered wing and started collecting Original Six mythology. This 1973-74 O-Pee-Chee Detroit Red Wings #NNO Team Logo Pushout Insert 1st Series decal renders that wing in deep crimson on bright stock, the feathering and wheel spokes crisply printed in the thick ink work that makes O-Pee-Chee inserts of this period so desirable to logo collectors. These pushouts were tucked one per pack into first series wax packs of the 1973-74 O-Pee-Chee hockey issue, and because the product was literally a sticker meant to be wetted and pressed onto a binder or a bedroom wall, the Canadian bilingual instructions are printed on the front, PUNCH OUT, WET BACK AND PRESS ONTO ANY SURFACE FOR TEN SECONDS in English with the French ENLEVEZ EN POUSSANT, HUMECTEZ LE DOS ET COLLEZ SUR N'IMPORTE QUELLE SURFACE EN PRESSANT PENDANT DIX SECONDS alongside, and examples that were never punched, never wetted and never stuck are the survivors collectors hunt for. The season the decal promoted was one of the most exciting in 1970s Detroit, with Marcel Dionne blossoming into a superstar and Mickey Redmond lighting the lamp more than fifty times at the old Olympia Stadium, proof that even in lean years the Red Wings could produce genuine fireworks. Hockey historians still point to that Dionne and Redmond pairing as one of the great what-ifs of the era, and the winged wheel decal from this insert run has become a favourite of Detroit logo collectors who want the crest without the heavy wear that player cards from the same wax packs typically show. the front shows rich, even red pigment with the winged wheel centered a touch toward the top but comfortably balanced, the four corners remain sharp with only nominal softness at the lower right, the edges are clean with no chipping beyond a whisper of wear along the right margin, and the vertical instruction text is fully legible. The reverse is blank adhesive-backed cardboard with the die-cut wing outline visible, showing light age toning and no stains, and we state explicitly that this is the Canadian O-Pee-Chee issue with bilingual front instructions and a plain gum back rather than a puzzle back or a printed bilingual back. With color and surface this strong and only the faintest corner and edge handling to report, the conservative call is EX 5, acknowledging the age of the piece while recognising it sits at the better end of the surviving population. Grade Estimate: EX 5