Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

Nolan Luhn, an end for the Green Bay Packers from 1945 to 1949, passed away on November 27. The whiotv.com web site has a short report.

To my knowledge, Luhn appeared on just one football card, the 1948 Bowman card pictured here. 1948 Bowman cards with numbers divisible by 3 were short-printed, and Luhn’s card, number 9, is one of the scarcest cards in the set. See my 1948 Bowman virtual uncut sheet page for details.

Yesterday I added 1969 Topps Mini-Card Albums to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. There is one album for each of the 16 NFL and 10 AFL teams of 1969. (The leagues merged in 1970.) The albums, along with panels of mini-cards (now known as 1969 Topps 4-in-1′s), were inserts in packs of 1969 Topps football cards. Each album held ten mini-cards, plus a few stats for each player. The mini-cards had adhesive on the back, like stamps, so kids could separate the cards from the panels, lick the backs, and stick them in the albums. The adhesive was poor, so it wasn’t long before it let go and the cards fell out.

Pictured here are the front, back, and middle of the Green Bay Packers mini-card album.


The Packers mini-card album, with Bart Starr on the cover, is an exception. Most of the albums, strangely, have pictures of players from other teams on their covers. The San Francisco 49ers album, for instance, has a New York Giant on the cover. Commenting on an earlier blog article, a sharp-eyed reader pointed out that the player is Joe Walton, and that the image also appeared on Walton’s 1962 Topps card. Walton joined the Giants in 1961, so the photo must have been taken during the 1961 season.

Happy Tuesday–and happy Thanksgiving! Here are this week’s interesting eBay auctions for vintage football cards and related collectibles.

• Seller thetoppsvault has a bunch of beautiful 1969 Topps color transparencies available. (The listings call them “negatives,” but aren’t negatives the opposite colors of the real thing?) Most of the players on the transparencies never appeared on cards, and for me it was fun to see some new faces.
• Seller jimmacie has several 1968 American Oil “Mr. and Mrs.” cards up for auction. These are the oddest of the oddballs–see Bobby Mitchell barbecuing!
• Here’s a nice PSA 5 1954 Blue Ribbon Tea CFL card of Bud Grant. Call me crazy, but isn’t it a tad nicer than this PSA 7? The seller has many more Blue Ribbon Tea cards for sale, as well.
• I don’t collect modern cards, so I had no idea that Topps gave away real 1894 Mayo cards in their 2008 Topps Mayo packs. Here is one of them. Wow!
• Some AAFC matchbooks: Jake Leicht and Dick Barwegan of the 1949 Baltimore Colts, and a 1949 New York Yankees schedule–with an ad for Topps gum!

Enjoy your turkey!

Lenny Lyles, a back and kick returner from 1958 to 1969 for the Baltimore Colts and San Francisco 49ers, passed away on November 20. The Louisville Courier-Journal web site has a report of his death and a recent photo. Lyles was a Pro Bowler in 1966, and he played in Super Bowl III, which the Colts lost to the New York Jets.

The card pictured here is Lyles’s rookie card, a 1967 Philadelphia, issued in his tenth season in the NFL. He also appeared on a 1968 Topps card, a 1969 Topps card, and a 1969 Glendale stamp.

Every wonder how many players in the 1961 Nu-Card college football card set went on to play in the NFL or AFL? I wondered, so I looked them up. I also marked them in the Vintage Football Card Gallery. Before you look, what is your guess? There are a total of 80 cards in the set.

Here’s a hint: it’s at least two. John Hadl played sixteen seasons for the San Diego Chargers, Los Angeles Rams, Green Bay Packers, and Houston Oilers. He is a member of the San Diego Chargers Hall of Fame. Curtis McClinton played eight seasons for the Dallas Texans and Kansas City Chiefs. (The Texans moved to Kansas City and became the Chiefs in 1963.) McClinton is a member of the Chiefs Hall of Fame.

Have your guess? See my 1961 Nu-Card page for the answer.

I didn’t bookmark many football card auctions this week, but I did stumble across some old matchbooks from NFL players’ bars and restaurants. Many players opened such businesses, it seems, and, in that day, I would guess that most of them provided matchbooks. Here are the ones I turned up:

• Johnny Unitas’s Golden Arm Restaurant
• Bob Lilly’s “The Other Place”
• John Lattner’s Marina City Restaurants
• Red Grange’s Night Club
• Woodley Lewis’s Sportsman Bowl
• Dick Bassi’s Bar and Restaurant

There weren’t many football cards printed in the early days of the NFL, unfortunately. A lot of players appeared on matchbook covers, though, so some card collectors collect matchbook covers, too. The player matchbooks were what I was seeking when I found the ones above. My searches for “football matchbook” and “football match cover” turned up some of the early player matchbooks, plus matchbooks shaped like helmets, matchbooks from college football teams, matchbooks with schedules, etc. It was fun browsing.

This week I added 1959 Bazooka football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. These cards were hand-cut from the bottoms of boxes of Bazooka bubble gum. Y.A. Tittle, of course, is pictured in his helmet. (As I wrote in an earlier article, Tittle is wearing his helmet on nearly all of his cards.)

See the Gallery for more information on the 1959 Bazooka set.

This week I added 1972 Auburn Tigers Playing Cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. The set is a standard 52-card deck, plus 2 jokers. Fifty-one of the standard cards picture Auburn players, and one, the ace of spades, pictures head coach Ralph “Shug” Jordan. The jokers are Cliff Hare Stadium and Auburn Memorial Coliseum.

The 1972 Auburn team finished 10-1 and was ranked #5 in the country in the final AP poll. 1972 was also the season of the famous “Punt, ‘Bama, Punt” game, in which Auburn beat Alabama 17-16 by blocking two punts in the fourth quarter and returning them for touchdowns. Bill Newton, who blocked both punts, and David Langner, who returned both of them for touchdowns, are included in the deck of playing cards.

Though Auburn had a great season in 1972, I counted only five players in the deck who went on to play in the NFL. (By contrast, fifteen players in the deck of 1974 Colorado Buffaloes playing cards got playing time in the NFL, and the 1974 Buffs finished just 5-6.) Here are the Auburn players who saw NFL action:

• Defensive back Mike Fuller played eight seasons for the San Diego Chargers and Cincinnati Bengals.
• Punter David Beverly played seven seasons for the Houston Oilers and Green Bay Packers.
• Center Lee Gross played four seasons for the New Orleans Saints and Baltimore Colts.
• Guard Dan Nugent played four seasons for the Washington Redskins.
• Linebacker Ken Bernich played one season for the New York Jets.

The 1972 Auburn Tigers set is one of several decks of 1970s playing cards that picture players from college teams. For more, see my earlier blog article, “P is also for Playing Cards.”

Happy Tuesday! Here are the eBay listings of the week for vintage football cards and related collectibles:

• Here’s a full set of 1960 Fleer cards, all with the wrong backs!
• Interesting that someone would cut 1971 Dell stamps into a two-card panel, and that PSA would grade the panel. If the panel sells, I’m quickly buying a few complete albums, with all 48 stamps. (Namath and Blanda, from the two-card panel, are in the lower left.)
• This miscut 1955 Topps All-American Vic Hanson card includes a bit of a Red Grange card on the right. Might that make it more valuable? (How do I know it’s Grange? See my 1955 Topps virtual uncut sheet. Hanson is in the fourth row from the top.)
• Anyone collect cards that are out of register? Here’s a wacky 1964 Topps Jim Colclough card to add to your collection.
• Not a bad 1966 Topps Funny Ring checklist, but Chad really needs to clean his scanner glass. Click on the image for a larger view–ewww!
• Here are two 1911 Murad Cigarette football cards: North Dakota and Tufts College. These are part of a large, multi-activity college set. I couldn’t find a full list, but there are a bunch more here.
• I’m guessing this is Shirley Temple’s rookie card?

P.S. Today is free listing day–at least for your first 1000 auctions. Get busy!

While doing some web searches the other day, I ran across a long page of photos of Bo McMillin. McMillin was an All-American quarterback at Centre College in 1919 and 1921, and he played a few games in the NFL with the Milwaukee Badgers and Cleveland Indians. After his playing days, he had a long coaching career, including four seasons as an NFL head coach. There is a short biography of McMillin on the Centre College web site.

Reading the commentary in the long page of photos, I learned that McMillin’s name is misspelled on both his 1955 Topps All-American card and his 1926 Spalding Champions card. It is spelled correctly in my Beckett price guides, but the cards are not noted as errors, so the errors were news to me. I also learned from the photo page that the image on McMillin’s 1926 Spalding card is not McMillin, but another player. If you put the card next to one of his other photos, it is clear that the Spalding card pictures someone else. Does anyone recognize the impostor?

Having learned about the mistakes, I fixed the spelling of McMillin’s name on my two web sites, noted the errors on his individual cards, and added his 1926 Spalding card to my page of football cards that picture the wrong player. Whew!

Tom Watkins, running back and kick returner from 1961 to 1968 for the Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, and Pittsburgh Steelers, passed away on October 29. Watkins led the NFL in yards per punt return in 1964, and in yards per kickoff return in 1965. Watkins is a member of the Iowa State University Athletics Hall of Fame, and there is a summary of his football career on the Iowa State web site.

Watkins is pictured here on his first two football cards: a scarce 1961 National City Bank Browns card and a 1965 Philadelphia card. The 1965 Philadelphia card, though it came four years later, is considered his rookie card because it was produced by a major card company. Watkins also appeared on a 1966 Philadelphia card and a 1968 Topps card. His 1968 Topps card has him with the Rams, but he actually played for the Steelers that year.

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

• The back of this 1969 Topps Roy Jefferson card has the funkiest diamond cut I’ve ever seen!
• Here are some nice examples of 1965 Topps Magic Rub-Off inserts, including some still in strips. The seller also has two-thirds of a complete SGC-graded set.
• Not an eBay auction, but an interesting item for sale. Adrian Young apparently signed this card, though the card pictures Rick Duncan. See last week’s interesting auctions for details.
• Seller msbsportscardsllc has three sharp PSA-graded 1926 Spalding Champions football cards up for bids. In total, there are fourteen football cards in the 210-card multi-sport Spalding set. You can see the full list of 210 here.
• Seller cocicoco has three tough 1932 Walker’s Cleaners Packers for sale, including Hall of Famer John “Blood” McNally.
• Here’s a beautiful SGC 96 1948 Bowman rookie card of Kenny Washington. According to his Wikipedia page, Washington was “the first African-American to sign a contract with a National Football League team in the modern (post-World War II) era.”
• Finally, here is a PSA 7 unopened cello pack of 1955 Topps All-Americans. Wow!