Topps: Encyclopedia II - Topps - Trading cards for other sports

Topps - Trading cards for other sports

Topps also makes cards for other major American professional sports. After football, its next venture was into ice hockey, with a 1954 set featuring players from the four National Hockey League franchises located in the U.S. at the time (Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, and New York Rangers). Topps did not make a serious effort to take on Parkhurst Products, the leading Canadian hockey card manufacturer, for a couple more years.

After Parkhurst disappeared from the market in the 1960s, Topps then reached an agreement with O-Pee-Chee, another Canadian company, to jointly produce hockey cards. O-Pee-Chee had already obtained a license to print Topps baseball cards for the Canadian market, and for a number of years the two companies would produce often-identical cards for both sports, but each under its own brand for its respective market. Topps then acquired the rights to use the O-Pee-Chee name on sports cards after that company was sold to Nestlé. However, anticipating the 2004-05 NHL lockout, Topps allowed its license for hockey to expire after the 2003-04 season. This ultimately left the sport to Upper Deck, which emerged as the sole licensee when the league resumed play.

Topps first sold cards for basketball in 1957, but stopped after one season. It started again in 1969 and continued until 1982, then abandoned the market for another decade. Topps finally returned to basketball cards in 1992, several years after its competitors. In a more recent addition to its lineup, Topps began producing cards for soccer in 1996, in partnership with Major League Soccer.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Trading cards for other sports", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki