Featuring more than 396 colour images, The O-Pee-Chee Hockey Card Story "90th Anniversary Edition" features an expanded history to O-Pee-Chee's hockey legacy as well as a year-by-year guide from 1933-34 to 1994-95 and vignettes for more than 70 important rookie cards from the 1960s through 1980s. With stops and starts in the 1930s and early 1940s, then a continuous five-decade run starting in the 1950s, O-Pee-Chee deeply established themselves as the annual collecting favourite of every young Canadian hockey fan.
A follow-up to the 2014 national bestseller Hockey Card Stories, Ken Reid’s new offering presents 59 more stories about your favorite hockey cards from the players themselves. Hockey Card Stories 2 will take you all the way back to the 1960s and right up to the Hockey Card Boom of the 1990s. How did Eric Lindros handle being at the center of the 1990s rookie-card craze? Ever wonder why one tough guy’s Upper Deck card looks more like a High School yearbook picture than a sports card? Of course, once again, there are glorious mullets, errors, and broken noses. There’s even the story of how a rhinoceros and a Hall of Famer ended up on a card together. And as a special bonus, Ken Reid reveals the story behind the chase for his greatest hockey card.
Collecting the Top 100 O-Pee-Chee Hockey Cards. More than 350 black and white photos including pictures of card fronts and card backs from six decades. The top 100 hockey cards were selected from four eras: O-Pee-Chee's earliest years (from 1933 to 1941); the Original Six era (1942 to 1967); the Expansion Era (1968 to 1979); and the Gretzky Years (1980 to 1989).
For over a hundred years, kids of all ages have enjoyed the thrill of collecting sports cards. Whether it was souvenirs from their parents’ cigarette packs, pieces that came in bubble gum packages, or the modern dazzlers, the simple formula of pictures and text on cardboard have been a part of North American society for over a century. Now, take a look back at one of the most popular hobbies in history with Got ’Em, Got ’Em, Need ’Em. Covering baseball, basketball, football, hockey, boxing, and golf, this unique book offers a look at the greatest sports cards ever produced, including the players and personalities involved. Relive the days gone by with some of the industry’s most well-known experts as we count down the best from the business. Plus, as a special bonus, take a look at the best innovations, the worst blunders, and a special tribute to the hobby’s boom era in the 1990s.
The autobiography of one of hockey’s first rebels and a beloved member of the “Big Bad Bruins,” this book shares how Derek Sanderson’s ferocious style helped lead the team to two Stanley Cup victories in the early 1970s. Living life in the fast lane, Sanderson grew his hair long, developed a serious drinking problem, and eventually found himself out of the league and prowling the streets for his next drink. In this autobiography, Sanderson comes clean on his life in hockey, the demons that threatened to consume him, and the strength and courage it took to fight his way back. Today a successful entrepreneur and speaker, Sanderson’s incredible story is a must read for any fan of hockey.
Terry Ryan was poised to take the hockey world by storm when he was selected eighth overall by the Montreal Canadiens in the 1995 NHL draft, their highest draft pick in a decade. Expected to go on to become a hockey star, Ryan played a total of eight NHL games for the Canadiens, scoring no goals and no assists: not exactly the career he, or anyone else, was expecting. Though Terry's NHL career wasn't long, he experienced a lot and has no shortage of hilarious and fascinating revelations about life in pro hockey on and off the ice. In Tales of a First-Round Nothing, he recounts fighting with Tie Domi, partying with rock stars, and everything in between. Ryan tells it like it is, detailing his rocky relationship with Michel Therrien, head coach of the Canadiens, and explaining what life is like for a man who was unprepared to have his career over so soon.
The Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes was formed in 1895 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Comprised of the sons and the grandsons of runaway American slaves, the league helped pioneer the sport of ice hockey, changing this winter game from the primitive "gentleman's past-time" of the Nineteenth Century to the to the modern fast moving game of today. In an era when many believed Blacks could not endure cold, possessed ankles too weak to effectively skate, and lacked the intelligence for organized sport, these men defied the established myths. The Colored League was one of the most complex sports organizations ever created and was lead by Baptist ministers and church laymen. Natural leaders and proponents of Black Pride, these men represented a concept in spots never before seen. Their rule book was The Bible. Their game book, the coded words and oral history derived from the experiences of American slavery and the Underground Railroad. Their strategy, the principles and teachings of American Black leader Booker T. Washington (the founder of the Tuskegee Institute) and a believer in the concept of racial equality through racial separation. Twenty-five years before the Negro Baseball Leagues in the United States, and twenty-two years before the birth of the National Hockey League, the Colored League would emerge as a premier force in Canadian hockey and supply the resilience necessary to preserve a unique culture which exists to this day. Unfortunately their contributions were conveniently ignored, or simply stolen, as White teams and hockey officials, influenced by the Black league, copied elements of the Black style or sought to take self-credit for Black hockey innovations. Seven years of research has gone into this book. This is the first book ever written on the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes.
An in-depth look into the origins of how each NHL team was named, received their logo and design, with interviews by those responsible. Written by those most knowledgeable, you'll learn why every hockey team to every play in the National Hockey League looks the way it does. Nothing unites or divides a random assortment of strangers quite like the hockey team for which they cheer. The passion they hold within them for the New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, or Boston Bruins allows them to look past any differences which would have otherwise disrupted a perfectly fine Thanksgiving dinner and channels it into a powerful, shared admiration for their team. We decorate our lives with their logos, stock our wardrobe with their jerseys, and, in some cases, even tattoo our bodies with their iconography and colors. They’re so ingrained in our lives we don’t even think to ask ourselves why Los Angeles celebrates royalty; why Buffalo cheers for not one, but two massive cavalry swords; or why the Broadway Blueshirts named themselves for a law enforcement agency in Texas (or why they even wear blue shirts, for that matter). All that and more is explored in Fabric of the Game, authored by two of the sports world’s leading experts in team branding and design: Chris Creamer and Todd Radom. Tapping into their vast knowledge of the whys and hows, Creamer and Radom explore and share the origin stories behind these and more, talking directly to those involved in the decision processes and designs of the National Hockey League’s team names, logos, and uniforms, pouring through historical accounts to find and deliver the answers to these questions. Learn more about the historied Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks, as well as the lost but not forgotten Hartford Whalers and Quebec Nordiques, all the way to the lesser-known Kansas City Scouts and Philadelphia Quakers. Whichever team you pledge allegiance, Fabric of the Game covers them in-depth with research and knowledge for any hockey fan to enjoy.
The inspiration for the Peacock Original Movie "Shooting Stars" "A book that will incredibly move and inspire you.” —Jay-Z "An entertaining, well-written reminder that even if he seems to have been around forever, James didn’t go directly from the nursery to the NBA.” —Sports Illustrated The "dream team" was a bunch of kids from Akron, Ohio - LeBron James and his best friends - who first met on a youth basketball team of the same name when they were ten and eleven years old. United by their love of the game and their yearning for companionship, they quickly forged a bond which would carry them through thick and thin (a lot of thin) and, at last, to the brink of a national championship. They were a motley group who faced challenges all too typical of inner-city America. LeBron grew up without a father and had moved with his mother more than a dozen times by the age of 10. Willie McGee, the quiet one, had left both his parents behind in Chicago to be raised by his older brother in Akron. Dru Joyce was outspoken, and his dad, who was ever-present, would end up coaching all five of the boys in high school. Sian Cotton, who also played football, was the happy-go-lucky enforcer, while Romeo Travis was unhappy, bitter, even surly, until he finally opened himself up to the bond his team mates offered. In the summer after seventh grade, the "dream team" tasted glory when they qualified for a national championship tournament in Memphis. But they lost their focus, and had to go home early. They promised each other they would stay together and do whatever it took to win a national title. They had no idea how hard it would be to pursue that promise. In the years that followed, they would endure jealousy, hostility, exploitation, resentment from the black community (because they went to a "white" high school), and the consequence of their own over-confidence. Not least, they would all have to wrestle with LeBron's outsize success, which brought too much attention and even a whiff of scandal their way. But together these five boys became men as they sought a national championship.
