Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

Happy Halloween! Here is this year’s scary card, a 1955 Rams Team Issue photo of Art Hauser. It’s not quite as scary as last year’s Ed Cooke card, but I would definitely have gotten out of Art’s way. (Click on the image–if you dare!–for a life-size, scarier version.)

There are a lot of great poses in the 1955 Rams photo set. Perhaps the Rams’ proximity to Hollywood induced the players to ham it up a bit. You can read more about the set in an earlier blog article.

Enjoy trick-or-treating!

Greg Gantt, punter for the New York Jets in 1974 and 1975, passed away on October 26, according to al.com. Gantt apparently was also the Jets’ backup kicker, because he scored an extra point in 1974.

At Alabama, Gantt led the SEC in punting for three straight years. He still holds the school records for single season and career punting average. Unfortunately, he is most famous for having two punts blocked and returned for touchdowns in the fourth quarter of a 17-16 loss to Auburn. The game was nicknamed the Punt, ‘Bama, Punt game.

Gantt is pictured here on his 1976 Topps football card. It was issued the year after his last NFL season–not an unusual occurrence.

A while back, someone told me that Adrian Young’s 1971 Topps card pictures not Adrian Young, but Rick Duncan. Today I searched for pictures of the two players to see for myself. As far as I know, neither of the players appeared on another standard football card, but I did find pictures of them on a few other items listed on eBay.

Rick Duncan, a kicker and punter, played in four games over three seasons for the Broncos, Eagles, and Lions. He had been out of football for two years by the time he showed up on Young’s card. Topps apparently used a photo of Duncan from 1968, because he is pictured in an Eagles uniform, and 1968 was the season he spent with the Eagles. He evidently had a tryout with the Bears in 1967, because I found a press photo of him and Bruce Alford in Bears uniforms.

Adrian Young, a linebacker, played for six seasons with the Eagles, Lions, and Bears. I found two items that picture the real Adrian Young: a 1969 Eagles team issue photo and a 1972 NFLPA stamp. (Young is in the bottom row, second from the right.) I’d say there’s not much resemblance between Young and Duncan.

Coincidentally, while searching for a photo of Young, I learned that he will be inducted into the USC Athletic Hall of Fame in 2012. I also found an article that says he once intercepted four passes in a game against Notre Dame. Unfortuately, the article uses the image from Young’s 1971 Topps card–the one that pictures Rick Duncan!

For more vintage football cards that picture the wrong player, see my Mistaken Identities page and my blog article about errors in the inset photos on 1962 Topps football cards.

Yesterday I added a virtual uncut sheet of 1964 Philadelphia football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. I modeled the virtual sheet after a real one that is for sale in an upcoming auction. Thanks to Steve of the thecowboysguide.com for pointing out the auction.

Whereas 1965, 1966, and 1967 Philadelphia sheets appear to have had the same card numbering scheme, the 1964 Philadelphia sheet is numbered differently. On the 1964 sheet, groups of five to ten teammates appear on consecutive cards in the same row. I suspect that this caused a lot of teammates to appear together in packs, and that’s why Philadelphia changed their numbering scheme in 1965 to one that appeared more random.

(Click on the image to see the full virtual sheet.)

Gale Gillingham, an offensive lineman for ten seasons with the Green Bay Packers, passed away on October 20. Today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a report. Gillingham made the Pro Bowl five times, and he was inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame in 1982.

The cards pictured here are Gillingham’s rookie card, a 1970 Topps, and his last card, a 1975 Topps. He appeared on a number of cards and stamps in the intervening years, as well. You can see all of Gale Gillingham’s cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

The Miami Dolphins will add Jim “Mad Dog” Mandich to the Dolphins Honor Roll on December 4, according to the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel web site. Mandich played tight end for the Dolphins for eight seasons, then did radio broadcasts for the team for nineteen years. He passed away earlier this year.

The card shown here is Mandich’s rookie card, a 1975 Topps. I added it to the list of vintage football cards of members of the Miami Dolphins Honor Roll in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

Happy Interesting Auction Tuesday!

I didn’t bookmark many auctions this week, so instead I did a quick search for auctions with a lot of bids. Usually, a large number of bids indicates that an auction had a starting bid well below market value. Of course, they don’t always end well below market value, but at least there’s a chance for a bargain.

Below are the highlights of my search results. Each of these lots has at least ten bids, and has more than a day left to run.

• A nicely centered PSA 7 1950 Bowman Tom Fears card. Though the title doesn’t say so, Fears is a Hall of Famer, and this is his rookie card.
• A PSA 7 1955 Topps All-American Jim Thorpe card.
• An SGC 84 1961 Fleer Don Meredith rookie card.
• A 1962 Topps football card display box, plus 7 wrappers.
• A couple of unopened packs: a PSA 8 1965 Philadelphia wax pack and a GAI 9 1968 Topps wax pack.
• A complete set of 1970 Topps Super football cards, with a wrapper.
• A complete NM/MT set of 1972 Topps football cards, including the tough third series.

That’s just a small sample. You can use my Sports Card Auction Finder to see all auctions with ten or more bids: pre-1950, 1950s, 1960-1964, 1965-1969, 1970s, etc. It works for other sports, too!

As I have said in previous posts, I have concluded that uncut 1965, 1966, and 1967 Philadelphia football card sheets all had the same card numbering scheme. Thus, from a picture of a 1966 Philadelphia half-sheet, I was able to assemble virtual half-sheets of 1965, 1966, and 1967 Philadelphia cards. Of course, I would also like to assemble the second half-sheet for each set, but I haven’t yet seen an example of a real one. So I started collecting badly miscut cards from the three sets, in hopes of piecing together the second half-sheet. For example, by looking at the miscut Ernie Green card shown here, I can tell that the card to its left was Ben McGee, and I can conclude that cards 154 and 41 were adjacent on the sheets for all three Philadelphia sets.

The cards I have so far are toward the bottom of my Uncut Sheets in Progress page. If you have any badly miscut cards that could help the cause, please send me some scans!

Happy Tuesday! Here are this week’s interesting eBay auctions.

• Seller bronkossports is breaking up the #1 PSA registry set of 1950 Topps Felt Back football cards. The prize in the group is a PSA 6 Joe Paterno rookie card.
• It’s interesting that they’re selling them together, but here are both 1956 Topps Los Angeles Rams team cards graded PSA 10.
• I am only just beginning to appreciate old matchbook covers. This looks like a keeper: a 1936 Diamond matchbook cover featuring Bronko Nagurski.
• More matchbooks: this group of 1966 WNEW matchbook covers includes one of the New York Giants vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• Ever notice that 1967 Topps cards are just dressed-up 1958 Topps cards? Just compare this 1967 Topps Joe Namath proof with this 1958 Topps Matt Hazeltine card.
• Where’s Johnny? Here’s a 1969 Topps 4-in-1 panel that includes John Unitas–or his name, anyway. The seller has a handful of other 1969 Topps 4-in-1 proofs, as well.
• Finally, here’s one for the Walter Roberts superfan: a lot of 48 1966 Philadelphia Walter Roberts cards!

Yesterday I added a virtual uncut sheet of 1965 Philadelphia football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. I have not seen an actual 1965 Philadelphia uncut sheet, but by looking at badly miscut cards, I have concluded that 1965, 1966, and 1967 Philadelphia sheets all had the same numbering scheme. I have seen a picture of a 1966 sheet, and I used it to construct the 1965 virtual sheet.

Each of the 1964-1967 Philadelphia sets contains 66 double prints, though I have not seen the double prints documented in any of the price guides. The 1965 Philadelphia virtual sheet shows which cards are double prints.

(Click on the image to see the full virtual sheet.)

In honor of Al Davis, who passed away today, I added an interactive 1964 Topps Oakland Raiders team card to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. The card pictures the 1963 Raiders team, which Davis coached to a 10-4 record. That was the Raiders’ first winning season, and Davis was named the AFL Coach of the Year.

As always, I learned a few things while assembling the interactive card. One thing I learned is that one of the players pictured, Tom Morrow, holds the NFL record for most consecutive games with an interception. As far as I know, Morrow never appeared on a card by himself.

(Click on the card image shown here to go to the interactive version.)

Happy Tuesday! Here are this week’s interesting eBay auctions for vintage football cards and related collectibles:

• Seller cavaliercards has a bunch of PSA-graded 1926 Shotwell Red Grange cards for sale. These cards were originally packaged with Red Grange candy bars. You can see an empty wrapper and an empty display box on the Legendary Auctions web site. Nice!
• Seller prewarcardcollector is breaking up a set of PSA-graded 1935 National Chicle cards. Nice, too! (For a brief description of the set, see one of my previous articles, N is for National Chicle.)
• Here’s an oddball set I haven’t seen before: 1970 Chase and Sandborn NFL Helmet Stickers.
• I wonder why this 1964 Philadelphia Amos Marsh card is so valuable. Maybe it’s game-used?
• One of these cards is not like the others! Ever notice the difference between Bill Glass’s 1968 Topps card and the rest of the Browns cards in the set?
• A couple of beautiful 1948 Leaf cards: a PSA 9 Pat Harder and a PSA 8.5 Paul Governali.
• More confusion over Tom Finnin’s 1954 Bowman card. The card for sale is actually incorrect on both the front and back. See an earlier article for an explanation.
• I don’t know if these are scarce, but I don’t think I’ve seen one before: a full sheet of 1975 Topps team checklists.
• Finally, the #4 1969 Topps set in the PSA registry is for sale. No game-used cards here!