Cardboard on Ice

Wednesday, September 2, 2020

1976-77 San Diego Mariners: The Dean's Photo Set

The 1976-77 season was the third and final installment for the WHA's San Diego franchise. The Mariners had just been purchased by 74-year old Ray Kroc of McDonald's fame, who also owned the San Diego Padres at the time. The squad finished third in the six-team Western Division but lost in the first round of the playoffs to the eventual Avco Cup champions, the Winnipeg Jets.

A 16-card set sponsored by Dean's Photo Services saluted the team. Issued in two sheets of eight perforated cards, each measure 5" x 8" if separated. The set features 14 Mariner players, as well as a team schedule and Dean's coupons. Key members of the team included goalie Ernie Wakely, and second and third top-scorers Joe Noris and Norm Ferguson.

Oddly, Andre Lacroix is not one of the featured players. He was the team's leading scorer the previous two seasons, and was again in 1976-77.

The card backs are unnumbered and feature a bio and career statistics for each player. All the cards are black and white, except for the front of the Dean's coupons card.

The Mariners folded just prior to training camp in the fall of 1977, as did the Pheonix Roadrunners and Calgary Cowboys.

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

The World Champs: 1972-73 New England Whalers

The inaugural season of the World Hockey Association (WHA) saw the New England Whalers crowned as the upstart league's first champions. Headlined by former NHLers Tom Webster, Ted Green (the team's captain), Rick Ley, Jim Dorey, Brad Selwood and goalie Al Smith, the Whalers ended up with the best record in the 12-team league.

New England defeated the Ottawa Nationals and Cleveland Crusaders in the first two rounds of the playoffs, and then beat the Winnipeg Jets 4 games to 1 to capture the first Avco Cup.

A set of 17 black-and-white glossy photos—presumably produced by the team—commemorates the championship squad. Each photo measures 3 3/4" x 5" with a square white border and features posed player photos in the team's dark jerseys. The photos are unnumbered with blank backs.

Tom Webster's 53 goals was good for second in the league, and his 103 points placed him in a three-way tie for fourth (check out those white skates). Terry Caffery (right) was named the WHA's first Rookie of the Year.

The team notably included a large number of American players, including Larry Pleau (left), Tim Sheehy (center) and Tommy Williams (right).

Saturday, October 5, 2019

A Pack of NNOs: 1991-92 Procards Flint Bulldogs

Procards made several minor league sets and team sets for hockey between 1988 and 1991. They featured teams from the AHL and IHL, and they were sold as team sets in the individual cities of the respective clubs, or you could order the master set from the company.

Some of the more famous players to make their inaugural cardboard appearance via Procards include Ed Belfour, Mark Recchi, Mike Richter and Dominic Hasek. Of course there were far more minor league journeymen adorning these sets than future NHL stars.

The company's last issue from 1991-92 featured 620 cards from the AHL and IHL, but also included one team from the Colonial Hockey League (CoHL): the Flint Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs illustrate one of the neat/frustrating aspects of collecting these minor league sets. Oftentimes, there were variations in the cards depending on where you bought them. For example, the 23-card Flint team is numbered #429 through #451 in the standard 620-card set. But there are some "rink-only extras" to be hunted down.

Twelve unnumbered (NNO) cards--probably available in team sets only sold at the Bulldogs home rink--included 8 players, 3 staff members and the mascot:

Steve McKinley
Greg Simeone
Ron High
Jack Daly
Glen Engevik
Roger Beedon
Quintin Brickley
John Heasty
Boris Bulldog (Mascot)
Sylvie Neveu (Assistant GM)
Matt Gallagher (Scouting)
Bob Davies (Trainer)

So the complete set of Bulldogs totals out at a whopping 35 cards! There are several other little-known unnumbered cards in many of Procards' issues, but this is by far the largest cache of NNOs.

None of the eight additional players suited up for many games with the Bulldogs in the 1991-92 season. And John Heasty hadn't played for two years prior to joining Flint that year!

Thursday, August 29, 2019

The Sneaky Errors in 1973-74 O-Pee-Chee

The 1973-74 O-Pee-Chee issue includes the rookie cards of Bill Barber, Billy Smith, Dave "The Hammer" Schultz, Bob Nystrom, Terry O'Reilly and Larry Robinson. But the set also comes with a few sneaky errors and variations.

Two cards are missing the black border around the team nicknames on the front. Here's card #43 Bryan Hextall of the Pittsburgh Penguins:

And suffering the same type of error is rookie card #44 for Chuck Lefley of the Montreal Canadiens:

The error on card #37 Ted McAneeley takes the mistake a step further by omitting both the border and the Golden Seals nickname:

Bryan Hextall's card #43 is involved in yet a third error where the bio on the back is that of his brother, Dennis. The wrong bio back card was issued first, then correct but with the missing border on the front, and then corrected a third and final time to include the correct bio and black border.

And of course Dennis Hextall's card #115 comes in both error (top) and corrected (bottom) versions.

Tuesday, August 13, 2019

Two Sets of Kellogg's NHL Hockey Discs:1984-85 & 1985-86

Overlooked by most every hockey card guide and checklist is the fact that there are two distinct sets of Kellogg's NHL Hockey Discs. The first set from 1984-85 includes 36 discs (unnumbered) as listed at the bottom of this post with 1983-84 date and stats on the back.

Updates & Four Substitutions in 1985-86
The next year, the set was updated with 1984-85 date and stats on the back, and the replacement of four players due to trades: Dan Daoust to replace John Anderson, Dennis Herron to replace Rick Kehoe, Bob Gainey to replace Guy Lafleur, and Dave Poulin to replace Darryl Sittler. The fronts of the other cards remained unchanged. The checklist for this second set is also listed at the bottom of this post.

Where most checklists miss the mark is they refer to the four replacement players as variations of cards in a single set. In fact, there are two distinct sets that can be recognized by the dates and corresponding stats on the back of each card.

Identical Stanley Cup Discs...
To add to the confusion, there is no discernible difference between the two Stanley Cup disc versions, and no date appears anywhere. The only ways to truly tell if you have a 1984-85 or 1985-86 version of the Cup disc would be to have it as part of an original attached panel of 6 cards, and looking for the date on the back of those adjoined cards.

...But Differences in Pucks?
In terms of distribution, a panel of 6 perforated discs were included inside a two-piece plastic puck in specially marked packages of Kellogg's Cereals in Canada. I believe that the pucks from each year were also slightly different. By finding instant prize messages inscribed on the inside of the pucks, one could win sports equipment, such as hockey jerseys, skates, sport bags or hockey sticks. "SORRY, PLEASE TRY AGAIN." was predictably the most common message received. But you'll also find pucks--I'd argue from the second year when there were no prizes offered--that do not have any messaging inside.

1984-85 Kellogg's NHL Discs (has 1983-84 stats on back)
John Anderson

Mike Bossy

Barry Beck

Dave Babych

Richard Brodeur

Dino Ciccarelli

Paul Coffey

Marcel Dionne

Bernie Federko

Ron Francis

Mike Garnter

Michel Goulet

Thomas Gradin

Dale Hawerchuk

Dale Hunter

Rick Kehoe

Jari Kurri

Guy Lafleur

Reed Larson

Kevin Lowe

Paul MacLean

Lanny McDonald

Rick Middleton

Gilbert Perrault

Paul Reinhart

Glenn Resch

Doug Risebrough

Larry Robinson

Borje Salming

Darryl Sittler

Stan Smyl

Peter Stastny

Mario Tremblay

Rick Vaive

Doug Wilson

Stanley Cup

1985-86 Kellogg's NHL Discs (has 1984-85 stats on back)