Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

Earlier this week, the National Football Foundation announced the names of the 2013 Football Bowl Subdivision candidates for the College Football Hall of Fame. Eleven of the 82 players and coaches on the ballot appear on cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery. (One of them appears on someone else’s card, however.) Here are the eleven in the Gallery:

Bob Berry, Quarterback, Oregon. Berry had a long NFL career with the Vikings and Falcons. He is shown here on his 1972 Topps card.

John Didion, center, Oregon State. Didion played six seasons for the New Orleans Saints. This is his 1974 Topps card.

Charlie Gogolak, kicker, Princeton. Gogolak played six seasons for the Washington Redskins and Boston/New England Patriots. In 1966, he set a record for most extra points attempted in a game, with 10. (He made 9 of them.) He is shown here on his rookie card, a 1967 Philadelphia. Gogolak’s brother, Pete, also played in the NFL.

Rob Lytle, running back, Michigan. Lytle played seven seasons for the Denver Broncos. This is his rookie card, a 1978 Topps. Lytle finished third in voting for the Heisman Trophy in 1976, so he also appears on my page of cards of Heisman Trophy candidates.

Paul Naumoff, linebacker, Tennessee. Naumoff had a 12-year NFL career with the Detroit Lions. He is pictured here on his 1973 Topps card.

Tom Nowatzke, linebacker, Indiana. Nowatzke played eight seasons for the Detroit Lions and Baltimore Colts. This is his 1969 Topps football card.

Phil Olsen, defensive end, Utah State. Olsen played six seasons for the Los Angeles Rams and Denver Broncos. One of his teammates with the Rams was his brother, Merlin. (See my Teammate Brothers article.) Olsen is shown here on his 1973 Topps football card.

Jim Otis, fullback, Ohio State. Otis played nine seasons for the New Orleans Saints, Kansas City Chiefs, and St. Louis Cardinals. His 1976 Buckmans Disc is pictured here. Otis also appears on my page of cards of Heisman Trophy candidates.

Don Trull, quarterback, Baylor. Trull played six seasons for the AFL’s Houston Oilers and Boston Patriots, and two seasons for the CFL’s Edmonton Eskimos. He is shown here on his 1971 O-Pee-Chee CFL card. Trull also appears on my page of cards of Heisman Trophy candidates.

Clancy Williams, running back, Washington State. Though Williams was a running back in college, as a pro he played defensive back. He played his whole eight-year NFL career with the Los Angeles Rams. Williams’s son, Clarence, also played a season in the NFL. The elder Williams is shown here on his only card, a 1967 Philadelphia.

Darryl Rogers, coach, several schools. Rogers never played in a regular season game as a pro, but he did coach the Detroit Lions from 1985 to 1988. Apparently, he also tried out with the Denver Broncos in the early 1960s, because his picture ended up on Goose Gonsoulin’s 1961 Fleer card. For more cards that picture the wrong player, see the Mistaken Identities page of the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

You can see all 82 of the 2013 Football Bowl Subdivision candidates on the National Football Foundation web site.

Here’s another record from the nfl.com history page: on November 27, 1966, in a game against the New York Giants, the Redskins’ Charlie Gogolak attempted ten extra points. That means, of course, that the Redskins scored ten touchdowns that day, and they beat the Giants 72-41. The Redskins’ 72 points in one game is an NFL record, and so is the 113 total points that the two teams scored. According to an account of the game at sportsthenandnow.com, the Redskins weren’t very sportsmanlike that day: with only a few seconds left in the game, instead of running out the clock, coach Otto Graham sent Gogolak out to kick a field goal. With those final three points, the Redskins surpassed the previous record for points in a game, 70, which the Los Angeles Rams had set in 1950.

If you’re quick at math, you’re thinking, hmm, Gogolak must have missed one of his attempts against the Giants. He did; the Giants blocked it. Thus Gogolak shares the record for most successful extra points in a game with Pat Harder and Bob Waterfield. Harder, of the Chicago Cardinals, went 9-for-9 twice: against the New York Giants in 1948, and against the New York Bulldogs in 1949. Waterfield, of the Los Angeles Rams, went 9-for-9 in a game against the Baltimore Colts in 1950–the game in which the Rams set the scoring record I mentioned above. According to the box score, Elroy Hirsch kicked the final extra point in that game, or Waterfield alone would hold the record for most successful extra points in a game. Waterfield threw a 63-yard touchdown pass for the final score, and maybe it was too far to walk.

The cards pictured here are the rookie cards of the record-holding kickers: Gogolak’s 1967 Philadelphia card, Harder’s 1948 Leaf card (with his name misspelled), and Waterfield’s 1948 Leaf card. Waterfield and Harder also had rookie cards in the 1948 Bowman football card set.

• See all of Charlie Gogolak, Bob Waterfield, and Pat Harder‘s football cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.
• See the career stats for Charlie Gogolak, Pat Harder, and Bob Waterfield at pro-football-reference.com.