Oh, Canada! (Part Deux)

We're back, with a second installment of the Topps Canadian Football League issues. This time, we'll take a peek at the last four years of Topps branded cards.

1962 brought another black and white set but with a twist:



Yes, these cards were actually minis when separated-yikes! While the 1962 Topps US football cards do have a small b&w picture they in no way resemble these. Issued in a series of 169 small cards, some are repeated with different partners on the larger "panels". I cannot find a reference showing how many different panels exist but would think 132 is a possibility. The mystery should be solved soon though as a top notch CFL card price guide is about to be issued (that link will work by the end of March 2010 by the way but you can contact the author now for more information: amalycky@telusplanet.net ).

The reverses on the 62's are also radically different from the US cards:



After two straight black and white sets, 1963 brought a nice change of pace:



A nice clean, simple design with a large picture area always works wonders on a set of cards, although these are a bit austere compared to what was going on south of the border in '63, where Topps was starting to use some daring designs on their FB cards (we'll get to those eventually, no worries) although it would take them a couple of years to get fully revved up.

88 CFL cards were issued in 1963 , so we are seeing a decline in production and I have to believe that the cards were not selling all that briskly. Indeed the attendance at CFL games with their smaller stadiums in this era was less than that in the US by more than half on a per game basis and there are just not as many Canadians as there are Americans, so the numbers may not have been adding up too well for the bean counters.

The reverses in '63 were part of a growing trend where Topps put interactive backs on many sets:



Those closely mirror the US reverses and you needed some red cello paper to check the quiz answer.

1964 brought dramatic changes and a hint of daring design at last, in another 88 card set:



Bold colors! The reverse would see a major design element repeated in two years on the backs of some Batman cards (Go here if you were a fan of the Batman TV series --still the best show ever in my book-- from 1966-68; I promise it will be worth your time) and were completely different than the US backs:



Again, you needed a special decoder to reveal the answer. These full bleed backs, a CFL card staple, make things tough these days if you collect mint cards! I have to say "Nobby" is a great nickname....

Topps ended their first CFL run in 1965 with what I consider their nicest looking card from these eight years, although they in no way, shape or form resembled the 1965 US cards:



We have 88 cards again with a really well-designed obverse. The backs are also pretty nice:



and actually share some design elements with the 1964 Topps hockey cards and 1965 US football cards, which are both infamous "tallboy" sets.

Topps would return to Canadian Football in 1968 and haltingly issue CFL cards for a few more years through its O-Pee-Chee arm. We'll take a look at the OPC cards real soon but will be back with a post on the 1960's CFL inserts before then.

Oh, Canada! (Part Un)

No, this is not a hockey post! Today we turn our eyes to the sometimes Frozen North and start looking at an eight year run of Canadian Football League cards produced by Topps. It comes as a surprise to many folks that Topps produced CFL cards but starting in 1958, when the league was founded in a forging of powerful east and west factions that were themselves outgrowths of an even older Rugby league, they were there all the while to document the players.

Now, you may have your opinions about how 110 yard fields and 3 downs make it a different game (among other things) and I certainly have mine but CFL ball is pretty close to the brand played in the NFL and the CFL cards, at least initially, were also pretty close in appearance to their NFL counterparts.

The first set in 1958 numbered 88 cards and featured the 9 teams in the CFL sans the Montreal Alouettes. They are dead ringers for the US issued 58's but these were printed in Canada by O-Pee-Chee:



Since the CFL season starts about three months prior to the NFL's, the decision to make the cards look the same on both sides of the border must have been made in the winter of 1958. White background cards in each set have black information blocks while cards with different colors don't have this distinctive two-tone look. You can also see how the oval player photo led to the design of 1959 Topps baseball cards with their circular photo.

Disregarding all the French, the backs are similar to but not 100% identical with the NFL cards; they are cut from the same cloth so to speak:



I am going to run a series of posts on both design similarities across sets and year-to-year comparisons across countries over the spring, so hang tight!

The 1959 CFL cards (still 88 subjects) also shared a front design with the NFL cards and also had some design elements that were incorporated into the 1960 baseball series, especially in the lettering of the player's names:



Backs once again are very similar to but not quite a hundred percent match with the NFL cards and French and English co-exist.



The Grey Cup, mentioned in the cartoon above, predates the professional league that now plays for it, much like the Stanley Cup does in hockey. I really like the idea of the championship game being contested for possession of a trophy that the winning team gets to display and then literally protect and wonder why the US sports of baseball, football and basketball did not follow this lead considering the history of the America's Cup.

Things start diverging dramatically in 1960 as a horizontal format is used:



I quite like the b&w action background. Now, did this card combine some elements from the 1959 baseball (circular photo) and 1960 baseball cards (horizontal format)? Very possibly, says moi. Still, the set remained at 88 cards and the back, even allowing for the French, is very, very close to the NFL reverses:



We will end today's foray with the radically different '61 CFL obverse as the set adds 44 cards to leave 132 subjects displayed in glorious black & white:



Once again, the backs are pretty close to the 1961 NFL cards:



Meco's name really adds some Italian flair and almost makes this reverse trilingual!

Next time out we will see even more dramatic changes-stay tuned!