A Tale of Two Teds

1975-76 Topps card #244 – Ted Irvine

Ted Irvine Topps Hockey CardWhat’s wrong with this picture?

Obviously, this card has been painted over, to change the player’s uniform to that of the St. Louis Blues, mid-1970s. Whenever Topps (or O-Pee-Chee) spent time retouching a player photo, the final result ended up looking like a painting with a superimposed floating head.

The problem here is the floating head belongs to Ted Harris and not Ted Irvine.

Just to clarify, Ted Irvine played the 1975-76 and 1976-77 seasons with the St. Louis Blues. Ted Harris played the last 24 games of the 1973-74 season with the Blues. By the time this card was released, Harris had already played a full season with the Flyers, and then retired. Why Topps would doctor a photo of a player who was long gone from St. Louis is beyond me. Perhaps the Topps Chewing Gum Company couldn’t tell their Teds apart. The O-Pee-Chee version of this card uses the same photo, so I guess no one really noticed – or cared – at the time.

For that, Topps gets a five minute penalty for bad airbrushing, and a game misconduct for using the wrong photo.

Hockey Card

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Author: Sal Barry

Sal Barry is the editor and webmaster of Puck Junk. He is a freelance hockey writer, college professor and terrible hockey player. Follow him on Twitter @puckjunk

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