Meet Bill White, whose 1968-69 O-Pee-Chee card is one of the oddest-looking I’ve ever seen. Bill was one of those players who, for many years, was hampered by the fact that, at one time, the NHL only had six teams. So he waited, and he waited, and he waited for his chance to move up to the big leagues, and he finally made it to the NHL in 1967, when he was 28 years old, thanks to expansion. He became one of the best defensemen in the new West Division during the first season expansion, scoring a career-high 11 goals. Even though he reached the NHL rather late in his career, he would go on to enjoy a stellar 10-year NHL career. While a member of the Chicago Black Hawks, he would make the league’s second all-star team three times, and each of those seasons, he finished third in Norris Trophy voting. He was also a member of the famed 1972 Team Canada squad that took on, and dramatically defeated, the Soviet Union. Bill deserves much better than the one-legged treatment, especially considering THIS goofy-looking thing is his rookie card.
NOTE: Sadly, Bill White passed away just two days after I posted his rookie card on this site. My condolences go out to his entire family. He was one of the greats.