Cards in Three Leagues

January 13th, 2013  |  Published in CFL Cards, Football Card Trivia, New in the Gallery

Tobin Rote 1961 Topps CFL football cardIf you have been following this blog, you know that I recently added several sets of CFL football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. While adding the CFL cards, I encountered a few players who also appeared on cards for teams in both the NFL and AFL. To spotlight those players, I created a new Gallery page called Cards in Three Leagues.

One of the three-league players, Tobin Rote, is pictured here on his 1961 Topps CFL card. To see the others, check out my new page. And, in case you haven’t seen them, check out the Gallery’s other fun pages, too!

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Football Cards of Members of the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame

September 6th, 2010  |  Published in Halls of Fame, New in the Gallery

1950 Bowman Tobin Rote rookie football cardI am continuing to identify players in the Vintage Football Card Gallery who have been honored by the individual teams. Today I added the members of the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame. There were a lot of members to add!

Pictured here is one of them, Tobin Rote, on his 1950 Bowman rookie card. I learned today that in 1956, Rote led the league in passing yards and passing touchdowns, led the Packers in rushing, and finished second in the league in rushing touchdowns.

You can use the Advanced Search page of the Gallery to find members of the Packers Hall of Fame and recipients of other honors.

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Where Did All the Packers Go?

August 22nd, 2009  |  Published in Football Card Oddities

Pictured here are all of the Green Bay Packers in the 1953 Bowman football card set. That’s right, it’s just the two quarterbacks, Tobin Rote and Babe Parilli. What happened to the rest of the players?

When I saw that the set had only two Packers, I thought it must be a mistake, but I double-checked and found that it was correct. Why, I wondered? Had the Packers been terrible in 1952? No, according to pro-football-reference.com, they went 6-6. Were Rote and Parilli the only good players on the team? Well, no, Bill Howton had 13 touchdowns and 1231 yards receiving in 1952. Bob Mann had a respectable 517 yards receiving in 1952, and he had had a 1000-yard season with the Lions in 1949. Deral Teteak was a Pro Bowl linebacker in 1952. These guys were certainly worthy of being on cards.

What other reason might there be? If it wasn’t that the Packers were bad, might Bowman have allocated most of the cards to the top few teams? No, that’s not the way it broke, either. The largest number of cards for a team–12–went to the Chicago Cardinals, who were 4-8 in 1952. Here are the number of cards each team had in the 1953 Bowman set, along with their 1952 record:

Team 1952 Record Number of 1953 Bowman cards
Detroit Lions (1952 Champs) 9-3 10
Los Angeles Rams 9-3 4
Cleveland Browns (Lost to Lions in 1952 Championship) 8-4 10
New York Giants 7-5 10
Philadelphia Eagles 7-5 9
San Francisco 49ers 7-5 4
Green Bay Packers 6-6 2
Pittsburgh Steelers 5-7 10
Chicago Bears 5-7 10
Chicago Cardinals 4-8 12
Washington Redskins 4-8 10
Baltimore Colts (Dallas Texans in 1952) 1-11 5

Looking at the 1952 league leaders, other omissions stand out: Dan Towler, who led the league in rushing in 1952, did not have a 1953 Bowman card. Joe Perry was third in rushing, and he did not have a card, either. Dick Lane (also see D is for Defensive Players) had 14 interceptions in 1952–still a record–and he did not have a card.

So I’m mystified: Did Bowman have contract problems with the Packers, Rams, and 49ers? Was it difficult to deal with remote teams? (Bowman was based in Philadelphia.) There were only 96 cards in the set, compared to 144 in Bowman’s 1952 sets–had they expected to print another series?

Oh well, I have never been fond of this issue, anyway. (See my posts on the early Bowman sets and the NFL’s use of white footballs.) The odd player selection is just another reason to dislike it. The 1952 Bowman Large set is a classic, and I continue to be surprised that the 1953 set fell so far.

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