Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

Joe Paterno did not play professional football, but he was a quarterback and defensive back in college, at Brown University. He appeared on one football card, the tiny 1950 Topps Felt Back pictured here. The image on the card resembles the one in a photo on the Sports Illustrated web site; my guess is that they were from the same photo session.

According to the Sports Illustrated page, Paterno’s record as a quarterback was 15-3 over two seasons, 1948 and 1949. He also intercepted 14 passes in his college career, still a school record. (He shares the record with Greg Parker.)

One of Paterno’s teammates at Brown was his brother George, who played fullback. George Paterno led the team in rushing in 1949, with 480 yards. From 1976 to 1999, George was a broadcaster for Penn State football. He passed away in 2002.

You can see all of the 1950 Topps Felt Back cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

By now, most NFL fans have heard that Bubba Smith passed away. Smith was a defensive end from 1967 to 1976 for the Baltimore Colts, Oakland Raiders, and Houston Oilers. He made the Pro Bowl twice, and he played in two Super Bowls: Super Bowl III, which the Colts lost to the Jets, and Super Bowl V, in which the Colts beat Cowboys. A New York Times article from earlier this week has a summary of Smith’s career, along with a few photos.

After football, Smith appeared in many films and television shows, most notably the Police Academy movies. I had no idea how many until I checked out his IMDB page.

Smith’s brother, Tody, also played in the NFL. You can see the family resemblance in one of my earlier articles.

Smith appeared on numerous football cards in the 1970s, and most of them showed the same image. Pictured here are his rookie card, a 1970 Topps, and his last card, a 1976 Topps. You can see the rest in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

Preston Carpenter, who played twelve seasons for the Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, Washington Redskins, Minnesota Vikings, and Miami Dolphins, passed away on June 30. Carpenter played halfback for the Browns in his rookie season, 1956, then spent the rest of his career as a receiver. He made the Pro Bowl in 1962 as a tight end with the Steelers.

Carpenter’s older brother, Lew, who also had a long NFL career, passed away last fall.

The card pictured here is Carpenter’s rookie card, a 1957 Topps. He appeared on numerous other cards during his career, as well.

• See all of Preston Carpenter’s cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.
• See Preston Carpenter’s career stats at pro-football-reference.com.

Lee Riley, who played defensive back from 1955 to 1962 for the Detroit Lions, Philadelphia Eagles, New York Giants, and New York Titans, passed away on June 9. Riley’s best season was 1962, when he intercepted 11 passes for the Titans, leading the AFL. Riley was the son of Leon Riley, who played briefly for baseball’s Philadelphia Phillies, and the brother of Pat Riley, longtime NBA coach and current president of the Miami Heat. He is mentioned in Pat Riley’s profile on the NBA web site.

The card pictured here is Riley’s rookie card, a 1955 Bowman. (1955 Bowmans are the only vintage football cards I can think of that indicate which players were rookies.) He also appeared on a 1963 Fleer card, issued after his last season.

You can see Lee Riley’s career stats at pro-football-reference.com.

Yesterday, while I was adding the Eagles Honor Roll to the Vintage Football Card Gallery, I did a web search for “Whitey Wistert.” Al Wistert is a member of the Eagles Honor Roll, and some of his cards say “Al ‘Whitey’ Wistert.”

My search results were interesting: they included a lot of references to Al’s football cards and a lot of references to Al’s older brother, Francis “Whitey” Wistert. Only a couple of non-football-card references, which appeared way down in my search results, referred to Al as “Whitey.” Most references to Al said his nickname was “Ox.”

According to an article on profootballresearchers.org, both Francis and Al were called “Whitey.” I’m guessing, though, that if people called Al “Whitey,” they did so out either out of confusion or as a tribute to Francis. Francis was a football and baseball star at Michigan, and he played major league baseball for Cincinnati.

Anyway, since Al’s brother Francis was well-known as “Whitey,” since Al was more often called “Ox,” and since mistakes are far from unusual on old football cards, I would say that calling Al “Whitey” was just another card company mistake. I suspect that some writers referred to Al as “Whitey” because that’s what it said on his cards.

Pictured here is one of Al’s error cards, a 1951 Bowman. His 1948 Leaf and 1949 Leaf cards also say “Whitey.”

• Search Nearmint’s Cards for Al Wistert football cards
• Search eBay for Al Wistert football cards

In an article a couple of weeks ago, I wrote that Rick Redman’s 1965 Topps card doesn’t picture Rick Redman. In a comment on that article, my friend Todd, from whom I learned about the Redman error, pointed out that Art Powell’s 1965 Topps card pictures the wrong player, too. So I added that card to my Mistaken Identities page, as well. Somehow, I don’t think it will be the last one.

Todd, in his own blog, recently wrote a nice article about Art Powell and his older brother Charlie. Charlie Powell played for the 49ers and Raiders, and he was a world-class boxer, to boot. Check it out!

You can see all of Art Powell’s cards and all of Charlie Powell’s cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery. You can also search for all of the error cards–or at least the ones I have identified so far.

Cliff Livingston, who played linebacker twelve years for the Giants, Vikings, and Rams, died on March 13. He played in four NFL championship games with the Giants, and they won one of them, in 1956. Livingston was an All-Pro in one season, 1961.

Though he had a long, successful career, Livingston appeared on only one regular issue card, the 1962 Topps card shown here. He also appeared on a 1962 Post Cereal card.

Livingston’s brother, Howie Livingston, also played in the NFL.

Most football fans know by now that Merlin Olsen passed away this morning. Lots of people published articles about his career today, so I’ll just show you some of his vintage cards. According to the Beckett blog, Olsen appeared a total of 338 cards, but most of those were issued after the end of his career.

A couple of these are actually stamps, so I don’t know if Beckett included them in their count. Hold your cursor over any thumbnail image to see what set it’s from, and click on it to see a full-sized scan.

Missing from this group are his 1971 Bazooka card, 1971 Dell card, 1972 NFLPA stamp, and possibly other oddballs I haven’t seen. He also appeared on two or three Topps poster inserts in the late 60s and early 70s. That’s a remarkable number of cards for a defensive player.

I wondered if perhaps Olsen appeared on a Little House on the Prairie card, if there were such cards. So I searched eBay and I found a set that was issued in Argentina. Alas, Jonathan Garvey, Olsen’s character, didn’t have a card in the set.

Two of Olsen’s brothers, Phil and Orrin, also played in the NFL. Phil appeared on a 1972 Sunoco Stamp and on a 1973 Topps card while he was Merlin’s teammate with the Rams.

Today I listed a bunch of new 1973 Topps cards on my sales site. While I was scanning them, the back of one card, Tody Smith, caught my eye. I had no idea he was Bubba Smith’s younger brother, but there it is, in blue and white. Of course, I also didn’t know that they both played high school ball for their father.

The 1973 Topps card above is Tody’s rookie card. For his 1974 Topps card he had grown a beard, and I’d say there’s a clear resemblance to his brother. Bubba is shown here on his 1972 Topps card.

My new resolution: read more card backs!