Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

Dick Hoerner, fullback for the Los Angeles Rams and Dallas Texans from 1947 to 1952, passed away on December 11. Hoerner made the Pro Bowl in 1950, and he was a member of the Rams team that won the 1951 NFL Championship. Hoerner’s obituary on the Los Angeles Times web site includes a nice photo of him in action.

The card pictured here is Hoerner’s 1950 Bowman football card, which, to my knowledge, was his only card in a major issue. He also appeared on a 1950 Admiral Rams card. I don’t have that card yet, but I did find a couple of them on eBay.

Here is one last group of players in my favorite pose, about to put on their helmets. (For more of these, see My Favorite Pose and More of My Favorite Pose.)

This time we have a 1969 Topps Joe Scarpati and a 1967 Topps Johnny Robinson:

A 1968 Topps Andy Russell rookie and a 1966 Philadelphia Roger LeClerc:

A 1965 Philadelphia Dick Schafrath and a 1967 Philadelphia Willie Davis:

Unfortunately, the photographers from many teams–notably the AFL teams–never used this pose, so in this series I could feature cards from only about half the teams. That’s a pity: I love Pat Patriot and Denver’s drunk Bronco, and it would have been nice to include them.

Here’s a bit of trivia from my fellow collector Pete. Pictured here are three vintage rookie cards: a 1948 Bowman Charley Trippi, a 1950 Bowman Bob Hoernschemeyer, and a 1948 Leaf George Taliaferro. What did these three players achieve that no one has since?

Answer: They are the only three NFL players to have gotten over 1000 yards passing, 1000 yards rushing, and 1000 yards receiving in their pro careers. Here are their numbers from pro-football-reference.com:

• Charley Trippi: 2547 yards passing, 3506 yards rushing, 1321 yards receiving.
• Bob Hoernschemeyer: 4302 yards passing, 4548 yards rushing, 1139 yards receiving.
• George Taliaferro: 1633 yards passing, 2266 yards rushing, 1300 yards receiving.

But wait–there’s an asterisk.

Some of Taliaferro and Hoernschemeyer’s stats are from the AAFC, it turns out, and without their AAFC stats, they would not have achieved their triple-1000s. I wondered if the NFL recognized AAFC stats, and I learned that they don’t: Hoernschemeyer’s page at nfl.com shows his seasons in the AAFC, but not his statistics. By contrast, George Blanda’s page shows both his NFL and AFL statistics. Why would the NFL recognize AFL stats but not AAFC stats? Wikipedia’s page on the AAFC offers two possible explanations: either the AAFC didn’t provide the NFL with its official scoresheets, or the NFL considered the AAFC less than equal, since the NFL absorbed only three of the AAFC teams when the AAFC folded in 1950. Both reasons seem silly, especially the latter. One of those three AAFC teams, the Cleveland Browns, reached the championship game in each of their first six years in the NFL, and they won three of those six games.

So, if you go by the NFL record book, Charley Trippi is the only player to have achieved the 1000-yard passing/rushing/receiving career triple. I’m siding with my friend Pete, though, and also including the other two here. Especially since I like the name Hoernschemeyer.

Yesterday I identified the members of the San Diego Chargers Hall of Fame in the Vintage Football Card Gallery. To search for them, go to the Advanced Search page and pick Chargers Hall of Fame in one of the Honor menus.
As usual, I learned something by looking at a team’s hall of fame. I was surprised to see Bob Laraba among the inductees, because, to my knowledge, he had appeared on only one football card, the 1961 Golden Tulip Chargers card pictured here. I did a web search and learned that Laraba had died in a car accident after his second season with the Chargers. In fact, according to a page on the team’s web site, all four members of the inaugural Chargers Hall of Fame class–Laraba, Frank Buncom, Emil Karas, and Jacque MacKinnon–were “inducted posthumously as honorary members.” Buncom, Karas, and MacKinnon all spent several years with the Chargers, so I suspect that their play was also a factor in the decision to induct them.

Emil Karas also appeared in the 1961 Golden Tulip Chargers set; his card is pictured on the left. You can read about the Golden Tulip cards in one of my earlier posts, K is for KDKA–and Other Regional Sets.

Don Meredith, quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys from 1960 to 1968, passed away on December 5, according to the Dallas Morning News. Meredith led the Cowboys to two NFL Championship games, in 1966 and 1967, both of which they lost to the Green Bay Packers. (The 1967 NFL Championship game is better known as the Ice Bowl.) After retiring as a player, Meredith was an NFL broadcaster for fifteen seasons, twelve of them with Monday Night Football. He was inducted into the Cowboys Ring of Honor in 1976.

The card pictured here is Meredith’s rookie card, a 1961 Fleer. He appeared on cards every year from 1961 to 1969, the year after he retired. You can see all of Don Meredith’s football cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

Last week I talked with a customer who collects football cards of University of Memphis (formerly Memphis State University) alumni, and he told me about the web sites of two alumni, Andy Nelson and John Bramlett. It was interesting to see where the players were now, so I thought I’d pass the web sites along. If I find enough sites of former players, I’ll create a page to summarize them.

Andy Nelson, after graduating from Memphis, played eight seasons with the Baltimore Colts. His 1962 Topps card is pictured here, and he also appeared on a 1959 Topps card. After retiring from football, Nelson founded Andy Nelson’s Barbeque, in Cockeysville, Maryland. The business still appears to be going strong. (I thought about joining Andy’s Swine Social Club, but I live kind of far away.) There’s a recent picture of Nelson in a Baltimore Examiner article about the restaurant.

Another Memphis grad, John “Bull” Bramlett, played seven seasons for the Broncos, Dolphins, Patriots, and Falcons. The card pictured here is Bramlett’s rookie card, a 1967 Topps; he also appeared on a 1969 Topps 4-in-1 insert and a 1971 Topps card. After football, Bramlett started John Bramlett Ministries, in Cordova, Tennessee. The web site includes a few recent photos of Bramlett.

• Search Nearmint’s Cards for: John Bramlett, Andy Nelson, Memphis Alumni.
• Search eBay for Andy Nelson, John Bramlett.

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

Buzz Guy, a lineman from 1958 to 1961 for the New York Giants, Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos, and Houston Oilers, passed away on November 25. While with the Giants, Guy played in the 1958 NFL Championship game, “The Greatest Game Ever Played.” The Giants lost that game to the Baltimore Colts, 23-17, in overtime.

To my knowledge, Guy had only one football card, the 1961 Topps card pictured here. He also appeared on five New York Giants team cards and three Dallas Cowboys team cards. This happened because Topps used a photo of the 1958 Giants team on all of the Giants team cards from 1959 to 1963, and they used a photo of the 1960 Cowboys team on all of the Cowboys team cards from 1961 to 1963. (See my interactive 1959 Topps Giants team card and 1963 Topps Cowboys team card. Guy is number 60 on both of them.)

Guy also appeared on a Cowboys team issue photo in 1960, the team’s first year in the NFL. You can see that photo at thecowboysguide.com.

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.

Woodley Lewis appeared on three Topps football cards, and Topps spelled his name differently on all three. In 1958, he was Woodly. In 1959, he was Woody. In 1960, Topps finally got it right and spelled his name Woodley. The card companies misspelled plenty of players’ names (see a previous blog article, E is for Error Cards), but I can’t think of another player who had his name spelled three different ways.

As I usually do when I write about a player, I did a little web search for Lewis, and I turned up a couple of nice non-card images. One, on the University of Oregon web site, pictures him in the middle of a broad jump. Another, on flickr, shows him in front of the Sportsman Bowl, a bowling alley that he owned after retiring from football. I also found an old matchbook for Woodley Lewis’s Sportsman Bowl on eBay.