January 27th, 2010 |
Published in
Funny Poses, Players Who Became Actors
I ran across this card the other day, a 1969 Topps Ben Davidson, and I thought it was funny that he posed carrying the ball. As far as I knew, he had played only defense. So I looked up his entry at pro-football-reference.com, thinking that maybe he played tight end on occasion. But no, the only positions he ever played were defensive end and defensive tackle.
Maybe he was pretending to run back an interception or a fumble? Unfortunately, he never got a chance in a game: surprisingly, he had no interceptions in his 11-year career, and just two fumble recoveries, neither of which he returned.
Davidson did a lot of acting after his football career, too, appearing in Conan the Barbarian, Necessary Roughness, and a host of primetime TV shows. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a film clip, just a photo of Ben playing Rexor in Conan.
December 21st, 2009 |
Published in
Funny Poses, New in the Gallery, Oddball
Yesterday I added 1955 49ers Team Issue photos to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. The photos are bigger than cards, at just under 5×7, and I had to order extra-large toploaders for storing them. They came in the original envelope, pictured below. The photos, amazingly, are in much better condition than the envelope.
The photos are sharp black-and-whites, and each includes a facsimile of the player’s signature. On the back of each photo is a glowing biography of the player on the front. (Hardy Brown‘s bio calls him “the most feared linebacker in the game because of his fantastic ‘shoulder tackle’ which uncoils like a pile driver and causes many fumbles”!) Most of the images of the well-known players are familiar, since they also appear in color on 1950s Bowman and Topps cards. Being a team issue, though, the set also includes numerous players who never appeared on cards. In the 50s and 60s, the major card companies printed cards of only 10-12 players from each team, and most linemen and defensive players were left out. I love team sets for this reason: I get to see players I’ve never seen before.
There are 38 photos in the set, and it includes photos of the 49ers’ coaches and their TV and radio announcers. I imagine that in the 50′s, the announcers for each team were as familiar to fans as the players, so it was natural to include them in a team set.
The set includes six Pro Football Hall of Fame players, including the four members of the 49ers’ “Million Dollar Backfield”: Y.A. Tittle, Hugh McElhenny, Joe Perry, and John Henry Johnson.
September 13th, 2009 |
Published in
Funny Poses
In 1956, Topps held a logo lookalike contest, and Norm Willey won it with this pose. No, not really, but he does look like he’s doing an eagle imitation, doesn’t he? I have always loved this card for the pose.
I tried to think of other players who resemble the logos on their cards, but I didn’t come up with any. There must be players who look like mean bears or lions. Can anyone think of more?
August 6th, 2009 |
Published in
Funny Poses
I love some of the poses on vintage football cards. Here is a 1953 Bowman card of Lou Groza, the Browns’ Hall of Fame tackle and kicker, blocking and kicking at the same time. Because of his multiple skills, Groza was chosen by the Cold, Hard Football Facts staff as one of their All-Time 11. Groza was an iron man: after playing 14 years and on 7 AAFC and NFL championship teams, Groza retired in 1959–but in 1961 he un-retired and played 7 more years!
July 26th, 2009 |
Published in
Funny Poses
July 1st, 2009 |
Published in
Funny Poses
Most of us have taken photos in which our subjects appear to have trees growing out of their heads. We shouldn’t feel bad: the professional photographers for sports cards sometimes miss things in the background, too. Here are a few cards with funny stuff happening behind the players.
First we have Bart Starr’s 1961 Fleer card. A stadium light in the background makes Bart appear to have a knob on his head, and there’s a little man with a machine gun shooting Bart in the neck. Fleer also got the Packers’ logo backward, as they did on all of the Packers cards in 1961.
Next up is a 1965 Philadelphia Bob DeMarco card, in which Bob appears to have a few extra appendages. Bob doesn’t seemed bothered by it.
Finally, we have a 1960 Topps Leo Nomellini card, with a couple of Leo’s Lilliputian teammates praising him. Leo, focused on the camera and accustomed to adulation, is ignoring them.
December 31st, 2008 |
Published in
Funny Poses, Sites I Like, Uniforms
The Helmet Project has hundreds of beautiful illustrations of professional and college football helmets past and present. It includes helmets of teams from defunct professional leagues such as the XFL, USFL, WFL, and WALF. It also includes college helmets down through NCAA Division 3 and NAIA.
Shown here are most of the helmets the Denver Broncos have used since their first season in 1960. Personally, I like the old cartoonish figures more than the current angry horse head, but I suppose cartoon figures aren’t intimidating enough these days.
Not many football cards show the players wearing their helmets, since the facemasks cover the players’ faces. Frank Emanuel’s 1968 Topps card, shown here, is one exception, and as you can see, it turned out badly. Wise photographers who wanted helmets in the pictures asked the players to hold them.
Because Topps did not have the rights to reproduce team logos on its cards, in the 70′s the company airbrushed the logos off the helmets. This made for some ugly cards, this 1972 Topps Ken Willard in Action card being one example. Topps also realized that they could use airbrushing when a player was traded, to change his uniform from one color to another without having to take another picture. This made for some very ugly cards, but that’s a topic for another day.
To see all those missing helmet logos, do check out The Helmet Project!
