Black History Month: The Making of Willie O’Ree’s Rookie Card

3 years ago  /  The Hockey Writers  /  Read Time: 6 minutes 23 seconds

• That was the first time I had ever wondered if anyone had ever made a Willie O’Ree hockey card.
• I looked up O’Ree and was shocked that he did not have an official rookie card.
• The only collectible that was close to a card that O’Ree had at that time was a Bee Hive photo.
• What if Pinnacle resurrected Bee Hive photos as a hockey card brand?
• Bee Hive photos were the primary hockey collectible for hockey fans from the 1930s into the 1960s.
• If you sent in the label from your container of corn syrup, you could choose from a checklist of hockey photos that would be mailed to you.
• O’Ree of the Boston Bruins was one of the 604 NHL players from 1934-67 who had a Bee Hive photo.
• I also had to explain to them what Bee Hive photos were and then tell them who O’Ree was.
• The vision we came up with was to produce something that we thought a Bee Hive photo would be if St.
• Pinnacle Bee Hive would hit the market as 5” by 7” cards.
• I told him Pinnacle wanted to include him in a hockey card set, which would be a resurrection of Bee Hive photos.
• The photo we used for the set was one of the only O’Ree photos out there.
• The photo editor at Pinnacle, Anita Cechowski, did an absolutely phenomenal job with the photo selection on that card set.
• Anita is probably one of the best photo editors to ever work in the hockey card industry.
• Gary Bettman Announced Bee Hive Project, First O’Ree Card.
• In Jan 1998, the Pinnacle Bee Hive hockey card project was announced at the NHL All-Star Game FanFest in Vancouver.
• I don’t know how Laurie pulled this off, but she convinced NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman to come to our press conference and introduce the resurrection of Bee Hive photos and the world’s first O’Ree NHL hockey card in the same month that he broke the NHL’s color barrier.
• With the flood, my childhood collection of ticket stubs, game programs, issues of Sports Illustrated and The Hockey News, and many of my hockey cards, including Bee Hive photos, were destroyed.
• There have been more than 300 O’Ree NHL cards made since his 1997-98 Pinnacle Bee Hive rookie card.

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