June 6th, 2010 |
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Player Deaths
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.
March 30th, 2010 |
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Interesting eBay Auctions
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.
January 15th, 2010 |
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New in the Gallery
As I reported earlier, a few weeks ago I bought a set of 1972 Sunoco Stamps, and now I’m scanning them for the Vintage Football Card Gallery. Yesterday I did the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns. As I’ve said, overall, I’m not fond of the images used in the set. The stamps are small, and because the images are mostly action shots, you can’t see much of the players.
When scanning the Browns cards, though, I noticed that several of the action shots pictured the Browns in a mud game. Now these I like! I love watching weather games, be they in snow, rain, mud, or wind. For one thing, I prefer defensive battles to offensive shows, and bad weather slows the offenses down. For another, it’s just fun to see guys flopping around in the mud. To me, the weather is part of the game, and playing in a dome is playing something short of real football. I’ll take a mud game in Cleveland or a snow game in Buffalo over a dome game anytime.
October 10th, 2009 |
Published in
Player Deaths
Leon Clarke, a receiver for the Rams, Browns, and Vikings from 1956 to 1963, died on October 5th. He was selected to the Pro Bowl in 1956, his rookie season with the Rams. Clarke played college ball at USC, and he was a member of the Trojans’ 1955 Rose Bowl team. His obituary in the Los Angeles Times has a nice photo of Clarke in his college all-star uniform.
Pictured here is Clarke’s 1959 Bell Brand Rams card. He also appeared on a 1961 National City Bank Browns card.
August 6th, 2009 |
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Funny Poses
I love some of the poses on vintage football cards. Here is a 1953 Bowman card of Lou Groza, the Browns’ Hall of Fame tackle and kicker, blocking and kicking at the same time. Because of his multiple skills, Groza was chosen by the Cold, Hard Football Facts staff as one of their All-Time 11. Groza was an iron man: after playing 14 years and on 7 AAFC and NFL championship teams, Groza retired in 1959–but in 1961 he un-retired and played 7 more years!
