Hockey Card Stories is the third book I have read by Ken Reid, following One Night Only: Conversations with the NHL’s One-Game Wonders and One to Remember: Stories from 39 Members of the NHL’s One Goal Club. I found this one to be the funniest of the bunch, and as a hockey card collector from the seventies I surely recognized all the cards he profiled from that period. Since my collection is within easy reach, and not buried in a box in the garage or unfortunately thrown out by an overzealous tidier of a mother, I could reach in and take a look at these cards myself. Reid provided life-size shots of the front and back of each card he talked about.
Before I saw any hockey cards, though, when I opened the cover my eyes were greeted by a double-sided page of pink. I have to admit that it took me a few seconds to figure out what this page was (was it a misprint or ink error?) and then it dawned on me: it was a piece of dusty hard hockey card gum. Priceless!
Reid divided his stories into eleven chapters based on card theme, such as Goalies, Rookies, Hall of Famers and WHA cards, but by far the most amusing chapters dealt with topics such as Strike a Pose (for the best card posers), Making it Look Mean (for the meanest faces ever to adorn a card) and my favourites, Airbrush and Error Cards. Unquestionably the worst cut-and-paste job in hockey card history has to go to the 1971-72 O-Pee-Chee for Rogie Vachon. He had just been traded from the Montreal Canadiens to the Los Angeles Kings and a card was hurriedly pieced together to create this:
That is Rogie’s head but definitely not his body. According to Reid, everything from the neck down belongs to Ross Lonsberry.
In the chapter on Colorado Rockies player Jack Valiquette, Reid wrote:
“Confession: I love the Colorado Rockies uniform…I loved pulling out the odd Rockies card from a wax pack. I loved the way they looked: the blue, red, gold and white just worked for me.”
I have to agree with him. In the 1977-78 O-Pee-Chee series, the team logo card, below, was one of my favourites:
Reid has written a second volume of hockey card stories and I will have to request it via interloan.
Find this book in the Mississauga Library System's on-line catalogue
