Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog » 1950 Bowman

Buddy Tinsley, CFL Hall of Fame Lineman

nearmint — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 22:05:11 +0000

Robert “Buddy” Tinsley, a member of the CFL Hall of Fame, passed away on September 14. After spending one year, 1949, with the AAFC’s Los Angeles Dons, Tinsley played eleven seasons for the CFL’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers. In those eleven seasons, he played in five Grey Cup (CFL championship) games. The Blue Bombers won two of them, in 1958 and 1959.

Though he never played in the NFL, Tinsley appeared on a 1950 Bowman card for the Pittsburgh Steelers. When the AAFC folded after the 1949 season, the AAFC’s Colts, 49ers, and Browns joined the NFL, and players from the other AAFC teams were distributed among the NFL teams in a “dispersal draft.” The Steelers chose Tinsley in the first round, but he opted to play in Canada instead. (See Tinsley’s CFL Hall of Fame page for a brief summary of his career.)

Tinsley also appeared on a number of CFL cards. I don’t have them in the Gallery yet, but you can find most of them on eBay.

A few other members of the CFL Hall of Fame appeared on NFL football cards, as well. You can search for cards of CFL Hall of Famers in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

Joe Perry, 49ers and Colts Hall of Fame Running Back

nearmint — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 18:55:34 +0000

Joe “The Jet” Perry, who played from 1948 to 1963 for the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Colts, has passed away. Perry led the NFL in rushing twice, in 1953 and 1954, and he made the Pro Bowl three times. He also held the NFL record for career rushing yards from 1958 to 1963, when Jim Brown surpassed him. Perry’s record did not include the yards he gained in 1948 and 1949, when the 49ers were still part of the AAFC. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1969.

The card pictured here is Perry’s rookie card, a 1950 Bowman. He appeared on many more cards and team issue photos over the next thirteen years. You can see all of Joe Perry’s football cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

See Joe Perry’s career stats at pro-football-reference.com.

Jim Keane, Bears and Packers Receiver

nearmint — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 23:56:14 +0000

Jim Keane, a receiver for the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers from 1946 to 1952, passed away this morning. His obituary on the Bears web site includes a summary of his career and a recent photo.

Keane was a member of the Bears NFL Championship team in his rookie season. The next season, 1947, he led the league in receptions, and he finished second in receiving yards and receiving touchdowns. Despite his stellar performance in 1947, Keane did not have a card in the 1948 Leaf and 1948 Bowman football card sets. To my knowledge, he appeared on only one card, the 1950 Bowman card pictured here.

See Jim Keane’s stats at pro-football-reference.com.

New in the Gallery: 1950 Bowman Virtual Uncut Sheets

nearmint — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 13:08:24 +0000

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.

Ken Carpenter, Browns, Roughriders, and Broncos Halfback

nearmint — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 22:44:47 +0000

Ken Carpenter, who played halfback from 1950 to 1960 for the Cleveland Browns, Saskatchewan Roughriders, and Denver Broncos, passed away on January 28. Carpenter was with the Browns for four seasons, from 1950 through 1953, and the Browns played in the NFL championship game in each of those four seasons. They won one of those championship games, in 1950, against the Los Angeles Rams.

According to his obituary at oregonlive.com, Carpenter was a player-coach while he was with Saskatchewan and Denver, and he continued coaching after his playing days.

The card pictured here is Carpenter’s rookie card, a 1950 Bowman. He also appeared on a 1951 Bowman card and a 1953 Bowman card while with the Browns. He appeared on a few CFL football cards while at Saskatchewan, but I don’t have those yet in the Vintage Football Card Gallery. You can usually find a few on eBay.

NFL and AFL stats: Ken Carpenter at pro-football-reference.com.
CFL stats: Ken Carpenter at cflapedia.com.

Wally Triplett’s Big Day

nearmint — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 17:11:08 +0000

Here’s another amazing record I found on the nfl.com individual records page: On October 29, 1950, against the Los Angeles Rams, Detroit’s Wally Triplett returned 4 kickoffs for an average of 73.5 yards per return! I found the box score for the game at pro-football-reference.com, and I was surprised to see that only one of the returns was for a touchdown. Searching further, I found an account of the game in an article about Triplett on the Pro Football Researchers web site. According to the article, the returns were for 81, 97, 74, and 42 yards, and the 97-yarder was for the touchdown.

Unfortunately, the rest of the Lions didn’t play as well as Triplett that day. The Rams scored 41 points in the third quarter, and they beat the Lions 65-24. The 41 points in a quarter tied a record, too–a record that the Packers had set 5 years earlier, also against the Lions.

Triplett had a short NFL career: two seasons with the Lions and two with the Cardinals, with two years in the Army between. The card pictured here is Triplett’s only card, a 1950 Bowman. You can find a summary of Wally Triplett’s career at pro-football-reference.com.

Bill Johnson, 49ers Center

nearmint — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 19:42:20 +0000

Bill “Tiger” Johnson, a center for the San Francisco 49ers from 1948 to 1956, passed away on January 7. Johnson was a Pro Bowler for the 49ers in 1952 and 1953. After his playing days, Johnson went on to a long coaching career, including three seasons as the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals. An article on the San Francisco Chronicle web site provides a nice summary of Johnson’s career.

Pictured here is Johnson’s rookie card, a 1950 Bowman. He also had a 1955 Bowman football card, and he appeared on numerous 49ers team issue photos, both as a player and a coach. You can see several of Johnson’s cards and team issue photos in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

Bill Johnson‘s playing record
Bill Johnson‘s record as head coach

Dick Hoerner, Rams and Texans Fullback

nearmint — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:12:50 +0000

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.

An Achievement Unmatched in Fifty Years

nearmint — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 23:25:04 +0000

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.

John Greene, Lions Guard and End

nearmint — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 22:15:43 +0000

John Greene, who played for the Detroit Lions from 1944 to 1950, passed away yesterday. Greene was a lineman at the University of Michigan, and he spent his first season with the Lions at guard. In his second season, the Lions moved Greene to end, where he had great success. According to his obituary on the Detroit Free Press web site, he led the Lions in receiving from 1945 to 1947, and he was the Lions’ all-time leading receiver when he retired.

I believe that the card pictured here, a 1950 Bowman, is Greene’s only football card. The major sports card companies did not print football cards during his first four seasons, 1944-1947.