Board Advertisements on Cards, Episode 3: Upper Deck

Way back in 1978, the NHL allowed teams to start selling advertising space along the boards of their rinks. By the time I was a hockey card–collecting kid in the late 1980s, the trend had caught on. From snack foods to car manufacturers to banks to fast food restaurants, board advertisements really ran the gamut—and they still do.

This series will explore some of the advertisements that also managed to make their way onto hockey cards.

 

Previous entries are available here.

 

 

1990-91 Upper Deck #534, Bobby Holik

 

Here's Bobby Holik, coasting along the ice, seemingly oblivious to the Los Angeles Kings player behind him who's trying to slow him down with a hook of the stick.

 

If you're a card collector, however, one thing you're not oblivious to is the logo on the boards just to the right of Mr. Holik.

 

Upper Deck!

 

 

 

 

And this is interesting. Mr. Holik's card featured here is from the inaugural release of hockey cards from that very same brand, Upper Deck, in 1990-91. It was also Holik's very first season in the NHL. This means the picture on the card had to be taken that very same year, at the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles. And this means the folks at the Great Western Forum were pretty forward thinking when it came to their board advertisements.

But it makes sense. 1990-91 was a watershed season for hockey cards. Along with the standard Topps and O-Pee-Chee offerings, suddenly collectors had many more brands to choose from: Bowman, Score, O-Pee-Chee Premier, and Pro Set all swooped in on the market. And with the outrageous popularity of Upper Deck's inaugural baseball card set from the previous year, it's no wonder the Great Western Forum chose Upper Deck as the card company for their hockey rink boards.

And here's something to keep in mind: We're talking about a time that existed before digital photography and instant photo submission across the internet. Holik's card is in the high number series, which was released a bit later in the 1990-91 season. But still, kudos to Upper Deck for getting their photographers out there mid-season to snap and develop shots of a few rookies (or as they'd call them, "young guns") like Holik, Fedorov, Bondra, and Bure. The effort also meant they'd be able to feature quite a few players who'd been traded in the off-season, or even mid-season, on their new teams, instead of printing the standard "now with [insert team here]" text on the card fronts like Topps and O-Pee-Chee would always do.

And thanks in part to all that forward thinking, the Upper Deck brand still exists today—the only brand of all those mentioned above that still produces hockey cards. (The O-Pee-Chee name still exists, but it's owned by... guess who... Upper Deck.)

I'm sure some of you readers and hockey card collectors remember the frenzy of the card market back in 1990, when every brand was the hottest, or best, or most advanced. Fun times, for sure.

Do you remember seeing any advertisements for the new hockey card companies back then, be it at hockey rinks, in Beckett magazines, on billboards, or anywhere else?

 

Share some memories in the comment section, and thanks for reading.

Completed Set: 1990-91 Upper Deck Hockey

 

 

Even as a young collector in 1990, I was kind of a traditionalist. I'd mainly collected Topps cards throughout my short existence to that point, and I enjoyed the brand over others like Donruss, Fleer, and Score, right down to the type of cardboard that Topps had always used. 

 

So, the thing I remember most when I opened those first packs of Upper Deck cards (baseball in 1989 and then hockey in 1990-91) was feeling unimpressed. And a bit critical. 

 

"The cards feel flimsy", I can almost hear my young self exclaim.  

 

"There's a hologram on the back, big whoop", I might have also muttered. 

 

Well, I must have gotten over that initial reaction, because I opened a whole bunch of hockey packs that year and came pretty close to completing the set. And I'm sure soon enough I began to appreciate the other aspects of Upper Deck's first try at hockey. After all, the extra full-length photo on the back of each card was cool. 

 

And the photography on the front?

 

The company seemed to understand that hockey was a dynamic, action-packed sport. "Go nuts", they must have told their photographers.

 

Granted, there are still headshots. (These guys don't look too happy about that.)

 

And some "standing around during warmups" shots.

And face-off shots. (Two Miracle on Ice teammates are squaring off in that middle card, look.)

 

But even those seem to be better than standard. Besides, in a set of 550 cards (400 in the low number series and 150 in the high numbers), you need some of those. 

 

So let's get back to the gems.

 

Quite a few cards capture the battle for position and fight for every inch of space that's an integral part of the game of hockey.

 

 

And Upper Deck managed to sneak some rough stuff into the set, with a bloodied Basil McRae yapping at an opponent across the penalty boxes, and Bob Probert sporting some wounds from a recent battle. Even goalie Rick Tabaracci got into the action!

 

 

There are also some great goal celebrations

 

As well as some interesting camera angles.

 

Another thing Upper Deck seemed to realize about hockey right from the start is that goalies were separate-but-cool creatures who needed to be captured in their element.

As was fitting for the time, this set also contains numerous subsets. 

 

There were the All-Stars.

 

And the Award Winners. (Because who didn't want a few extra cards of superstars in tuxedos, I guess?) 

There was also a nice "Heroes" subset, featuring legends of the game who'd participated in the all-star festivities that season.

 

Then there were the rookies. 

 

First, Upper Deck decided to set some of the new guys apart with a "Star Rookie" label. They received a special logo on the bottom right in place of a team logo, along with a little blurb on the card backs.

 

Next, to show they were really cashing in on the rookie craze, Upper Deck created a separate "All-Rookie Team" subset, with yet another special logo at the bottom right and an even longer write-up on the card backs. There were only six players in this subset: three forwards, two defensemen, and one goalie.

Oh, and don't forget the First-Round Draft Pick cards. The top ten picks were included here.

 

Then there was a subset commemorating the Canadian National Junior Team, which took the gold medal at the 1991 World Junior Championships.

And perhaps most recognizable, even to modern collectors, the Young Guns.

I'd forgotten that Young Guns were a thing from the very beginning! It's pretty cool that Upper Deck is still running the subset to this day (although they took a few years off here and there). Even more impressive is just how popular the feature has become.

 

Aside from the studs shown above, the 1990-91 Upper Deck set has a stellar rookie class. Look here:

Along with those three, you've got Alexander Mogilny, Ed Belfour, Jeremy Roenick, Mark Recchi, Mats Sundin, Scott Niedermayer, and Peter Bondra, to name a few.

Oh, and don't forget the team checklists, which contained some pretty impressive artwork on the front. 

 

By now you can see that there were many, many great cards in the 1990-91 Upper Deck set. Just imagine being a kid back then, opening a pack, and finding some of the beauties above in your hands.

 

But wait, there's more!

 

The full-length images on the card backs weren't just a novelty, meant to take up space or set a trend. Some great photography can be found there, as well.

Just like on the card fronts, there were goal celebrations.

 

Upper Deck sneaked in some rough stuff on the backs, too.

 

 

But they also made sure to let us know that the referees would be there to break it up.

 

 The horizontal images were great for capturing hockey action.

 

And more excellent goalie photos.

 

And finally, here's a victorious, happy team partaking in a high-five, plus a card front featuring Mr. Frank J. Zamboni.

 

It's hard to believe 30 years have gone by since Upper Deck jumped into hockey. But taking a look back at it now—having finally completed the entire set of low and high numbers—has been a lot of fun. Maybe I'll buy a couple of foil-wrapped packs and open them to recreate the full experience.

 

Do any of you hockey collectors have memories of this set and the buzz it generated back in 1990? 

 

Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading!

Two Timeless Beverages

While preparing a big stack of 1990-91 Upper Deck hockey cards for a trade, I came across a bit of an anomaly. Have a look at the player names on these two cards, which happen to fall right next to each other in the set:

#124 Paul Coffey and #125 Bob Beers

Ah, coffee and beer. Two timeless beverages that many people can't seem to do without. 

Do you think someone at Upper Deck was exhibiting their sense of humor by placing these two cards next to each other? Well, at first I wasn't convinced. But not much farther into the stack I came across another two, also consecutive:

#98 Garth Butcher and #99 Daniel Shank

Butcher and Shank. Hah. 

Well, now I had to look through the rest of the set. 

And I did. Thoroughly.

Although I didn't find any other consecutive cards featuring food or drink pairings, there were some other food-related names scattered throughout. In fact, along with the Coffey and Beers, it turns out that you could put together a pretty decent meal. Here's the menu:

#543 Kari Takko

Appetizer: Takkos

#99 Daniel Shank

#30 Basil McRae and #146 Jari Kurri

#462 Steven Rice

 

Main course: Lamb Shank in a Basil and Kurri sauce, served over Rice

#173 Adam Oates and #131 Dirk Graham

Dessert: Oates bar with Graham cracker crumble and icing 

Icing. Please don't boo me for adding that hockey rule to the dessert.

Overall, a pretty good meal from one single hockey set, yes? 

I'm sure there are plenty of other food-related names out there in the sports world. (Coco Crisp, anyone?) Can you think of any? Leave some examples in the comment section.

From the Favorites Box: Mike Modano, 1990-91 Upper Deck #46

A series where I post some thoughts about favorite cards.

A year after the smashing success of their inaugural baseball card release, Upper Deck followed with a hockey set. And similar to their baseball set, the photography in the hockey set did not disappoint. (See also #47 Theo Fleury, #64 Ray Bourque, #91 Mario Gosselin, #176 Viacheslav Fetisov.)

You know who else didn't disappoint in his inaugural season? Mike Modano. In 1989-90, the smooth-skating, fiercely talented American impressed with 29 goals and 46 assists for a total of 75 points. Minnesotans knew they'd done well drafting Modano in the first round in 1988 (first overall), and the image on this Upper Deck card provides an early example of just how much he'd take the state by storm.

Not only is the photo perfectly framed, and not only does it capture Modano coasting along the boards, celebrating a goal with arms raised (and showing that classic North Stars logo), but check out the guy in the background behind the glass.

HUZZAH!

Mike Modano elicited this reaction from the home crowd for 4 seasons in Minnesota, then for another 16 in Dallas (and then one in Detroit). He's still the all-time goals and points leader among American-born players. 

And for all these reasons, 1990-91 Upper Deck #46 has a spot in my box of favorite cards.