1974-75 O-Pee-Chee WHA Hockey Cards
Product Details
Each professional sports league underwent labor-related expansion issues during the 1970s. In hockey, it was the World Hockey Association, which was set up as an alternative to the NHL and its reserve clause that the players felt unfairly tied them to a team for an entire career. Once it was established, the WHA was able to attract several older NHL stars and even encouraged several current stars to jump to the new league. Another distinction the WHA had was that it was the only rival league to get its own set of cards by a major manufacturer with a separate design. 1974-75 O-Pee-Chee WHA was the first of four consecutive sets for the league made by the Canadian card maker.
1974-75 O-Pee-Chee WHA card fronts are horizontally oriented and split into two main parts. The right two-thirds of the card feature a posed shot of a player along with a facsimile autograph. On the left is a colored banner that contains a team name and a graphic image of a generic hockey player in action. Below that are the player's position and name. The borders are white.
Backs are formatted vertically. The upper-left has the card number inside a circle, along with the player's vital stats. A cartoon in the upper-right explains a referee's signal or a fact about the sport. The player's name appears below those inside a blue stripe. A biography in both French and English takes up the center portion. The player's previous year and lifetime statistics are along the bottom.
There are 66 cards in 1974-75 O-Pee-Chee WHA. One checklist card is included in the set, along with a card featuring Gordie Howe and his sons Mark and Marty. While that card isn't strictly a rookie card due to the elder Howe's long career, some collectors count it as one because it is the first card to feature either of his sons. Other notable rookies in the set include Ulf Nilsson and Anders Hedberg. Also notable are former NHL stars Gerry Cheevers, Bobby Hull and Jacques Plante.
Key 1974-75 O-Pee-Chee WHA Hockey Cards:
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Set Checklist
1974-75 O-Pee-Chee WHA Hockey Cards Set Checklist
2 Bruce MacGregor
3 Wayne Dillon RC
4 Ulf Nilsson RC
5 Serge Bernier
6 Bryan Campbell
7 Rosaire Paiement
8 Tom Webster
9 Gerry Pinder
10 Mike Walton
11 Norm Beaudin
12 Bob Whitlock RC
13 Wayne Rivers
14 Gerry Odrowski
15 Ron Climie
16 Tom Simpson RC
17 Anders Hedberg RC
18 J.C. Tremblay
19 Mike Pelyk
20 Dave Dryden
21 Ron Ward
22 Larry Lund RC
23 Ron Buchanan RC
24 Pat Hickey RC
25 Danny Lawson RC
26 Bob Guindon RC
27 Gene Peacosh RC
28 Fran Huck
29 Al Hamilton
30 Gerry Cheevers
31 Heikki Riihiranta RC
32 Don Burgess RC
33 John French RC
35 Pat Stapleton
36 Jean-Paul LeBlanc RC
37 Mike Antonovich RC
38 Joe Daley
39 Ross Perkins RC
40 Frank Mahovlich
41 Rejean Houle
42 Ron Chipperfield RC
43 Marc Tardif
44 Murray Keogan RC
45 Wayne Carleton
46 Andre Gaudette RC
47 Ralph Backstrom
48 Don McLeod RC
49 Vaclav Nedomansky RC
50 Bobby Hull
51 Ed "Rusty" Patenaude RC
52 Michel Parizeau
53 Checklist
54 Wayne Connelly
55 Gary Veneruzzo
56 Dennis Sobchuk RC
57 Paul Henderson
58 Andy Brown RC
59 Poul Popiel
60 Andre Lacroix
61 Gary Jarrett
62 Claude St. Sauveur RC
63 Real Cloutier RC
64 Jacques Plante
65 Gilles Gratton RC
66 Lars-Erik Sjoberg RC
Bill Strong
Thanks for the checklist. I love going back and finishing old sets.