The 1977-78 O-Pee-Chee set has always held a special place in my heart.  This was the set that got me into collecting old-timey cards, and there was a bit of mystery involved.  I was going through a bunch of Esso cards that my brother and I had received from our uncle, and I found a bunch of team cards.  I’m talking about these…

I thought they were so cool because there were team logos I had never seen, such as the Colorado Rockies, and of course, the Cleveland Barons.  I was fascinated by the team records written on the back, especially the records of then-recent expansion teams like Washington, because the statistics were, well… kinda pathetic.  Of course, I had no idea the team had only existed three seasons by this point, but it didn’t really matter.  I was hooked on old cards, especially cards of defunct teams.  The thing that was weird about finding those old cards in my basement is that no one knew where they came from.  I had done a project at school with some of my friends, and I remember we used these team cards, so I asked them if my cards were in fact theirs.  They weren’t.  I asked my uncle who had given us the Esso stickers if they were his.  They weren’t.  I knew they weren’t my Dad’s because he never collected cards.  I still have those cards, and I still have no earthly idea where they came from.  I’ve collected many other cards from this set since then, and I’ve expanded my interests beyond that year and into almost every other year since expansion, but the 1977-78 set still remains one of my favourites.  Unlike most previous sets, this one has lots of action shots, and there were no cut-and-paste jobs either.  Remember that Rogie Vachon disasterpiece from 1971-72?  Nothing like that here, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t a few weird cards in the set, namely this one of Cleveland’s Dave Gardner.

That is one weird looking logo on his chest.  For one thing, it is about the size of a 1980s backyard satellite dish.  Second, the thing is completely crooked.  And last but not least, you can clearly see how badly drawn it is because the real version of the logo is right under it and to the left.  Well, at least O-Pee-Chee made the effort of colouring the Cleveland uniforms this time, unlike the year before.