Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

Clarence Self, a back from 1949 to 1955 for the Chicago Cardinals, Detroit Lions, and Green Bay Packers, passed away on January 21. Self played college football at Wisconsin, and he still holds the school record for kickoff return yards in a game, with 178.

Self appeared on one football card, the 1948 Leaf card pictured here, while still at Wisconsin. It is one of the scarce high-numbered cards in the set. 1948 Leaf cards were printed on two sheets, one holding cards 1-49 and the other holding cards 50-98, and Leaf apparently printed the second sheet in much smaller quantities. The Self card is number 78.

If you collect 1959 Topps football cards, you probably have seen cards with a dark mark on the bottom. You probably also have figured out that the dark mark is from the card below on the uncut sheet. Topps got a little artsy in 1959 and let the images of the players extend into the top border. Consequently, the cards don’t have to be too far off-center to have gotten a bit of the card below.

Shown here is an example, a Bart Starr card that is shifted far enough upward that it shows a bit of another player’s scalp. The other player in this case happens to be Ernie Stautner. In turn, the football in Starr’s hand extended into the top border, and most of the ball ended up on the bottom of someone else’s card.

So what, you ask? Well, I am piecing together a virtual uncut sheet of first series 1959 Topps cards, and clues from off-center cards are helping me piece the sheet together. You can see the modest beginnings of a first series sheet on my Virtual Uncut Sheets in Progress page. You can help: if you find another 1959 Topps first series card that shows a bit of a neighboring card, send me a picture of it.

What about the second series 1959 Topps sheet? Well, that one was easy, because I found a picture of a real one. You can see the virtual version in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

As I wrote last week, one of my readers pointed out that the player on the cover of the San Francisco 49ers 1969 Topps Mini-Card Album is Joe Walton, and that the same image appeared in the inset photo of Walton’s 1962 Topps football card. This made me curious, so I checked to see if other inset photos from 1962 Topps cards had been reused on 1969 Mini-Card Albums. Sure enough, I found a few:

First, the image of Bart Starr on the Green Bay Packers Mini-Card Album appeared in the inset of Starr’s 1962 Topps card.

Next, the image of John Unitas on the Baltimore Colts Mini-Card Album was also used in the inset photo of Zeke Bratkowski’s 1962 Topps card. Topps changed Unitas’s number 19 to Bratkowski’s number 12 on the 1962 Topps card, as I noted in an earlier article.

The image on the Minnesota Vikings Mini-Card Album also appeared in the inset photo of Don Perkins’s 1962 Topps card, but the player’s number is different. I’m guessing that the image was altered for the 1962 card, so the player probably isn’t Perkins.

The image on the Denver Broncos Mini-Card Album is the same one used in the inset photo on Ollie Matson’s 1962 Topps card, but again, the player’s number is different. Matson was number 33 with the Rams, so it appears that the image on his 1962 card was altered. Does anyone recognize the player?

Finally, the image on the Washington Redskins Mini-Card Album is the same as the inset on John Aveni’s 1962 Topps card. Again, the player’s number appears to have been changed on the 1962 Topps card. I believe that the player is Dick James, who wore number 47 for the Redskins in 1961.

Given that there are so many altered jersey numbers on the 1962 Topps cards, I wonder how many of the inset photos actually picture the right player. Not many, I’ll bet.

Nolan Luhn, an end for the Green Bay Packers from 1945 to 1949, passed away on November 27. The whiotv.com web site has a short report.

To my knowledge, Luhn appeared on just one football card, the 1948 Bowman card pictured here. 1948 Bowman cards with numbers divisible by 3 were short-printed, and Luhn’s card, number 9, is one of the scarcest cards in the set. See my 1948 Bowman virtual uncut sheet page for details.

Yesterday I added 1969 Topps Mini-Card Albums to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. There is one album for each of the 16 NFL and 10 AFL teams of 1969. (The leagues merged in 1970.) The albums, along with panels of mini-cards (now known as 1969 Topps 4-in-1′s), were inserts in packs of 1969 Topps football cards. Each album held ten mini-cards, plus a few stats for each player. The mini-cards had adhesive on the back, like stamps, so kids could separate the cards from the panels, lick the backs, and stick them in the albums. The adhesive was poor, so it wasn’t long before it let go and the cards fell out.

Pictured here are the front, back, and middle of the Green Bay Packers mini-card album.


The Packers mini-card album, with Bart Starr on the cover, is an exception. Most of the albums, strangely, have pictures of players from other teams on their covers. The San Francisco 49ers album, for instance, has a New York Giant on the cover. Commenting on an earlier blog article, a sharp-eyed reader pointed out that the player is Joe Walton, and that the image also appeared on Walton’s 1962 Topps card. Walton joined the Giants in 1961, so the photo must have been taken during the 1961 season.

Gale Gillingham, an offensive lineman for ten seasons with the Green Bay Packers, passed away on October 20. Today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a report. Gillingham made the Pro Bowl five times, and he was inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame in 1982.

The cards pictured here are Gillingham’s rookie card, a 1970 Topps, and his last card, a 1975 Topps. He appeared on a number of cards and stamps in the intervening years, as well. You can see all of Gale Gillingham’s cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

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?

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.

Don Chandler, punter and kicker from 1956 to 1967 for the New York Giants and Green Bay Packers, passed away on August 11. Chandler played on four NFL Championship teams: 1956 with the Giants, and 1965, 1966, and 1967 with the Packers. He made the Pro Bowl in 1967, his last season, and he was inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame in 1975. The Packerville, U.S.A., blog has a summary of Chandler’s career, along with several pictures.

The card pictured here is Chandler’s rookie card, a 1957 Topps. He appeared on several others, as well. You can see all of Don Chandler’s cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

Norm Masters, who played for the CFL’s British Columbia Lions in 1956 and for the Green Bay Packers from 1957 to 1964, passed away on April 19. Masters was a member of Green Bay’s NFL Championship teams in 1961 and 1962. A tribute on the Green Bay Press-Gazette web site includes a nice summary of his NFL career. I also found, in my internet search, a great image of Masters leading the way for Paul Hornung.

To my knowledge, Masters appeared on only one card, the 1961 Lake to Lake Packers card pictured here. This is one of the short prints in the set, and it is quite scarce. The print lines you see on this card are common in the set.

You can see the career NFL stats for Norm Masters at pro-football-reference.com.

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.

In 1968, after the NFL and AFL decided to merge, Topps became the sole major producer of American football cards for the first time since 1959. The 1968 Topps football card set was the first since 1961 to contain cards of both NFL and AFL players. To mark the occasion, Topps decided to honor the teams who had participated in the first two NFL-AFL World Championship Games–or, as they came to be known, the first two Super Bowls.

First, Topps honored the Super Bowl II contestants, the Green Bay Packers and Oakland Raiders, by using a horizontal format and alternate design for their cards. The two examples pictured here are Donny Anderson, on his rookie card, and Daryle Lamonica. You can see all of the horizontally-oriented 1968 Topps Packers cards and 1968 Topps Raiders cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

Second, Topps honored the quarterbacks of Super Bowl I, Bart Starr of the Packers and Len Dawson of the Kansas City Chiefs, by putting puzzles of them on the backs of some of the 1968 second series cards. The piece pictured here, Dawson’s right eye, is on the back of Ernie Wright’s card. A page in the gallery shows both assembled puzzles. Oddly, for Dawson’s puzzle, Topps chose a seven- or eight-year-old photo from when he was still with the Browns, though they had been picturing him in his Chiefs uniform since 1965.

• See my 1968 Topps virtual uncut sheets
• See 1968 Topps football cards for sale at nearmintcards.com

I was recently perusing the individual records page at nfl.com, looking for records that were set by players who are now on vintage cards. I found one record that I doubt will ever be broken: Fred Dryer’s record for “Most Safeties, Game.” Dryer set the record on October 21, 1973, when he scored two safeties against the Green Bay Packers. The video below shows them, at 2:48. If you watch closely, you can see that he sacked two different Packer quarterbacks: number 12, Scott Hunter, and number 16, Jim Del Gaizo. I looked up the box score for the game and found that not only did Dryer get two safeties in one game, he got them both in the fourth quarter. And, according to pro-football-reference.com, they were the only two safeties he scored in his 13-year career!

Of course, while searching youtube, I also came across lots of videos of Dryer starring in the television show “Hunter.” Hunter ran for seven seasons in the late 80s. For a smile, check out the season 1 intro below.

Pictured here is Dryer’s 1970 Topps rookie card, from when he was still with the New York Giants. You can see more of Dryer’s early football cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

• See Fred Dryer’s page at pro-football-reference.com
• Find Fred Dryer cards on eBay.

Ken Iman, who played center for the Green Bay Packers and Los Angeles Rams from 1960 to 1974, passed away on November 13. Iman played on two of the Packers’ championship teams, in 1961 and 1962. Later, with the Rams, he started 140 straight games, and he was the team’s MVP in 1972, according to his obituary on the ESPN web site. After retiring as a player, Iman was the Philadelphia Eagles’ offensive line coach for eleven years, from 1976 to 1986.

I featured Iman’s football cards in an earlier blog article. His rookie card, a 1971 Topps, wasn’t issued until his twelfth season in the league. He appeared on a card much earlier in his career, a 1961 Lake to Lake Packers card, but since the Lake to Lakes are a regional set, cards from that set are not considered rookie cards. Iman’s 1961 Lake to Lake card is pictured here.

Ron Kramer, who played tight end for the Packers and Lions from 1957 to 1967, passed away today. Kramer made the Pro Bowl in 1962 for the Packers, and he is a member of the Packers Hall of Fame. There is a nice article about Kramer’s career on the Pro Football Researchers web site.

My favorite Ron Kramer card is the one pictured here, a 1963 Topps card. The Packers cards in the 1963 set have green-and-gold borders, so the borders match the Packers’ uniforms. This appears to have been a coincidence, since the border colors Topps used for the other teams’ cards don’t match their uniform colors.

Kramer’s rookie card is a 1958 Topps, which I featured in a previous article. He also appeared on a 1961 Lake to Lake Packers card and on two Topps cards with the Lions. You can see all of Ron Kramer’s cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.