Hiya Larry,
So glad to hear someone is seriously collecting this beautiful Topps hockey set from 1965-66.
I cannot help much at all with information, but I'll toss in some opinions and memories. Pretty set with a snazzy design, but simple and uncomplicated. Good background colors. Nice balance, with checklist cards and the nice-looking team cards.
When it was released, I was a rabid Chicago Black Hawks fan growing up in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. The away Hawk games were shown on WGN Channel 9 and I tried to miss as few as possible. The Hawks were great to watch that year, as Bobby Hull was taking another serious try at breaking the single season goal scoring record, which he did---wish I'd been at the Chicago Stadium to see it. The applause was so loud and long! It can be re-lived on YOUTUBE. The Hawks superb announcer, Lloyd Pettt, taught us viewers how to properly pronounce the French Canadian player names, many of whom were extremely good.
I wanted hockey cards badly, but none of the stores that stocked baseball cards carried them. I had just started to do mail order business with a couple firms that sold all kinds of cards. I began to order hockey cards from The Trading Card Company, located in Farmington Hills, Michigan. As was typical of me then, I bought all the Chicago Black Hawks, as well as many of the stars I admired from the other teams. I noticed none of the other kids at school brought hockey cards, nor talked about them.
I didn't get a lot of the cards, maybe 25-30, but I treasured them very much, and still have quite a few of them to this day. A great set that brings back a lot of memories. You know, my local stores never did stock Topps hockey until the 1968-69 issue. As popular as hockey was in Chicago back then, I've never understood why the cards weren't sold in my area. The only possibility I thought of was that they only sold them in downtown Chicago, and I would have had no way of getting them then.
Happy collecting to you, Bro. Take care. --Brian Powell
