1963-64 Topps

1963-64 Topps

Once again, 1964-63 Topps Hockey went with a 66-card set that was broken down among the league's three American teams. However, the set's design marked the first time the company went with a horizontally oriented format in a hockey set.

The 1963-64 Topps Hockey card fronts were broken into two fields. To the left was the larger part, which contained a close-up head shot of a player. The right part of the card had an action photo, which didn't always have anything to do with the player featured on the card.

Interestingly, there were several pictures that featured players from the three teams Topps didn't have any rights to include. The two parts were separated by a solid-colored icon shaped like a hockey stick, with the player's name and team appearing in the area below his head shot. The backs are printed in blue and gray on white card stock. The player's name, position and team run across the top of the card, followed by a single line of stats from the previous season. A block of text with the player's biography follows on the left side, with a French translation in the gray area below. The right side of the card has a trivia question whose answer needed to be revealed by scratching it with the edge of a coin.

Boston Bruins players were featured on cards # 1-21, Chicago Blackhawks took up cards #22-43 and New York Rangers appeared on cards #44-65. The head coaches for the Bruins and Blackhawks also had their own cards along with their teams. A team picture card was the last card in each subset, and a checklist card was once again the final card in the 1963-64 Topps Hockey set.

Notable rookies in 1963-64 Topps Hockey include Ed Johnston, Gilles Villemure and Ed Westfall. Legendary goalie Jacques Plante also appears on his first Topps card, after being traded from the Canadiens to the Rangers.

Key 1963-64 Topps Hockey Cards:
Bobby Hull #33
Checklist #66
Jacques Plante #45
Stan Mikita #36
Ed Johnston RC #2