Introducing The 1982-83 O-Pee-Chee Dating Game!

It seems like the O-Pee-Chee Company became a bit lackadaisical when it came to the player bios on the backs of their 1982-83 hockey cards. Either that, or they were trying to get every eligible bachelor in the NHL hitched.

Why, you ask? 

Well, many of the player bios in the 1982-83 set were created using the following template:

Player X is [married / a bachelor]
His last amateur team was [insert team here]
His hobbies include [insert hobbies here]

Wonder if these bachelor bios helped anyone find Mrs. Right? Wonder no more! Welcome to the first episode of The 1982-83 O-Pee-Chee Dating Game, where we'll randomly select three eligible bachelors from the set and you, the reader, will choose which one has the most groovy appeal. [APPLAUSE]

First, let's review the set.

There are 396 cards in all. Once we remove the League Leaders, Team Leaders, and In Action cards, that leaves us with 330 individual player cards.

Of those 330 cards, we have 64 bachelors, 112 married men, and 154 cards that don't specify—either because there wasn't enough space on the card back or because their status just wasn't mentioned.

Now, let's start the premier round and introduce our first three bachelors! [APPLAUSE]

Bachelor number 1: Center from the Edmonton Oilers, Ken Linseman
Bachelor number 2: Defenseman from the Hartford Whalers, Chris Kotsopoulos
Bachelor number 3: Left Wing from the Boston Bruins, Normand Leveille

Now let's find out more about them, straight from the back of their hockey cards:

 

 

So, readers, who's the winner of the first episode? 

Bachelor number 1: Airbrushed Ken Linseman, who (appropriately enough) enjoys art?

Bachelor number 2: Toronto native Chris Kotsopoulos?

Bachelor number 3: NHL rookie Normand Leveille, who is fluent in several languages?