Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

The list of card sets on the Vintage Football Card Gallery home page was getting out of hand, so yesterday I grouped the cards into categories: regular issues, inserts, food and regional issues, team issue photos, and oddball. This also gave me some room to highlight some of the other features of the Gallery. If you haven’t visited in the last couple of days, check it out.

Card searches still work across all of the categories, so if you search for Dick Butkus, his regular cards, inserts, and oddballs will all appear in the search results.

Yesterday I added 1972 NFLPA Vinyl Stickers to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. A number of places on the web say that the stickers were sold from vending machines, but I couldn’t find a picture of such a machine. I was a little surprised at that. The stickers are bigger than standard-sized cards, and I’m curious about how they were packaged for vending.

There are twenty players in the set of stickers, with two variations. The Joe Namath and Dick Butkus stickers each come two ways: with a reversed image of the player’s head, and with the player’s head oriented correctly. To guess which stickers had the reversed images, I compared them to the images on 1972 NFLPA Iron Ons.

I can’t say I am fond of these stickers. The big-real-head-on-little-cartoon-body design also appears on other cards–1938 Goudey baseball cards, for example–and I have always found it a bit creepy. Also, the stickers don’t include the players’ teams, and some don’t even have the players in the correct team colors. Paul Warfield in green and John Brockington in purple? That must have alarmed young Dolphins and Packers fans!

For more oddball football cards and collectibles, see the Oddball page of the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

This week I added 1974 University of Colorado Playing Cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. The cards came in a bridge set: one deck with black backs, and one with gold backs. Each 54-card deck contains cards of 40 players, 11 coaches, the athletic director, and 2 team logos.

By my count, 15 of the 40 players in the deck saw playing time in the NFL–a bit surprising, since the Buffs finished just 5-6 in 1974. Four players had NFL careers of ten or more seasons: Pete Brock and Emery Moorehead, with 12; Whitney Paul, with 11; and Rod Perry, with 10. At the other extreme, one player, Steve Haggerty, had an NFL career of exactly one game. For this distinction I added Haggerty to my blog article, “A Cup of Coffee–and a Card.”

Another player in the deck, Jim Kelleher, was the last player chosen in the 1977 NFL draft. For this he was dubbed “Mr. Irrelevant.” You can also read about Kelleher and other Misters Irrelevant in my blog.

Several of the players who made the NFL appeared on Topps cards in the late 70s and early 80s. I don’t have cards that recent in the Gallery yet, but you can usually find them on eBay. The players whose cards I found were Emery Moorehead, Rod Perry, Dave Logan, Don Hasselbeck, and Bill Waddy.

For more decks of playing cards that picture football players, see the Oddball page of the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

Last week I added virtual uncut sheets of 1952 Bowman Large football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. From what I have read, Bowman simply enlarged their 1952 Small sheets to get the 1952 Large sheets, and when they printed the Large sheets, some cards on the edges of the sheets were truncated. The cards on the edges of the sheets thus became the short prints in the set.

Click the image below to see all of the 1952 Bowman Large sheets. Also, for an overview of the topic, see an earlier blog article, U is for Uncut Sheets.

Yesterday I added 1974 Nebraska Cornhuskers Playing Cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. The 54-card deck includes cards of 52 players, Memorial Stadium, and Head Coach Tom Osborne. The cards’ design is nearly identical to that of the year before, but there is an easy way to tell the two years apart: in 1974, all of the players’ jerseys have “NEBRASKA” printed on them. For a couple of players, this required some cutting-and-pasting–literally, it appears. Willie Thornton’s image, for instance, is the same as on his 1973 card, except for the “NEBRASKA” pasted onto his jersey. Maybe Thornton had his eyes closed in his 1974 photo, so they used the one from the year before? Bobby Thomas’s image also appears to have gotten some primitive photoshopping.

The 1974 ‘Huskers team finished 9-3, tied for second in the Big Eight, and ranked #9 nationally. (Oklahoma went undefeated and won both the Big Eight and the National Championship.) By my count, 14 players in the 1974 ‘Huskers playing card deck made it onto NFL teams, at least for a few games. Wikipedia’s 1974 Cornhuskers page lists a few additional team members who played in the NFL, CFL, or WFL.

Yesterday I added virtual uncut sheets of 1950 Bowman football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. There are 144 cards in the 1950 Bowman set, and they were printed on 4 sheets of 36. Compared to the other virtual sheets I have done, these were relatively easy, because the cards were arranged on the sheets in numerical order. The price guides don’t say that any of the 1950 Bowman cards were short prints, but it appears to me that the fourth sheet was printed in somewhat smaller numbers than the others.

Also see U is for Uncut Sheets for an overview of the topic.

Today I added 1954 Quaker Sports Oddities football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. There are six football cards in this 27-card multi-sport set, so those were the six cards I added. I also have the rest of the set, and I am pondering whether to display the other cards online, as well. Until I do, you can see the composition of the full Sports Oddities set on SGC’s web site.

According to their backs, the cards came only in boxes of Quaker Puffed Wheat and Puffed Rice. You can see a picture of a Puffed Wheat box with a Sports Oddities ad on the back on the MrBreakfast.com web site.

Some of the “oddities” on the cards really aren’t that odd, but the cards themselves are colorful and attractive. Because they have rounded corners, rather than square, a lot of them appear to have stayed in nice shape. The cards are oriented horizontally, most with a portrait on the left and an action shot on the right, similar to 1957 Topps football cards. I wonder if Topps, in 1957, was inspired by these Quaker cards?

• Find 1954 Quaker Sports Oddities football cards on eBay.

Yesterday I added Littelfuse “Three Cheers for the #1 Linebackers” playing cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. These are the oddest of the oddballs: the numbered cards picture famous NFL linebackers, and the face cards picture electrical fuses! (I believe the idea is that Littelfuse fuses are line backers, too–and they’re excellent, so they’re #1.)

Eight NFL and AFL linebackers are pictured in the deck: George Connor, Bobby Bell, Sam Huff, Ray Nitschke, Dick Butkus, Bill George, Chuck Bednarik, and Joe Schmidt. Three of the eight are Chicago Bears. The Bears undoubtedly have had great linebackers, but Littelfuse is based in Chicago, and that might also have influenced the player selection. Each player appears on four cards: Dick Butkus is pictured on all of the 5′s, for example, and Ray Nitschke is on all of the 8′s.

There is no year printed on the cards themselves, and I couldn’t find a year for them on the internet. I emailed the company to see if they could tell me, and they sent a quick reply. They said that their best guess was the early 1980s, but that there were “only a few old people left to ask.” Judging by the player selection, my guess is that the cards are actually from the 1970s, or possibly even the 1960s. The youngest player in the deck, Bobby Bell, finished his career in 1974, and the top linebackers of the 70s–Ted Hendricks, Jack Ham, and Jack Lambert, to name three–are not included in the deck. If you happen to know what year the cards were distributed, or if you can narrow it down for me, please let me know.

For sake of completeness–and for my electrician friends out there–I scanned in all of the fuse cards, too. If I get a few more, maybe I’ll create a Vintage Fuse Card Gallery.

You can find lots more playing cards with football themes on eBay.

Yesterday I identified the members of the Buffalo Bills Wall of Fame in the Vintage Football Card Gallery. Pictured here is the 2010 inductee, Booker Edgerson, on his rookie card, a 1963 Fleer. You can see the full list of inductees on the Buffalo Bills Alumni Association web site. I had to dig a little, but I also found a photo of part of the wall, from the day that Andre Reed was inducted.

Over the past few months, I have identified the members of many of the NFL teams’ halls of fame in the Gallery. To see if I have gotten to your favorite team, go to the Advanced Search page and look for it in one of the Honor menus.

The 1966 Philadelphia football card set contains 198 cards, and it was almost certainly printed on a single, standard 264-card sheet. This means that 66 cards were repeated on the sheet, and so there are 66 double prints in the set. The price guides have not identified the double prints, however.

By comparing an uncut half-sheet with PSA’s population report, I believe I was able to identify the double prints in the set. I added an explanation to my 1966 Philadelphia virtual uncut sheet page and marked the cards I think are double prints in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

I haven’t seen the second half-sheet, so I could be wrong. Those who collect the set know, though, that some cards are much easier to find than others, and the cards I have chosen as double prints match up pretty well with cards that are easy to find.

The Gale Sayers rookie card, shown here, is one of the double prints. PSA has graded nearly twice as many examples of this card than of Dick Butkus’s rookie card, which is also in this set.

Over the weekend I added 1974 West Virginia Playing Cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. The 52-card deck includes cards of the West Virginia players, coaches, athletic director, cheerleaders, and mascot. Head coach Bobby Bowden is the ace of spades; he later won two national championships with Florida State. Tommy Bowden, Bobby’s son, appears in the deck as a player. Tommy went on to a long coaching career, as well, including 12 years as a head coach at Tulane and Clemson.

Five of the players in the deck saw playing time in the NFL: Ron Lee, Mark Burke, Danny Buggs, Artie Owens, and Jeff Merrow. Of the five, Merrow had the longest NFL career, spending nine seasons with the Atlanta Falcons. Burke had the shortest, playing in one game for the Philadelphia Eagles. I added Burke to my earlier article, A Cup of Coffee–and a Card.

Alas, though they were immortalized on cards, the 1974 Mountaineers had a disappointing 4-7 season.

Yesterday I added a virtual uncut sheet of 1962 Topps football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. Looking at the sheet–and having looked at numerous other uncut sheets–I convinced myself that the price guides have misidentified many of the short prints in this set. I would be interested in your feedback.

(Click the image to see the uncut sheet page.)

Today I added virtual uncut sheets of 1948 Bowman football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. The numbering of the cards on the sheets shows why some of them are short prints, and the positions of the cards on the sheets shows why some are scarce in high grade.

(Click the image to see the uncut sheet page.)

• Search nearmintcards.com for 1948 Bowman football cards
• Search eBay for 1948 Bowman football cards

Over the weekend I added 1948 Leaf football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. I would like to thank Legacy Sports Rarities, who provided most of the images, and Scott Alpaugh (OTWCards), who provided images of the variations in the set. So far I have added the 1948 Leaf variations recognized by the price guides and grading services, but Scott has documented several more variations, and I hope to add those soon.

Pictured here is one of the variations, the “red pants” version of Bobby Layne’s rookie card. The other variation, which is more common, shows Layne in yellow pants. Both variations have Layne’s first name misspelled.

For more details on the 1948 and 1949 Leaf sets, see my earlier blog article, L is for Leaf. I also updated that article over the weekend, adding links where appropriate to the 1948 cards in the Gallery.

Today I identified the members of the Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Fame in the Vintage Football Card Gallery. To search for them, go to the Advanced Search page and pick Chiefs Hall of Fame in one of the Honor menus.

The Chiefs Hall of Fame is interesting. Rather than inducting a group of players in an inaugural class, the team inducted one person in 1970 and one person each year since–except for 1983, when they did not induct anyone. (I don’t know why they skipped 1983. Does anyone else?) The first person inducted was Lamar Hunt, one of the eight founders of the American Football League and the first owner of the Dallas Texans. Hunt moved the Texans to Kansas City in 1963 and renamed them the Chiefs.

The second person inducted was Mack Lee Hill, a running back who died after knee surgery after a game in his second season. Hill was a good player, but clearly he was inducted because he had passed away unexpectedly while with the team.

Jerry Mays was the first person inducted for years of outstanding play. His rookie card, a 1962 Fleer, is pictured here. Mays played ten seasons with the Texans and Chiefs, and he was selected for the All-AFL team in seven of those seasons. He was inducted into the Chiefs Hall of Fame just two years after retiring.

You can see the full list of Chiefs Hall of Fame inductees on the Chiefs web site.