The O-Pee-Chee Company, Ltd. of Ontario, Canada, made and retailed confectionery, mostly gum. They were founded in 1911, and first issued cards in the 1930s.
They became part of Nestlé in 1996, however there is a strange event that happened the following year as Topps started to use their name on hockey cards, and in 2003 they sold, or maybe just sold the rights, to Upper Deck. Why I say this is strange is because there was an earlier link between Topps and O-Pee-Chee, which resulted in O-Pee-Chee being allowed to issue Topps Cards in Canada, after a short interval had passed from them being available in the United States. Maybe a collector of these cards can tell us more?
1968-69 O-Pee-Chee Hockey saw the company issue its own separate set in Canada, rather than making and distributing their cards under the Topps name. From this point forward, the sets would be differentiated between the two countries with two similar but different sets. O-Pee-Chee's would be larger and have more subset and specialty cards. Also, because they were printed in Canada, the backs would be written in two languages, English and French, while Topps' cards would carry English-only text.
This set is split into several sections, including two checklists. The first group shows a picture of a player with an art drawn background and a team logo. Below the picture is a base section with darts separating the player`s name, team, and playing position. The second group, cards 199 to 210, show the All Stars, and the third group, cards 211 to 216, pay tribute to the award winners. Our card is one of these, and it shows Glenn Henry Hall, goalkeeper, who retired at the age of 39 in 1972. The Conn Smythe Trophy, mentioned on the card, was a relatively new award, first given in 1964, to the most valuable player during the Stanley Cup playoffs.