WHA Card of the Month - May 2012

Whoops, barely got the WHA Card of the Month in for May!  Nothing like procrastinating and finishing something on the last possible day. So far this year we've looked at all the O-Pee-Chee WHA sets from the '72-73 high numbers through the '75-76 set.  Might as well keep going in chronological order...

1976-77 O-Pee-Chee WHA - #132 - World Trophy Finals

The '76-77 O-Pee-Chee WHA set is not amongst my favorites.  I find the design to be a little bland, and for whatever reason the cards just don't excite me.  This will likely be the last WHA set that I attempt to complete.  Nevertheless, I wanted to cover as broad a range of sets as possible in these posts, so when I found this card on the cheap I went for it.

This is the very last card in the '76-77 set, and it commemorates the Winnipeg Jets winning the World Trophy as WHA Champions in '75-76.  This was the first league championship for Winnipeg, though they would go on to win two more (the final two WHA Championships in '77-78 and '78-79) before the league folded.  Depicted at center is the WHA's Avco World Cup.  Yes, the WHA's trophy had a corporate sponsor.  Between the corporate sponsorship and the gaudiness of the trophy itself, this award just never even came close to holding the same significance as the Stanley Cup.  It's hard to tell from this photo but there's a floating crystal ball embedded in the trophy just below the bowl at the top.  You can get a better look at the trophy on its Wikipedia page.  At least Winnipeg had a trophy to hoist, which was more than you could say for the New England Whalers when they won the league's inaugural championship a few years earlier (how sad is that?).

As you can see from the back, the Jets handled the Houston Aeros easily in the finals, sweeping in four games.  This was a battle of two powerhouses, as both teams accumulated a league-best 106 points in the regular season.  The Jets proved to be the better team in the playoffs though, as Houston struggled through two 7-game series before losing to Winnipeg in the finals.  The Jets, however, lost only a single playoff game in 1976, going 12-1 overall.

Check back soon for a post on a hockey "white whale" that I recently tracked down...

WHA Card of the Month - April 2012

Time for the WHA Card of the Month for April. So far we've looked at the first WHA cards released by O-Pee-Chee with a '72-73 high number as well as one of the logo inserts from the '72-73 set. After not releasing any WHA cards for 1973-74, O-Pee-Chee came back with a 66-card WHA set in 1974-75, and I used the Jacques Plante from this set as February's selection. So, for April it only made sense to continue on in chronological order and go with a card from the 1975-76 O-Pee-Chee WHA set:

1975-76 O-Pee-Chee WHA - #19 - Robbie Ftorek

1975-76 saw O-Pee-Chee double the size of the previous season's WHA set, as they released a 132-card tribute to the "other league". This set has the highest book value of any of O-Pee-Chee's dedicated WHA sets (in fact its book value is close to that of the other three sets combined). These cards seem to be the most sought after/hardest to find in great condition at a reasonable price. In terms of design, these are a cut above the other WHA sets as well (I think these and the '72-73 high numbers are the nicest looking O-Pee-Chee WHA cards). Not only do the cards look better, but some of the big name players have two cards in the set; a base card and an All-Star card. This is a practice that O-Pee-Chee would continue with the following year.

In terms of the card itself, this is considered Ftorek's rookie, and is one of the top 10 cards in the set as far as book value goes. Robbie was one of the most successful US-born players of the 1970s and finished 6th all-time for career points in the WHA. For me though, the best part about this card is the awesome Phoenix Roadrunners sweater. The Roadrunners, like many teams, did not ultimately last in the WHA and folded after just three seasons due to financial issues. They would later change the look of their uniforms, going with stripes on the arms and a slightly different roadrunner overlaid on an outline of the state of Arizona. I like these early uniforms better though.

As I said, this set is just not that easy to come by. A quick eBay search turns up just six of these currently listed, three graded and three ungraded. I was very pleased to be able to snag this copy, which is in fantastic condition with good overall centering, for under $10.

I would love to complete the entire O-Pee-Chee WHA run, and this is one of the collecting goals that I've been working away at most consistently. For all the reasons mentioned above though, it's very likely that the '75-76 set will be the last one I manage to complete. For now, I'm grateful to have added Ftorek's rookie to the collection at such a reasonable price...

WHA Card of the Month - March 2012

Today I arrived home from work to find a much awaited package from Amazon in my mailbox. Inside was a book I've been dying to get my hands on since I learned about it from Casey over at Drop the Gloves:

I've been on a huge WHA kick the past few months, and I can't wait to delve into this. Anyone aside from Casey give this a read yet? If so, what did you think? I'll definitely provide some thoughts here as I get through it, but in the meantime what better day to post my WHA Card of the Month for March...

Back in my first WHA Card of the Month post, I selected a high series card from the '72-73 O-Pee-Chee hockey set. These cards, the final series released for the '72-73 flagship set, are some of my favorite WHA cards, and still do pretty well on the secondary market. They are not the most sought after O-Pee-Chee WHA cards from that year however. That honor goes to the team logo cards that were inserted into each Series 3 pack of '72-73 O-Pee-Chee. There are 30 of them in all; the first 17 in the set are NHL logos, the final 13 WHA. According to my Beckett here, the Flames, the Islanders, and all of the WHA cards were short printed. Adding to that, each logo is surrounded by a perforated cut that allows you to punch it out from its rectangular cardboard frame. I'm sure in many cases this was done by an anxious kid just a few minutes after the pack was opened. All in all they're fairly tough to find in good condition. You can usually pick up decent examples of the NHL teams for under $10, but for the WHA cards be prepared to pay more in the $30-$50 range, significantly more for one or two of them. Anyway, I recently acquired my very first one:

1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Team Logos - #18 - The WHA

Each league has sort of a header card within the set, featuring the league logo, before the team logo cards on the checklist. So, card #1 in the set is the NHL logo, cards 2 - 17 are NHL team logos, card #18 is the WHA logo, and cards 19 - 30 are WHA team logos. You can see what I mean about the perforation that I'm sure was responsible for the deconstruction of many of these cards. I always try to show card backs on the blog, but in this case I didn't scan it in, because there's literally nothing to it...just a plain cardboard back.

The WHA logo itself may not be the most visually stunning thing ever, in fact it pales in comparison to the logos of some of the league's teams, but I really wanted to add this to my collection because of what it signifies in the great history of hockey. As far as historical importance and impact on the game as we know it today, I'd put this card right up there with any you can think of.

Well, that's all for now, I've got some reading to do...

WHA Card of the Month - February 2012

In last month's installment of the WHA Card of the Month, we looked at a card from the first series of WHA cards released by O-Pee-Chee, which were actually just a high series addition to the flagship 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee set. This month's WHA card is from O-Pee-Chee's first release that was dedicated solely to the new league:

1974-75 O-Pee-Chee WHA - #64 - Jacques Plante

After the high series cards in '72-73, the World Hockey Association didn't get any love from O-Pee-Chee in 1973-74. I'm not entirely sure why this is to be honest with you. Maybe the '72-73 high series cards didn't do so well? Anyway, after a one year break, O-Pee-Chee came back with a small set dedicated to the WHA in 1974-75. At just 66 cards in total, this one shouldn't be too difficult to complete. I've only got four cards from the set so far, and this Jacques Plante, which arrived in the mail a couple of weeks back courtesy of eBay, is probably my favorite so far. I think Edmonton should bring these bright orange jerseys back a couple of times each season!

The design for the set is nothing spectacular. The bulk of the space on the front is reserved for a large photo, positioned at right, that in all cases features the subject standing in front of a plain colored wall (usually blue). There are no action or in-game shots on any of the 66 cards. To the left is a colored banner with team name and a small hockey player beneath. The color of the banner differs based on the team, but the drawing of the hockey player is the same on all cards. At bottom left, below the banner, you can find the player's name and position. I think the design is a step backwards from the '72-73 WHA cards, but that's just my opinion.

The back of the cards, however, are a nice improvement over the '72-73s if you ask me. Along the top you've got an easily readable card number, along with essential player info and a cartoon, which is the biggest thing the first O-Pee-Chee WHA cards were lacking. In fact, I'm pretty sure this was the only O-Pee-Chee WHA release to include cartoons on the card backs. That being said, the cartoons in this set are pretty weak. They are just generic illustrations that teach you basic facts about the game, rather than being tailored to the actual subject of each card. Along the bottom of the card you get just a single year of stats, but that leaves plenty of room in the middle for a decent write-up on the player (in both English and French of course).

These cards are not as desired as the '72-73s or the '75-76 set that would come out the following year, but nonetheless it's an interesting little set. Jacques here is one of the four best cards in terms of book value, with the other three being Bobby Hull, the checklist card, and card #1 featuring the Howe trio. Plante's card is interesting because the 31 games he would play with Edmonton in 1974-75 would be the final games of his lengthy professional career.

It may not be at the top of my list at the moment, but someday I'd like to track down the remaining 62 cards I need to complete this one. If you've got any available for trade let me know!

WHA Card of the Month - January 2012

Beginning in 2012, I'm going to start paying some long overdue respect to the World Hockey Association here at Shoebox Legends. My Card of the Month posts this year will instead be WHA Card of the Month posts, and I'll talk a little bit about the "rival league"...

1972-73 O-Pee-Chee - #297 - Bobby Sheehan

Bobby Sheehan here represents my very first 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee card. He also represents my favorite part of the '72-73 O-Pee-Chee set, the fourth and final series (cards 290 - 341) featuring players from the World Hockey Association. Given that 1972 was the first year of existence for the league, these are obviously the first WHA hockey cards issued by O-Pee-Chee. It's a crime that it took me close to 5 years to add one to my collection.

The NHL has seen a few competitors throughout the course of its history, but none of them as successful as the WHA was. The Association began in 1972, and challenged the NHL by establishing a 12 team league and attracting a few bonafide NHL stars, most notably Bobby Hull and Gerry Cheevers (and eventually Gordie Howe). All told, 67 NHL players jumped ship to the WHA for its inaugural season. They were lured by higher pay and the promise that there would be no reserve clause.

I stated above that none of the NHL's competitors throughout its many years were as successful as the WHA, but success is a relative term. Many franchises, and indeed the WHA as a whole, encountered plenty of logistical and financial challenges. In the brief period that the WHA existed it saw its teams change their names (sometimes mid-season), relocate (sometimes mid-season), swap divisions, and sometimes never play a single game! It saw expansion, teams fold (sometimes mid-season), its divisions disappear and then eventually a merger with its cheif rival, the NHL.

The WHA's founders did have experience at this sort of thing. They were the same guys that were responsible for basketball's ABA, begun a few years prior in the late '60s. Putting together an operation on this scale is no easy task though, and things went far from perfectly. One of the best examples of failure would be the team Bobby Sheehan skated for in '72-73, the New York Raiders.

The Raiders wore some very 1970s red and blue sweaters, and although it's difficult to make out on this card, the logo is actually a hockey player wearing a viking helmet skating in front of a backdrop of the city. They were supposed to be the team in the WHA, but they were doomed from the very beginning. Their first overall draft pick from the WHA's entry draft? He signed with the Boston Bruins in the NHL. Oh, and guess where they had to play their home games? At Madison Square Garden, the home of their major competition from the NHL, the New York Rangers. The original owners didn't even last the first season, with the league taking control of the team and selling it in the off-season. The new owners renamed the team to the New York Golden Blades but were no more successful than the first group. Just 24 games into that second season they were out of the picture and the league once again had control of the team. After two failed attempts, the WHA realized that it could not compete in the New York market and moved the team to New Jersey where they played on a rink where the ice was sloped (I'm not kidding).


The New York Raiders were just one of many great failures from the other league, but there were many successes as well. I'll be sharing plenty of them here through cards in the coming weeks and months.