Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

Last week, looking at Frank Ryan’s football cards, I noticed that his 1962 Kahn’s Wieners card, his 1963 Topps card, and his 1969 Topps card all picture him wearing number 18 for the Browns. According to his page at pro-football-reference.com, however, Ryan never wore number 18 for any team. I thought maybe he had worn number 18 for his first season with the Browns, and that pro-football-reference had not picked it up. But no, Ryan’s first season with the Browns was 1962, and he is wearing number 13 in the Browns 1962 team photo. See him in the upper right?

So I did a little digging, and I came up with a guess. My guess is that when he was photographed in number 18, Ryan was wearing Len Dawson’s old jersey. Dawson wore number 18 for the Browns in 1960 and 1961 (see his 1961 National City Bank card), and the Browns released him around June 1, 1962. The Browns then acquired Ryan from the Rams on July 12, 1962. Until he got his own jersey, Ryan wore Dawson’s, at least for pictures.

That would explain the number 18 on Ryan’s 1962 Kahn’s card, but what about his 1963 and 1969 Topps cards? My guess is that Topps just used old images for those cards, as they often did. Another old image that jumps to mind is the one on the Len Dawson puzzle on the backs of 1969 Topps cards. Though by 1969 Dawson had quarterbacked the Chiefs for six seasons and taken them to a Super Bowl, Topps chose an image of him with the Browns–wearing number 18!

Glen Holloway, a guard from 1970 to 1974 for the Chicago Bears and Cleveland Browns, passed away on December 20. The Corpus Christi Caller Times web site has a report. Holloway also played one season for the World Football League’s Shreveport Steamer, according to the article.

Holloway appeared on one football card, the 1973 Topps card pictured here. He also appeared on a 1972 Sunoco stamp.

Tom Watkins, running back and kick returner from 1961 to 1968 for the Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, and Pittsburgh Steelers, passed away on October 29. Watkins led the NFL in yards per punt return in 1964, and in yards per kickoff return in 1965. Watkins is a member of the Iowa State University Athletics Hall of Fame, and there is a summary of his football career on the Iowa State web site.

Watkins is pictured here on his first two football cards: a scarce 1961 National City Bank Browns card and a 1965 Philadelphia card. The 1965 Philadelphia card, though it came four years later, is considered his rookie card because it was produced by a major card company. Watkins also appeared on a 1966 Philadelphia card and a 1968 Topps card. His 1968 Topps card has him with the Rams, but he actually played for the Steelers that year.

Last week I added 1961 Kahn’s Wieners cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. There are 36 cards in this Kahn’s set, with 32 being Browns and Steelers. Kahn’s was (and still is) based in Cincinnati, and Cleveland and Pittsburgh were the closest pro teams at the time.

The other four players in the set–Frank Varrichione, Will Renfro, Jimmy Orr, and Joe Lewis–were with either Cleveland or Pittsburgh the previous season. It appears that Kahn’s intended to make the set all Browns and Steelers, but these players moved, so Kahn’s simply changed the teams on the backs of their cards.

Two of the cards in the set, Tom Tracy and Larry Krutko, have their images swapped. This is especially unfortunate for Krutko, because I believe that this is his only football card. (For more old football cards that picture the wrong player, see my Mistaken Identities page.)

The set includes a pre-rookie card of Gene Hickerson. Hickerson had more pre-rookie cards than any other Hall of Famer I can think of: he appeared in the 1959 through 1962 Kahn’s sets, and on a 1962 Post Cereal card.

Thanks again to Mike Ford, who provided images for several of the Kahn’s sets.

Preston Carpenter, who played twelve seasons for the Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, Washington Redskins, Minnesota Vikings, and Miami Dolphins, passed away on June 30. Carpenter played halfback for the Browns in his rookie season, 1956, then spent the rest of his career as a receiver. He made the Pro Bowl in 1962 as a tight end with the Steelers.

Carpenter’s older brother, Lew, who also had a long NFL career, passed away last fall.

The card pictured here is Carpenter’s rookie card, a 1957 Topps. He appeared on numerous other cards during his career, as well.

• See all of Preston Carpenter’s cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.
• See Preston Carpenter’s career stats at pro-football-reference.com.

This week I added 1962 Kahn’s Wieners football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. There are 38 cards in this set: sixteen Browns, fourteen Steelers, and a sprinkling of players from six other teams. Kahn’s Meats was (and still is) based in Cincinnati, and the early Kahn’s sets were heavily weighted toward players from nearby Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

The 1962 Kahn’s set includes a pre-rookie card of Gene Hickerson, pictured here. Hickerson’s generally recognized rookie card (because it was issued by a major card company) is in the 1966 Philadelphia set. (For a discussion about rookie cards and pre-rookie cards, see an earlier article, R is for Rookie Cards.)

According to beckett.com, Kahn’s also issued an album to hold their 1962 cards, but I have not seen one yet.

Thanks again to Mike Ford, who provided images for several of the Kahn’s sets.

Johnny Brewer, who played tight end and linebacker from 1961 to 1970 for the Cleveland Browns and New Orleans Saints, passed away on May 27. Brewer was a member of the 1964 Browns NFL Championship team, and he made the Pro Bowl with the Browns in 1966. His obituary at legacy.com includes a short summary of his football career.

Pictured here is Brewer’s 1961 National City Bank Browns card, a pre-rookie card. Brewer’s rookie card is in the 1964 Philadelphia set, and he also appeared on a 1967 Philadelphia card. To my knowledge, he did not appear on any cards with the Saints.

• See Johnny Brewer’s career NFL stats at pro-football-reference.com.

Today I added 1964 Kahn’s Wieners cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. Kahn’s, which is still in business, included football cards in packages of wieners each fall from 1959 to 1964. Only the 1964 set is in color, and they are great looking cards.

There are 53 cards in the 1964 Kahn’s set, with all 14 NFL teams of the time represented. Because Kahn’s distributed their products in the Cincinnati region (and since the Bengals had not yet arrived), the company put a disproportionate number of Cleveland Browns in the set: 9 of the 53 cards. One of the Browns cards, Paul Warfield, is a pre-rookie card, so I will be adding it to my pre-rookie card page. Warfield’s rookie card is in the 1965 Philadelphia set.

A big thanks to Mike Ford for providing images for this set.

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.

It’s been awhile, but I finally added another “interactive” team card to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. This one is a 1967 Philadelphia Cleveland Browns team card. Just click the image shown here to see it.

Whenever I create one of these, I find a surprise. This time it was #87, Tom Hutchinson, in the front row. I didn’t think I had a card of Hutchinson by himself, but I do: a 1961 Nu-Card, which pictures him still in college, at Kentucky. Hutchinson played for the Browns from 1963 to 1965, then for the Falcons in 1966. He apparently left the Browns shortly after this photo was taken.

Yesterday I added 1968 Browns Team Issue 7×8 photos to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. The set contains just seven players, the team’s offensive stars at the time. The photos are printed on lightweight cardboard, and the backs are blank. The “7×8″ in the set name is to distinguish it from a second 1968 Browns team issue, in which the photos are 8-by-10. The 8-by-10 set, according to Beckett’s site, contains twelve photos, with some overlap with the 7-by-8′s.

There are facsimile autographs on the photos, and as far as I can tell, they are copies of authentic signatures. (This isn’t always the case on vintage cards; see my article on the facsimile signatures on Kahn’s Wieners cards.) At first I thought that the signatures on the Browns photos might be real, not facsimiles, because Ernie Green’s extends into the border. But then I noticed white fisheyes in the “F” and “k” of Frank Ryan’s signature, which I don’t believe would appear in an original.

Here’s another 1963 Topps CFL card of a player who had a short career in the NFL. Bob Ptacek was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in 1959, spent one season with the team, then went to the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders. According to his Cflapedia page, Ptacek was a jack-of-all-trades for the Roughriders, playing quarterback, linebacker, and defensive back at different times in his six seasons with the team. He made the West All-Star team twice, both times on defense.

The back of Ptacek’s card claims that “Ptacek came to the Roughriders in 1960 in a trade for Jim Marshall,” but I am skeptical about that. Ptacek and Marshall did swap teams in 1960, but I don’t think the CFL and NFL had any trading agreements (someone please correct me if I’m wrong), and Marshall’s Wikipedia page says he was drafted by the Browns in 1960, not obtained in a trade. (Ptacek’s Cflapedia page also mentions this alleged trade, but I suspect that that information came from the card.)

In 1959, before his rookie season with the Browns, Ptacek was named the MVP of the Chicago Charities College All-Star Game. This was an annual preseason game between the top college players and the NFL champions from the previous season. Amusingly, Ptacek isn’t mentioned in the game summary on the College All-Star Game web site. The Baltimore Colts dominated the game, 29-0, but the MVP was always chosen from the college team, and Ptacek apparently had a few bright moments for the All-Stars.

Ptacek appeared on a Topps CFL card each year from 1961 to 1965. So far I have just his 1963 card, but you can see the rest on eBay.

Milt Morin, who played tight end for ten seasons with the Cleveland Browns, passed away on July 9. Morin was selected for the Pro Bowl twice, in 1968 and 1971. He played college football at the University of Massachusetts, and he is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame’s class of 2010.

Pictured here is Morin’s rookie card, a 1971 Topps, issued in his sixth year in the league–and three years after his first Pro Bowl. Topps compensated for their omission by including a card of Morin in each of their sets from 1971 to 1975. He also appeared on a 1972 Sunoco Stamp.

Jim Copeland, who played guard and center for the Cleveland Browns from 1967 to 1974, passed away on June 4. Copeland played in two NFL Championship games: in 1967, against the Baltimore Colts, and in 1968, against the Minnesota Vikings. After his NFL career, Copeland served as athletic director at William and Mary, Utah, Virginia, and Southern Methodist. There is a nice photo of Copeland and a summary of his career at VirginaSports.com.

To my knowledge, Copeland did not appear on any football cards–not unusual for a lineman. He did, however, appear on the 1972 Sunoco Stamp pictured here. There are twenty-four players per team in the base 1972 Sunoco Stamp set–twice as many as in a typical card set of the time–so the set includes numerous players who never made it onto cards. As I wrote in an earlier article, the photos of several Browns in the Sunoco set, including Copeland, were from a mud game against the Colts.

This uncut sheet of 1946 Sears Cleveland Browns cards was on eBay last week. 1946 was the Browns’ first year; they were part of the new eight-team All-American Football Conference. The Browns were the AAFC champions all four years of the league’s existence, 1946-1949, and they joined the NFL when the AAFC folded in 1950. As far as I know, these Sears cards were the only cards printed of an AAFC team.

Conspicuously absent from this set are Marion Motley and Bill Willis, African American stars who later made the Pro Football Hall of Fame. According to Willis’s Wikipedia page, the two did not play in the Browns’ 1946 game against the Miami Seahawks, because they were forbidden by law to play against white players in Miami.

This small Sears set contains pre-rookie cards of three other Hall of Fame players: Otto Graham, Dante Lavelli, and Frank Gatski. (For more pre-rookie cards, see my pre-rookie card page.) The black-and-white head shots are nice, but otherwise the cards are unremarkable: all eight have the same ad on the front and the team’s 1946 schedule on the back.

The set is rare–these particular cards are the first I have seen–so it is hard to assign a value to the cards. The highest bid in this auction was $2000, and it did not meet the seller’s reserve. Perhaps the seller will list it again with a better description and a scan that shows the corners of the sheet.

For more interesting auctions, see my Interesting eBay Auctions page.