Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

Clyde Conner, an end for the San Francisco 49ers from 1956 to 1963, passed away on December 12. There is an article about Conner on the San Francisco Chronicle web site. Connor’s best season was 1958, when he caught 49 passes for 512 yards and 5 touchdowns.

The card shown here is Conner’s rookie card, a 1957 Topps, issued in his second season. He would appear on several more cards in his career, and on at least one team issue photo. You can see all of Clyde Conner’s cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

Bill Stits, who played in the NFL from 1954 to 1961 for the Detroit Lions, San Francisco 49ers, Washington Redskins, and New York Giants, passed away on December 5. At various times in his career, Stits was a defensive back, running back, punt returner, and kick returner. He intercepted six passes and recovered a fumble in his rookie season in Detroit, and he made the Pro Bowl that year.

The cards pictured here are Stit’s rookie card, a 1954 Bowman, and his 1956 Topps card. He also appeared on two 49ers team issue photos, in 1957 and 1958. I don’t yet have his 1957 photo, but can see his 1958 photo in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

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.

Lenny Lyles, a back and kick returner from 1958 to 1969 for the Baltimore Colts and San Francisco 49ers, passed away on November 20. The Louisville Courier-Journal web site has a report of his death and a recent photo. Lyles was a Pro Bowler in 1966, and he played in Super Bowl III, which the Colts lost to the New York Jets.

The card pictured here is Lyles’s rookie card, a 1967 Philadelphia, issued in his tenth season in the NFL. He also appeared on a 1968 Topps card, a 1969 Topps card, and a 1969 Glendale stamp.

This week I added 1959 Bazooka football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. These cards were hand-cut from the bottoms of boxes of Bazooka bubble gum. Y.A. Tittle, of course, is pictured in his helmet. (As I wrote in an earlier article, Tittle is wearing his helmet on nearly all of his cards.)

See the Gallery for more information on the 1959 Bazooka set.

Forrest Blue, who played center from 1968 to 1978 for the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Colts, passed away on July 16. Blue was a four-time Pro Bowler for the 49ers, twice on the first team. There is a report of Blue’s death on the San Francisco Chronicle web site–and a photo of him scoring his only NFL touchdown.

The card pictured here is Blue’s rookie card, a 1972 Topps. Another card of note is his 1974 Parker Brothers card. As I showed in a previous blog article, it is one of the few Parker Brothers cards that has a different image than its counterpart in the 1974 Topps set.

You can see all of Forrest Blue’s cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

John Henry Johnson, who played fullback from 1954 to 1966 for the San Francisco 49ers, Detroit Lions, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Houston Oilers, passed away on June 3. Johnson also played one season, 1953, with the CFL’s Calgary Stampeders.

Johnson was a four-time Pro Bowler, once with the 49ers and three times with the Steelers. He was also a member of the Lions NFL Championship team in 1957. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1987.

The card pictured here is Johnson’s rookie card, a 1955 Bowman. Topps used the same image, recolored, on his 1957 Topps card. (See them side-by-side in an earlier blog article.) Johnson appeared on many other cards during his long career, as well.

Also see:

• A summary of Johnson’s career on the Pro Football Hall of Fame web site.
• Johnson’s career NFL and AFL statistics at pro-football-reference.com.

Joe “The Jet” Perry, who played from 1948 to 1963 for the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Colts, has passed away. Perry led the NFL in rushing twice, in 1953 and 1954, and he made the Pro Bowl three times. He also held the NFL record for career rushing yards from 1958 to 1963, when Jim Brown surpassed him. Perry’s record did not include the yards he gained in 1948 and 1949, when the 49ers were still part of the AAFC. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1969.

The card pictured here is Perry’s rookie card, a 1950 Bowman. He appeared on many more cards and team issue photos over the next thirteen years. You can see all of Joe Perry’s football cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

• See Joe Perry’s career stats at pro-football-reference.com.

Bill “Tiger” Johnson, a center for the San Francisco 49ers from 1948 to 1956, passed away on January 7. Johnson was a Pro Bowler for the 49ers in 1952 and 1953. After his playing days, Johnson went on to a long coaching career, including three seasons as the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals. An article on the San Francisco Chronicle web site provides a nice summary of Johnson’s career.

Pictured here is Johnson’s rookie card, a 1950 Bowman. He also had a 1955 Bowman football card, and he appeared on numerous 49ers team issue photos, both as a player and a coach. You can see several of Johnson’s cards and team issue photos in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

• Bill Johnson‘s playing record
• Bill Johnson‘s record as head coach

Woody Peoples, a guard for thirteen seasons with the San Francisco 49ers and Philadelphia Eagles, passed away on Tuesday. Peoples made the Pro Bowl twice for the 49ers, in 1972 and 1973, and he was a member of the Eagles’ 1980 NFC Championship team. A tribute to Peoples at lehighvalleylive.com includes a nice photo of him warming up for Super Bowl XV.

Peoples appeared on a few cards during his long career. The card pictured here is his rookie card, a 1970 Topps. He also appeared on a 1973 Topps card, a 1981 Topps card, and a 1972 Sunoco stamp. His 1981 Topps card, his only card with the Eagles, was actually issued the year after he retired.

Today I added 1958 49ers Team Issue Photos to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. There are forty-four 4-by-6 black-and-white photos in the set, including players, coaches, the head of personnel, and even the 49ers announcers. Pictured here are my two favorites, Bill Stits and Jerry Mertens, both making (or faking) spread-eagle receptions.

Some of the players in the 1958 set also appear in the 1955 49ers Team Issue set. The team reused the images for those players, but they updated the text on the backs of the photos. Pictured here is the text from the back of Matt Hazeltine’s 1955 photo, along with that from his 1958 photo. (I added the years in red.) In three years he gained ten pounds, a wife, and a daughter!

Several players in the 1958 photo set never appeared on cards of their own–at least not to my knowledge. They are Gene Babb, John Gonzaga, Bill Herchman, Bill Jessup, Jim Pace, Lou Palatella, and John Wittenborn. As always, it’s good to add new faces to the Gallery. The set also includes a photo of John Brodie, issued three years before his 1961 Fleer and 1961 Topps rookie cards.

I have always loved this photo of Carroll Hardy, and yesterday I did an eBay search to see if I could find him on any more 49er team issues. To my surprise, a bunch of baseball cards popped up! Not being a baseball card collector, I didn’t know that after a short NFL career, Hardy had played eight seasons in the major leagues. Perhaps, conversely, most baseball card collectors don’t know about his short NFL career?

According to his Wikipedia page, Hardy spent just one year with the 49ers, 1955, when this 49ers team issue photo was released. He gained 37 yards rushing and 338 yards receiving for the season, and four of his receptions were for touchdowns.

He went on, after two years in the minor leagues, to become a backup outfielder for the Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox, Houston Colt .45s, and Minnesota Twins. He was the only player to pinch-hit for Ted Williams, and he also pinch-hit for Roger Maris and Carl Yastrzemski.

You can see the rest of the 1955 49ers Team Issue photos in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

Judging by his football cards, Y.A. Tittle seldom took off his helmet. From 1953 to 1964, the only Tittle card I know of that shows him bareheaded is his 1961 Topps card. Here he is in his many helmets:

I think it must have been Tittle’s preference to wear his helmet for photos, since I can’t think of any other player who appeared helmeted on so many cards. As I’ve written before, I usually don’t like images of players wearing their helmets, because the helmets cover too much of the players’ faces. But Y.A.’s many appearances in his helmet made him look natural in it, like Doonesbury’s B.D.

Tom Wittum, who punted for the 49ers from 1973 to 1977, died on January 22. Wittum made the Pro Bowl his first two years in the league. In 1973 he also had a 63-yard run–I presume on a fake punt–but it did not go for a touchdown.

The card pictured here is Wittum’s rookie card, the 1973 Punting Leaders card from the 1974 Topps set. Oddly, he did not appear on a regular card in that set. His first appearance alone on a card was in the 1975 Topps set.

There is a nice tribute to Wittum on dailyherald.com; it includes a picture of his 1976 Topps card. An article at suburbanchicagonews.com has a photo of Wittum in his high school uniform. (Select the photo in the article to enlarge the image.)

A couple of weeks ago, when I wrote that I had added 1955 49ers Team Issue photos to the Vintage Football Card Gallery, I neglected to point out that Clay Matthews Sr. is in one of the photos. Clay Sr. is the father of Clay Matthews Jr., who played 19 years for the Cleveland Browns and Atlanta Falcons, and of Bruce Matthews, the Hall of Fame lineman for the Houston Oilers and Tennessee Titans. He is also the grandfather of Clay Matthews III, the Packers rookie linebacker. Clay III had 10 sacks in 2009, a record for a Packers rookie.

Clay Sr. played offensive tackle and defensive end for the 49ers in 1950 and from 1953 to 1955. To my knowledge, he did not appear on any regular issue cards, and this is his only appearance on a team issue photo.