Another card from the birthday haul, a game used Gump Worsely card. This one came with a note asking if I can figure out what’s wrong with it. More on that in a minute.
First off, let’s talk about Gump. Gump Worsley won the Calder Trophy while with the New York Rangers despite posting a record of 13-29-8. He was just that good. The Rangers in front of him, conversely, were just that bad. Early in his career, a reporter asked Gump which team gave him the most problems. “The New York Rangers” was his reply.
Gump was then traded to the Canadians a day after he was told by the GM of the Rangers he would be with the team forever. Gump insists that he was never told by the Rangers that he was traded, either. The Canadiens were a better defensive team (and a better team in general), and Gump would backstop them to four Stanley Cups.
As to what’s wrong with the card, well… Worsley’s last game with the Rangers was during the 62-63 season, and his last game in the league was during the 73-74 season with the Minnesota North Stars. I’m not a jersey expert, but I believe that the NHL used the old jersey style uniforms up until a few years after his retirement. Which means this “game used piece” must have come from some sort of legends game, I guess.
It would have been even trickier if this had been a game used mask from Gump, since he only wore one for his last six games. Prior to that Worsley was quotes as saying, “My face is my mask.”
I love the blue on this card as it goes well with the blue of the jersey swatch, but it seems to overwhelm the black and white photo that Upper Deck found. It’s a great photo, though. Love the hair cut. I may go Gump during my next barber’s appointment. But I probably would have found a color photo of Gump for the card.
Hand Collated 
Yes, that is a piece from an old-timers uniform from the 1990s, and Gump primarily had a brush cut / crew cut through the majority of his career and in later life, although at times he did have his hair a little longer, which can be seen in some images of him with Canadiens and North Stars …
He was one of the five best netminders in NHL history without a doubt.
That’s a much better answer than the one I had in mind. Can you find something else wrong?
I love the card! It looks great! although that is not an NHL game used sweater, and it would have been nice if they had spelled his name correctly…..
but it looks pretty!
Good spotting there, Captain Canuck …
Must admit that having known the Gumper I never even read the left side of card where his name is misspelled as WORLSEY but instead my eyes were drawn to the uniform insert …
Errors such as this are totally wrong but there are a number of cards with player name or team name error misspellings which could make for a good story.
WORLSEY was the error I noticed too….but this was a much better blog post than it would have been if that had been the one that he noticed….