Teammate Brothers

May 28th, 2012  |  Published in Brothers, New in the Gallery  |  1 Comment

Awhile back, on the Pro Football Hall of Fame web site, I found a list of brothers who played pro football. I thought it was interesting, so I marked all of the players in the Vintage Football Card Gallery whose brothers had also played professionally. In many cases, only one brother appeared on a card, and it was fun to give the cardless brothers a nod. Did you know, for instance, that Terry Bradshaw’s brother Craig played a season for the Houston Oilers?

In the Hall of Fame’s list, the brothers who were teammates during their pro careers are marked with a diamond. Seeing these made me wonder how many brothers appeared on the same team in the same set of football cards. I did a quick check, and these are the ones I found in the Gallery:

Brothers Knox and Garrard (“Buster”) Ramsey were teammates with the Chicago Cardinals in 1950 and 1951. They both appeared with the Cardinals on 1951 Bowman cards.
Knox Ramsey 1950 Bowman rookie football card1950 Bowman Buster Ramsey rookie football card
Ebert and Steve Van Buren were teammates with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1951, and they both appeared on 1951 Bowman football cards.
Ebert Van Buren 1951 Bowman rookie football cardSteve Van Buren 1951 Bowman football card
Phil and Merlin Olsen were teammates with the Los Angeles Rams from 1971 to 1974. They appeared together on 1972 Sunoco Stamps and 1973 Topps football cards.
Phil Olsen 1972 Sunoco StampMerlin Olsen 1972 Sunoco Stamp
Phil Olsen 1973 Topps rookie football cardMerlin Olsen 1973 Topps football card
Tody and Bubba Smith were teammates with the Houston Oilers in 1975 and 1976, and they both appeared with the Oilers in the 1976 Topps set.
1976 Topps Tody Smith football cardBubba Smith 1976 Topps football card
Finally, just missing the cut are brothers Mel and Miller Farr, who were teammates for the Detroit Lions in 1973. Both of them appeared on 1973 Topps cards, but Miller was not traded to the Lions until September, so Topps still had him with the St. Louis Cardinals.
1973 Topps Mel Farr football cardMiller Farr 1973 Topps football card

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  1. Fathers and Sons on Vintage Football Cards | Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog says:

    June 17th, 2012 at 5:12 AM (#)

    […] In May I identified the players whose brothers also played pro football (see my blog article Teammate Brothers), and this month I marked the players whose fathers or sons also played professionally. I used the […]