Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

Here’s a trivia question for you: what legendary NFL running back appeared on the 1964 Topps CFL Saskatchewan Roughriders team card? Here is a picture of the card. The player is in the middle row, fourth from the left.

Give up? The answer is Jim Brown. What, you say, Jim Brown never played in the CFL? Well, it’s a trick question, because the team pictured on the card is not the 1964 Saskatchewan Roughriders. It is actually the 1959 Cleveland Browns. I learned this bit of trivia earlier this week from a post on a Roughriders forum.

But that’s not the extent of the error. Topps routinely used the same team photos for years at a time, and all of the Roughrider team cards in the 1961-1963 Topps CFL sets have the same mistake. Ironically, though Topps used the 1959 Browns photo on several CFL cards, this photo never appeared on an NFL card. Topps used a picture of the 1958 Browns team on all of its Browns team cards from 1959 to 1963.

For many more football cards that picture the wrong players, see the Mistaken Identities page of the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

One thing I enjoy about working on the Vintage Football Card Gallery is discovering trivia about the people on the cards. Sometimes the trivia comes in an email. Yesterday, for example, I learned that Lady Gaga’s mother appears on a card in the Gallery. Here is the note that clued me in:

Just an FYI regarding the 1974 pack of playing cards from West Virginia University. Card 12H shows the WVU cheerleaders for 1974. The top cheerleader on the right (Cindy Bissett) is now Cindy Germanti (sp) better known as Lady GaGa’s Mother. I was student manager for the team that year and remember the excitement of having our picture taken and having to sign the release for the University to use our photos, then the complete letdown of getting aced out (pun intended) by the cheerleaders and the AD………..jim wells

I did a quick search, and sure enough, I found Cindy Bissett Germanotta on Rolling Stone’s web site. I had no idea!

Here is the card that Jim was talking about: the cheerleader card in the deck of 1974 West Virginia University playing cards. You can click on the card for a larger image.

Anyone else have surprises to share about the people on the cards?

If you have been following this blog, you know that I recently added several sets of CFL football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. While adding the CFL cards, I encountered a few players who also appeared on cards for teams in both the NFL and AFL. To spotlight those players, I created a new Gallery page called Cards in Three Leagues.

One of the three-league players, Tobin Rote, is pictured here on his 1961 Topps CFL card. To see the others, check out my new page. And, in case you haven’t seen them, check out the Gallery’s other fun pages, too!

This week I added 1960 Topps CFL cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. One of them, Tom “Corky” Tharp, is pictured here. Tharp, who skipped to the AFL’s New York Titans in 1960, also appeared on a 1960 Fleer AFL card. He is the only player I can think of who appeared on cards for two different leagues in the same season. (Thanks to Pastor Scott for that bit of trivia.)

This is the fourth CFL set I have added to the gallery in the past month. You can see the other CFL sets, recent and not, on my Canadian football card page.

Happy Friday! Here are the week’s interesting eBay auctions for vintage football cards and related collectibles.

• Here’s an item I haven’t seen before: a 1968 postcard of Earl Morrall. Morrall signed it on the back.
• Another unusual item: the original photo used for the image on Bobby Walston’s 1952 Bowman cards. I can’t make out what it says on the back–can you?
• Not really vintage, but here’s an uncut sheet of 1985 Topps USFL cards, with Jim Kelly, Steve Young, Reggie White, Doug Flutie and Herschel Walker.
• Here’s another uncut sheet, this one a 1976 Topps sheet. Walter Payton’s rookie card is smack in the middle.
• This 1948 Bowman Joe Tereshinski card has both his info and John Lujack’s printed on the back. You can see on my 1948 Bowman uncut sheet page that the cards were in the upper left corners of their respective sheets. It’s interesting that the expiration date for the football offer on the back was different on the two cards.
• I can’t tell you more than what’s in the description, but here’s a 1949 Sohio Cleveland Browns window display.
• A bit of trivia: I learned this week that Robert Fraley, pictured on this 1972 Alabama playing card, died in the same plane crash as golfer Payne Stewart. He was Stewart’s agent.
• And another bit of trivia: Sylvester Croom, pictured on this 1972 Alabama playing card, became the SEC’s first African-American head coach when he took the job at Mississippi State in 2004. He is now the running backs coach for the St. Louis Rams. Croom played exactly one game in the NFL, and I added him this week to my Cups of Coffee page.

Like my interesting eBay auction articles? See the articles from past weeks.

Did you know that Alex Karras finished second in voting for the Heisman Trophy in 1957? I didn’t, until I saw his name on the Heisman Trophy web site. While browsing the Heisman site, I also found other players whose cards I have, but whom I hadn’t known were Heisman candidates. I thought that a page featuring these candidates and their cards would be interesting, so I assembled one and added it to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. Have a look!

Can you think of cards that look more like bookends than Bobby Bell and Buck Buchanan‘s 1964 Topps cards? Not only did the players’ rookie cards mirror each another, so did their careers:

• Bell played from 1963 to 1974, all with the Chiefs. Buchanan played from 1963 to 1975, also all with the Chiefs.
• Bell played in nine AFL All-Star and NFL Pro Bowl games; Buchanan played in eight.
• Bell was inducted into the Chiefs Hall of Fame in 1980, Buchanan in 1981.
• Bell was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1983; Buchanan was inducted in 1990. Buchanan was also a finalist four times previously, starting in 1984.
• Finally, both are members of the College Football Hall of Fame. Bell was inducted in 1991, Buchanan in 1996.

While putting some 1967 Topps cards up for sale today, I noticed that on George Sauer’s card, the name on the back of his jersey was covered. That’s interesting, I thought, the jersey must have had someone else’s name on it. So I did some digging to figure out whose.

First I looked at Sauer’s other cards, and I found that his 1966 Topps card showed the same covering over the name. Sauer was a rookie in 1965, so I guessed that the pictures on his 1966 and 1967 cards came from a photo session early in 1965, before he had a jersey with his name on it. I then looked at pro-football-reference.com to see who wore number 83 the prior season, 1964. I found that it was Bill Rademacher. Rademacher switched to number 23 in 1965, so I’ll bet the jersey Sauer is wearing says “Rademacher” under the tape.

Sauer did pretty well wearing number 83. He played six seasons for the Jets, and he had over 1000 yards receiving in three of those seasons, 1966 through 1968. He lead the AFL with 75 receptions in 1967, and he had eight catches for 133 yards in Super Bowl III, the Jets’ famous upset of the Baltimore Colts.

Happy Flag Day! In honor of the day, I found a few football cards that have American flags waving in the background. First, three cards in the 1950 Bowman set: Tank Younger, Bill Wightkin, and Fred Naumetz. My guess is that someone drew the flags by hand on all of these while adding color to the original black and white images. The image on Tank Younger’s 1950 Bowman card, for example, is the same as the one on his 1950-1952 Exhibit card, but there is no flag on the Exhibit card.

Next are Y.A. Tittle’s 1958 Topps and 1960 Topps cards. The images on these two cards appear to have come from the same photo shoot.

Here’s the last one I found, Paul Hornung’s 1965 Philadelphia card. I was surprised that I didn’t find any newer than this. Can you think of others?

Happy Friday! Here are the week’s interesting eBay auctions for vintage football cards and related collectibles.

• Here are a couple of nice 1948 Topps Magic Photos: a PSA 7 Doak Walker and a PSA 6 Chuck Bednarik. (Bednarik’s name is misspelled.) Both players’ rookie cards were also issued in 1948.
• Like Alex Karras? Here’s a whole array of his rookie cards.
• Here are two vintage German Jim Thorpe cards, though I don’t think the images look much like Jim Thorpe. The back of one calls him “Jom” Thorpe–twice!
• Quick, can you think of the first year that football card packs included inserts? I believe it was 1960, when both Fleer and Topps included stickers in their packs. (Fleer was a new competitor for Topps in 1960, and I’ll bet the Topps stickers were a reaction to Fleer’s.) Here’s a nice lot of 1960 Fleer AFL Logo and College Pennant stickers, and here’s a lot of 1960 Topps Metallic Stickers.
• Miscut of the week: a wackily chopped 1968 Bart Starr card. That’s a chunk of Joe Namath’s card on the bottom of the Starr. You can see the cards together on my 1968 Topps virtual uncut sheet page.
• This badly miscut 1966 Topps Wray Carlton card gave me an idea: since the wood grain pattern continues from one card to the next, maybe I can reconstruct an uncut sheet by matching up the grains?
• Thanks to Tony O., one of my Facebook fans, for pointing out this wrongback 1955 Bowman Jim Ringo rookie card. The back shows Leo Sanford’s info, but Sanford’s card was actually on an entirely different sheet. If you look at the two sheets on my 1955 Bowman virtual uncut sheet page, you can see that the back must also have been printed upside down.

Like these? See my my interesting auction articles from past weeks.

When I realized that today was Friday the 13th, I tried to think of players on vintage football cards who wore number 13. Don Maynard is the most famous player I came up with; he is pictured here on his 1962 Fleer card. Do any others come to mind? Dan Marino wore number 13, but his rookie card is a 1984 Topps, and I wouldn’t call it a vintage card.

Don Maynard had a long career with the New York Titans/Jets, but did you know that he spent his rookie year with the New York Giants? You can see him, wearing number 13, on the 1959 Topps Giants team card. Maynard played for the Giants just one season, 1958, but Topps used the Giants’ 1958 team photo on cards from 1959 to 1963. So, from 1961 to 1963, Maynard appeared on cards from both New York teams!

With Peyton Manning going to Denver, Frank Tripucka has been in the news this week. Tripucka’s number, 18, is one of three numbers the Broncos have retired (the others are John Elway’s #7 and Floyd Little’s #44), and there is discussion about whether the team should un-retire #18 so Manning can have it. Tripucka, for one, is okay with reissuing the number.

Perhaps Tripucka isn’t too attached to #18 because it’s just one of several numbers he wore in his career. His page at pro-football-reference.com shows that he wore #8 with the Chicago Cardinals, #11 with the Dallas Texans, and #18 with the Broncos. His 1960 Fleer football card shows him in #36, which I’m guessing was his number with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Saskatchewan’s colors are green and white, and Tripucka played there from 1953 to 1959.

Other cards of Tripucka show him in numbers that I don’t believe he wore in games. His 1950 Bowman card shows him in #28, but I suspect that whoever colored the original black-and-white image either added or changed the jersey number. Also, Tripucka’s 1961 Topps, 1961 Fleer, and 1961 Fleer Wallet Picture cards all show him wearing #10. I’ll go out on a limb and guess that the pictures on those cards were taken in 1960 training camp, before the players’ official numbers were issued. My reasoning behind the guess? Well, the background on Tripucka’s 1961 Fleer Wallet Picture is the same as the one on Goose Gonsoulin’s. But the player shown on Gonsoulin’s Wallet Picture is actually Darryl Rogers, who was only with the Broncos before the 1960 season. See my Mistaken Identities page for details.

The cards pictured here are the only cards on which Tripucka is wearing #18: his 1962 Fleer card, and his 1963 Fleer card. You can see all of Frank Tripucka’s cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

As I have had time, I have been adding trivia for cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery. As I wrote in a previous article, PSA’s set registry allows collectors to add comments for cards that they register, and I like the information that some collectors have entered. I decided to try my hand at it, and it’s been fun: I’ve found lots of interesting tidbits about the cards and players. For examples, see my page of Doak Walker cards. Did you know that Walker was married to an Olympic skier?

Anyway, yesterday I was searching for trivia for 1950 Bowman football cards, and I got to card number 3, Bob Nowasky. Oddly, my search for “Bob Nowasky” turned up football cards, but nothing else. Knowing that cards sometimes have the players’ names misspelled, I tried “Nowaski” instead. Nothing–or at least nothing related to football. Then I tried “Nowaskey,” and bingo, I got lots of hits. So I had my trivia: Nowaskey’s 1950 Bowman card is an error card; it has his name misspelled. I am probably not the first person to notice–I’ll bet Nowaskey’s mom did!–but I haven’t seen the error documented anywhere else.

Pictured here is the front of the card, which shows Nowaskey in Baltimore Colts green. (Green, you ask? That’s another story.) His name is misspelled on the back.

Like knowing about errors like this? Well, in case you weren’t aware, you can search the Vintage Football Card Gallery for all of the error cards, or you can combine that search with others, say to find all of the error cards in the 1960 Topps set. Just go to the Advanced Search page and search away.

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

• Here’s something I don’t see often: a 1935 National Chicle premium photo, this one of Eddie Casey. (Casey coached the Boston Redskins in 1935; his tips appear on the backs of 1935 National Chicle cards.) According to Beckett, there are 17 different 6×8 photos. An advertisement on the card wrappers said that you could trade in 20 wrappers for a photo.
• Speaking of National Chicles, here’s an SGC 96 1935 National Chicle Cliff Montgomery card. Wow!
• Here are two decks of 1963 Stancraft playing cards, one unopened, along with the original box. (The cards aren’t rare, but this is the first box I’ve seen.) The unopened deck has red backs, and I presume the opened deck has green backs. I believe the two decks were originally in a plastic tray that fit inside the box.
• Here’s a nice rookie card of one of this year’s senior Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee: a PSA 8 1957 Topps Jack Butler.
• Hmm, a Belgian Jim Thorpe card? It has print in two languages on the back; I believe they are Dutch and French.
• Matchbooks of the week: full sets of 1952 and 1960 Washington Redskins matchbook covers.
• And the mystery of the week: why would someone pay to have this 1961 Topps Frank Youso card graded?

Last week, looking at Frank Ryan’s football cards, I noticed that his 1962 Kahn’s Wieners card, his 1963 Topps card, and his 1969 Topps card all picture him wearing number 18 for the Browns. According to his page at pro-football-reference.com, however, Ryan never wore number 18 for any team. I thought maybe he had worn number 18 for his first season with the Browns, and that pro-football-reference had not picked it up. But no, Ryan’s first season with the Browns was 1962, and he is wearing number 13 in the Browns 1962 team photo. See him in the upper right?

So I did a little digging, and I came up with a guess. My guess is that when he was photographed in number 18, Ryan was wearing Len Dawson’s old jersey. Dawson wore number 18 for the Browns in 1960 and 1961 (see his 1961 National City Bank card), and the Browns released him around June 1, 1962. The Browns then acquired Ryan from the Rams on July 12, 1962. Until he got his own jersey, Ryan wore Dawson’s, at least for pictures.

That would explain the number 18 on Ryan’s 1962 Kahn’s card, but what about his 1963 and 1969 Topps cards? My guess is that Topps just used old images for those cards, as they often did. Another old image that jumps to mind is the one on the Len Dawson puzzle on the backs of 1969 Topps cards. Though by 1969 Dawson had quarterbacked the Chiefs for six seasons and taken them to a Super Bowl, Topps chose an image of him with the Browns–wearing number 18!