Before there were lockouts and strikes: Dave Schultz

76-77 OPC #150

"The Hammer".  Maybe one of the best nicknames that the sports world will ever come up with.  Anyone that has followed hockey over the years has likely heard of the exploits of Dave Schultz.  Part of both of the Flyers Stanley Cup winning teams in the mid 70's, Schultz was the enforcer.  You didn't mess with Clarke, Barber, Leach, Bridgman or any of the top players, or you had to answer the bell with Dave.

Dave wasn't just a fighter, he did OK when it came to putting the puck in the net, actually potting 20 goals during the 73-74 season.  As you can see from the card, Dave was traded just before the 76-77 season started to the Kings for a pair of draft choices.

I did a quick Google search for Dave and turned up the official Dave Schultz website.  Dave is actually an anti-bullying speaker now, going to schools and asking students to "Put Bullying on Ice".  A fabulous way to use his persona and try and right a very serious wrong happening in the schoolyards/chatrooms today, bullying.

Scary stat:  I'm sure that everyone who follows hockey is aware of the record that Dave holds for the most penalty minutes during the regular season, with 472 during the 74-75 season.   Let's go one better than that.  During the 73-74 Stanley Cup run, Dave amassed a whopping 139 penalty minutes in just 17 games.   Spread that through an 80 game season, and Dave would have been on pace to accumulate 654 penalty minutes!!  That's almost 11 full games in the sin bin. 

Talk about a record that will never be broken.....

Before there were lockouts and strikes, there was Dave Schultz

thanks for reading, Robert

My top 25 sets #4: 76-77 OPC hockey

Set  1976-77 OPC
Number of cards in set: 396
Affordability:  7.5
Key RCs: Bryan Trottier, Dave "Tiger" Williams
Is the set built?:   Don't have an official count, but it's less than 75 cards from completion.

What I like about this set:  Again, it's the simplicity that I love about this set.  The  majority of the photos are posed shots with a generic blue background.  But there are some game shots, such as the Clark Gillies one above, that really do stand out.  (The Gillies stands out for me because I don't think I ever saw him without his mustache.).  I like the team logo not overtaking the entire card, and the players name and position at the bottom have letters that are easy to read.

The back of the card is a dark green with blue lettering, which is an interesting combination, but it works.  The bio is contained in a box on the lower left portion of the card, and it is much easier to read with the background being a light grey instead of green.  The cards also have a cartoon on the lower back in the right corner, containing some kind of interesting fact about the player.  (Clark's nickname is "Jethro")  The player stats only feature the recent season along with the career stats, but that helps to keep all the card backs in the set similar.

 
What I don't like about this set:   Outside of the usual OPC production issues with their older sets (miscuts, centering, etc.), there's absolutely nothing wrong with this set.

There are really only two cards that will set you back a decent amount of money in this set.  The Trottier RC, at least in my opinion, is still a great buy if you can find one in NM.  It's even better if you find it at the "listed" price of $60.  The Bobby Orr in this set has a substantial price tag of $50, but it's a great card of him in a BlackHawks jersey for the first time.  I still need one for my set.  This set contains all the classic subsets, team leaders, record breakers, team photos, etc.  It will always be remembered by me as one of the first hockey sets I ever collected, and after purchasing a box of these from Dave at Wax Stain Rookie for $20, it took me weeks just to start sorting them, because every time I took them out of the box, all I wanted to do was look at them and relive old collecting memories.

That's what it's all about...isn't it?

Thanks for reading, Robert