As much a personal experience with the sport as pick-up street hockey games.
Now mind you, all of the above changes have to do directly with the on-ice product. This is somewhat simplistic, however, as the evolution of the game also extends well beyond in ways that are as much a part of our shared enjoyment and memories than just the 60+ minutes the teams spend on the ice. Ladies and gents, I present to you…the hockey card. Depending on your age, the hockey card was as much a personal experience with the sport as pick-up street hockey games and the “blind faith” arguments with friends about whose team could beat whose. For those of you under the age of say 20-25, we used to buy a pack of 5 or 6 cards for .25 cents, they were wrapped in wax paper, and had a stick of gum in it that had as much taste to it as the wax paper wrapper did (I’m assuming of course as I never actually tasted the wrapper. Please believe me.). For those of us over the age of 25, remember those packs of cards? Gone. A basic pack of cards now? Well, we’re looking at $2-$6 MINIMUM a pack, for anywhere from 3 to 8 cards, wrapped in foil, made of nice glossy cardboard. And no gum (Well, I’m guessing we can all agree this is probably a good thing). A lot more than this has changed in the past 20 years though folks…
But I digress. Before we can discuss the craziness in the hobby of hockey cards over the past 20-25 years, we really need a context to start from, and what better place to start from then, well, the start, which will be our part 1 of this history lesson! Our journey takes us to the early 1900s (1910-1913 to be exact) where we find the first form of what is now viewed as the sports card becoming available in, of all places, ……cigarette packages. Interestingly enough, the cards were there mainly in an effort to provide some support for the soft pack, and to keep the cigarettes from getting damaged. Players from these sets, named C-56, C-55, and C-57 (yes, in that order) included Art Ross, “Cyclone” Fred Taylor, Newsy Lalonde, and Georges Vezina. Fairly simple presentation consisting of a painting of the player on the front with his name (and later the team name), and some basic info on the back.
Well, the evolution of the hockey card was one of peaks and valleys, and not long after the 1910-1913 modern introduction came a 10-year break in their production. Brought on by the start of WWI and the production/material bans that come along with a war of this scope, the hockey card hibernated for a decade until re-emerging in 1923 in cigarette packs across Canada. The re-introduction of the cards was to be short lived, however, lasting only until the 1924-25 V145-2 series.
Now this is kind of the end of the first “life” of the hockey card really, with the next generation taking the first step into something that would be more familiar to the releases of the 80s at least.
The next life of the hockey card began in 1933, and brought a company into the fold that us 30-somethings and older will recognize: O-Pee-Chee. O-Pee-Chee released 7 series of cards through the 30’s up to 1941, and was the first company to take the step of marketing the cards towards kids. Happened a little in reverse of how we might think though. When first introduced, the cards were used as a bonus for the gum being sold. Buy a pack of gum, get a card. It was soon discovered that the cards were more popular than the gum though, and not long thereafter we began getting a stick of gum as a bonus with the cards!! The cards also began to take on more eye catching designs during this period, moving from a simple “bust” portrait, to full body poses, in-action shots, color backgrounds, and real photos of the players. Unfortunately we had another World War to deal with, and maintaining a kids hobby was understandably not the best use of raw materials. Another break….
Fast forward to 1951. The war is over, babies are booming, televisions are popping into homes, and with them came Hockey Night in Canada. The new exposure to the sport brought with it a renewed opportunity to market the heroes of the day to kids. This is really the starting point of the uninterrupted progression into the modern day hobby, and there to start off the better part of the first decade was a company by the name of Parkhurst (based out of Toronto). The Parkhurst sets from the early 50’s to early 60s are highly sought after by collectors as they really do represent the start of hockey card collecting as a hobby. Not only that, but look at the checklist for the 51-52 set:
1 Elmer Lach RC
2 Paul Meger RC
3 Emile "Butch" Bouchard RC
4 Maurice "Rocket" Richard RC
5 Bert Olmstead RC
6 Jim "Bud" MacPherson RC
7 Tom Johnson RC
8 Paul Masnick RC
9 Calum MacKay RC
10 Doug Harvey RC
11 Ken Mosdell RC
12 Floyd Curry RC
13 Billy Reay RC
14 Bernie "Boom-Boom" Geoffrion RC
15 Gerry McNeil RC
16 Dick Gamble RC
17 Gerry Couture RC
18 Ross Lowe RC
19 Jim Henry RC
20 Vic Lynn RC
21 Walter "Gus" Kyle RC
22 Ed Sandford RC
23 Murray Henderson RC
24 Dunc Fisher RC
25 Hal Laycoe RC
26 Bill Quackenbush RC
27 George "Red" Sullivan RC
28 Woody Dumart RC
29 Milt Schmidt RC
30 Adam Brown RC
31 Pentti Lund RC
32 Ray Barry RC
33 Ed Kryzanowski RC
34 Johnny Peirson RC
35 Lorne Ferguson RC
36 Clare Raglan RC
37 Bill Gadsby RC
38 Al Dewsbury RC
39 Clare Martin RC
40 Gus Bodnar RC
41 Jim Peters RC
42 Bep Guidolin RC
43 George "Hully" Gee RC
44 Jim McFadden RC
45 Fred Hucul RC
46 Lee Fogolin RC
47 Harry Lumley RC
48 Doug Bentley RC
49 Bill Mosienko RC
50 Roy Conacher RC
51 Pete Babando RC
52 Gerry McNeil RC [The Winning Goal]
53 Jack Stewart RC
54 Marty Pavelich RC
55 Leonard "Red" Kelly RC
56 Ted Lindsay RC
57 Glen Skov RC
58 Benny Woit RC
59 Tony Leswick RC
60 Fred Glover RC
61 Terry Sawchuk RC
62 Vic Stasiuk RC
63 Alex Delvecchio RC
64 Sid Abel RC
65 Metro Prystai RC
66 Gordie Howe RC
67 Bob Goldham RC
68 Marcel Pronovost RC
69 Leo Reise RC
70 Harry Watson RC
71 Danny Lewicki RC
72 Howie Meeker RC
73 Gus Mortson RC
74 Joe Klukay RC
75 Walter "Turk" Broda
76 Al Rollins RC
77 Bill Juzda RC
78 Ray Timgren RC
79 Hugh Bolton RC
80 Fern Flaman RC
81 Max Bentley RC
82 Jim Thomson RC
83 Fleming Mackell RC
84 Sid Smith RC
85 Cal Gardner RC
86 Ted Kennedy RC
87 Tod Sloan RC
88 Bob Solinger RC
89 Frank Eddolls RC
90 Jack Evans RC
91 Hy Buller RC
92 Steve Kraftcheck RC
93 Don Raleigh RC
94 Allan Stanley RC
95 Paul Ronty RC
96 Edgar Laprade RC
97 Nick Mickoski RC
98 Jack McLeod RC
99 Gaye Stewart RC
100 Wally Hergesheimer RC
101 Ed Kullman RC
102 Ed Slowinski RC
103 Reggie Sinclair RC
104 Chuck Rayner RC
105 Jim Conacher RC
Due to the 10-year break in the hobby, out of the 105 card set, there are 104 rookies. And not just any rookies. We’re talking Rocket Richard, Doug Harvey, “Boom Boom” Geoffrion, Ted Lindsay, Terry Sawchuk, Gordie Howe, and Teeder Kennedy, to name but a few.
Now Parkhust had a monopoly on card production from 1951 to 1957 (note: a set was not produced during 1956), in spite of the fact that they had the rights to produce cards for only half of the 6 teams in the league (Toronto, Montreal, and Detroit; some years only Toronto and Montreal). Then along came the competition: Topps. Starting with the 1957-58 season, Topps began making a concerted effort to provide some competition for the people at Parkhurst (Topps had released a set in ’54 containing players from the US teams of the original six).
Through a combination of better design, more colorful presentation, and better player coverage, Topps were able to corner the market. Parkhurst withdrew from producing hockey sets following the release of their 1963-64 set.
Following the disappearance of the Parkhurst brand from the market, Topps (an American based company out of New York) entered into an agreement with O-Pee-Chee (a Canadian based company out of London, Ontario) to jointly produce the hockey series for the US and Canadian markets, respectively, beginning with the 1968-69 release (although on many occasions the OPC version would contain additional cards not included in the Topps release, something which occurred into the 80s).
A further bit of foreshadowing to the current hobby occurred during the 60s though. Up until the 1960s, a set of cards consisted only of the 50-150 cards outlined on the checklists. With their 1960-61 series, however, Topps introduced what would in the 90s come to be known as the “insert”, which is a card or item that is not a part of the main set that you may pull from a pack of cards. Some examples include: a) player stamps in the 60-61 Topps set; b) “Hockey Bucks” in 1962-63 Topps; c) Four-in-one cards and player stamps in the 1969-70 O-Pee-Chee; d) Player stickers in the 1970-71 O-Pee-Chee; and e) mini-posters and player booklets in the 1971-72 O-Pee-Chee (my favourite set ever by the way!). These types of inserts left the world of the hockey card by the mid-70s, but as I said before, they would come back, and in a bigger way than I think anyone could have imagined…
There’s as good a place as any to break for part 1 of the condensed history of the hockey card!! We’ll pick up next time with a look at the stable 80s, the crazy 90s, and the sedated ‘00s that in my humble opinion are still in need of some serious hobby therapy!! As for a bit of foreshadowing as to how crazy things got in the 90s, the amount of pages in the Beckett “Hockey Card Plus” price guide taken up with sets released prior to 1990 (approx 60 years when sets were released) = 10. Amount of pages for sets released from 1990 to 2000 = 65.
