Sunday Fun-Day Fun-Facts

O-Pee-Chee has been a name long associated with hockey cards in Canada.

The company's name was taken from Opechee, the robin's name in the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem "The Song of Hiawatha."



After the Second World War, O-Pee-Chee entered into a trading card deal with Topps, a leading American maker of trading cards. The deal involved a license to print and distribute Topps products in Canada. This arrangement began in 1965 with baseball cards. The O-Pee-Chee logo was simply placed over the Topps logo and the cards were marked as "Printed in Canada" on the back. In 1968, the license was extended to hockey although in later years, the O-Pee-Chee hockey sets were larger than their Topps counterparts in the U.S.A.

In 1970, due to new federal legislation in Canada, O-Pee-Chee added French-language text to the backs of its cards.

The O-Pee-Chee brand is now a property of Upper Deck. The 2009-10 hobby version of OPC hockey can be purchased at CCW by visiting Canada Card World.