Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

Freddie Solomon, a wide receiver from 1975 to 1985 for the Miami Dolphins and San Francisco 49ers, passed away yesterday. Solomon was a member of the 49ers’ NFL Championship teams of 1981 and 1984. His best season was 1981, when he gained 1012 combined yards rushing and receiving. Playing quarterback at the University of Tampa, Solomon gained 3299 yards rushing, then an NCAA record for a quarterback. There is a picture of him in action on the University of Tampa web site.

I have just one Freddie Solomon card, his 1976 Topps rookie card, pictured here. He also appeared on many newer cards that I don’t yet have in the Gallery. You can find most of them on eBay.

Happy Valentine’s Day! Last year I gave you Flowers, this year it’s Harts. Here we go:

First is Leon Hart, a Heisman Trophy winner and College Hall of Famer. Hart played eight seasons for the Detroit Lions, and he appeared on at least twelve football cards. His rookie card, the 1948 Leaf pictured here, was issued while he was still at Notre Dame. It is a high number and one of the key cards in the set.

Next is Pete Hart, who played for the New York Titans in the AFL’s inaugural season, 1960. (The Titans were renamed the Jets in 1963.) Hart appeared on a 1961 Fleer card and the 1961 Fleer Wallet Picture shown here.

Jim Hart was a quarterback for nineteen seasons in the NFL, all but one of them for the St. Louis Cardinals. He was a Pro Bowler for four straight seasons, 1974 to 1977. Hart appeared on a lot of football cards; the one pictured here is a 1968 Topps Stand-Up insert card.

Doug Hart played from 1964 to 1971 for the Green Bay Packers. He had the NFL’s longest interception return in 1969, an 85-yarder. The Packers had a lot of great players in the 1960s, of course, so Hart didn’t appear on a card until 1970. His 1970 Topps card is pictured here. He also made it onto a 1972 Sunoco Stamp, but he did not play in 1972.

Tommy Hart played thirteen seasons for the 49ers, Bears, and Saints. He appeared on several cards during his career; you can see most of them in the Vintage Football Card Gallery. His rookie card, a 1973 Topps, is pictured here.

Finally, Harold Hart played four seasons, 1974-1975 and 1977-1978, with the Raiders and Giants. Ironically, his only card is a 1976 Topps that shows him with Tampa Bay, but he didn’t play in 1976, and he never played a regular season game for Tampa Bay. According to his page at bucpower.com, the expansion Buccaneers acquired Hart in the 1976 Veteran Allocation Draft, but he hurt his knee in the pre-season and spent the year on injured reserve.

That’s all the Harts! Next year, Roseys?

Mike Current, a tackle for 13 seasons with the Denver Broncos, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Miami Dolphins, has passed away. According to his page at bucpower.com, Current started 105 consecutive games for the Broncos and played in a total of 169 AFL and NFL games. Current was elected to the AFL West All-Star team after the 1969 season.

The cards pictured here are Current’s rookie card, a 1970 Topps, and his last card, a 1976 Topps. You can see all of Current’s cards and stamps in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

Greg Gantt, punter for the New York Jets in 1974 and 1975, passed away on October 26, according to al.com. Gantt apparently was also the Jets’ backup kicker, because he scored an extra point in 1974.

At Alabama, Gantt led the SEC in punting for three straight years. He still holds the school records for single season and career punting average. Unfortunately, he is most famous for having two punts blocked and returned for touchdowns in the fourth quarter of a 17-16 loss to Auburn. The game was nicknamed the Punt, ‘Bama, Punt game.

Gantt is pictured here on his 1976 Topps football card. It was issued the year after his last NFL season–not an unusual occurrence.

Don’t ask me how I got there, but the other day I found myself thinking about players with “Mad” nicknames. Here are four I thought of: Daryle “Mad Bomber” Lamonica, on his 1968 Topps Stand Up insert; Ted “Mad Stork” Hendricks, on his 1975 Wonder Bread card; Alex “The Mad Duck” Karras, on his 1966 Philadelphia card, and Jim “Mad Dog” Mandich, on his 1976 Topps card.

Can you think of more?

I was scanning 1976 Topps football cards for the Gallery yesterday, and I came across this Dan Ryczek rookie card. What do you suppose he’s looking at? The scoreboard? The Blue Angels? A Ray Guy punt? Ryczek was a center, so I wondered if Topps mistakenly turned the image 90 degrees. But no, the players behind him are right side up. It’s just a bad photo, not the first one Topps put on a card.

1976 was Tampa Bay’s first season in the NFL, and Ryczek’s card got me looking at the rest of the 1976 Topps Buccaneers cards. I noticed a few interesting things:

• Eight of the ten Buccaneer player cards are rookie cards, though all of the players had been with other teams in years prior. The players all appear in their old teams’ jerseys, so I presume Topps had the photos on file.
• Four players–Ira Gordon, Harold Hart, Durwood Keeton, and Larry Ely–never played in a regular season game for Tampa Bay. John Ward played in just four games before going to the Bears. (See the career stats for Gordon, Hart, Keeton, Ely, and Ward at pro-football-reference.com.)
• The back of the Buccaneers team checklist has a list of the players they chose in the expansion draft, a nice feature.

For an entertaining read, check out the Wikipedia article on the 1976 Buccaneers–especially coach John McKay’s quotes.

Ken Payne, wide receiver from 1974 to 1978 for the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles, passed away on August 1. Payne led the Packers in receptions and receiving yards in 1975 and 1976.

The card pictured here is Payne’s rookie card, a 1976 Topps. He also appeared on a 1977 Topps card.

• See Ken Payne’s career NFL stats at pro-football-reference.com.

By now, most NFL fans have heard that Bubba Smith passed away. Smith was a defensive end from 1967 to 1976 for the Baltimore Colts, Oakland Raiders, and Houston Oilers. He made the Pro Bowl twice, and he played in two Super Bowls: Super Bowl III, which the Colts lost to the Jets, and Super Bowl V, in which the Colts beat Cowboys. A New York Times article from earlier this week has a summary of Smith’s career, along with a few photos.

After football, Smith appeared in many films and television shows, most notably the Police Academy movies. I had no idea how many until I checked out his IMDB page.

Smith’s brother, Tody, also played in the NFL. You can see the family resemblance in one of my earlier articles.

Smith appeared on numerous football cards in the 1970s, and most of them showed the same image. Pictured here are his rookie card, a 1970 Topps, and his last card, a 1976 Topps. You can see the rest in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

You have probably seen 1970s Topps football cards on which the team logos have been airbrushed from the players’ helmets. (For a couple of examples, see my article about airbrushing on 1972 Topps San Diego Chargers cards.) Well, apparently Topps couldn’t show the NFL logo on football cards, either. Last week, while scanning this 1976 Topps C.L. Whittington card, I noticed that someone had traced over the NFL on Whittington’s football and changed it to WPD. At first I thought it was only on my card, but the C.L. Whittington cards on eBay all have WPD on the football, too.

It seems like it would have been preferable to cover the logo with a dab of brown, but changing the letters was definitely better than how they handled Bob Hayes’s 1970 Topps Super and 1970 Topps Super Glossy cards. On those cards it looks like they burned the logo off the ball!