Football Card Oddities

Bob DeMarco’s Mystery Airbrushing

January 16th, 2013  |  Published in Football Card Oddities

Bob DeMarco 1964 Philadelphia rookie football cardWhenever I see a copy of Bob DeMarco’s 1964 Philadelphia football card, I am puzzled. The image on the card was obviously airbrushed, but I don’t know why the card company would have airbrushed it. DeMarco had been with the Cardinals since his rookie season, 1961, so they wouldn’t have needed to change him out of another NFL team’s colors.

One possibility is that the photo was from DeMarco’s college days (he played at Dayton), and the card company wanted to cover his college jersey. (For an example of that, see John Brockington’s 1972 Topps cards.) That seems unlikely, though, since 1964 was DeMarco’s fourth year out of college, and they should have had a photo of him in a Cardinals uniform by then.

Another possibility is that DeMarco had been wearing a white Cardinals jersey for his photo, like the one on his 1966 card, but Philadelphia wanted all of the Cardinals in the set to be wearing red. The problem with that theory is that there are other players in the set whose jerseys don’t match the rest of their team, and their images haven’t been airbrushed. Tommy McDonald, for example, played for the Cowboys in 1964, but he is pictured still in Eagles green, not Cowboys blue.

At least one other image in the 1964 Philadelphia set appears to have been airbrushed, also, though not as badly: on Dick Schafrath’s card, it looks like Schafrath’s jersey was painted on. I can’t explain that one, either, unless it was to hide the neck roll he is shown wearing on his later Philadelphia cards.

Anyone else have a theory to explain the airbrushing?

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Steve DeLong’s Missing Shoulder

December 10th, 2012  |  Published in Football Card Oddities

I had always thought that the image on Steve DeLong’s 1966 Topps football card looked odd, but I didn’t know why until I saw it alongside his 1965 Topps card. For some reason, on his 1966 card, the folks at Topps chopped off DeLong’s left shoulder. My only guess is that they wanted the 1966 card to look like it had a different image, but Topps reused images all the time, so that’s not a very good guess. In fact, DeLong’s 1967 Topps and 1969 Topps cards also have the same image, but with DeLong’s shoulder restored.

DeLong is pictured here on his 1965 and 1966 cards, with and without his left shoulder.
Steve DeLong 1965 Topps rookie football cardSteve DeLong 1966 Topps football card

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Hiding the NFL Logo on 1970s Topps Cards

July 17th, 2011  |  Published in Football Card Oddities

C.L. Whittington 1976 Topps football cardYou have probably seen 1970s Topps football cards on which the team logos have been airbrushed from the players’ helmets. (For a couple of examples, see my article about airbrushing on 1972 Topps San Diego Chargers cards.) Well, apparently Topps couldn’t show the NFL logo on football cards, either. Last week, while scanning this 1976 Topps C.L. Whittington card, I noticed that someone had traced over the NFL on Whittington’s football and changed it to WPD. At first I thought it was only on my card, but the C.L. Whittington cards on eBay all have WPD on the football, too.

It seems like it would have been preferable to cover the logo with a dab of brown, but changing the letters was definitely better than how they handled Bob Hayes’s 1970 Topps Super and 1970 Topps Super Glossy cards. On those cards it looks like they burned the logo off the ball!

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Wanted: Images of Uncut Sheets and Miscut Cards

June 9th, 2011  |  Published in Football Card Oddities, Interesting eBay Auctions

Most of you are familiar with my virtual uncut sheets of vintage football cards. There are a lot of sets I haven’t been able to do yet, though, because I have not seen pictures of real sheets. So I would like your help: if you see an uncut sheet for a pre-1970 set that I have not done yet, please send me an email and let me know where you saw it. The sheets I have completed are listed on the Vintage Football Card Gallery home page.

I would also like to see any pre-1970 cards that are miscut so badly–on either the front or the back–that they show part of the next card. The card pictured here is an example that I found in an eBay auction: it’s a miscut 1957 Topps Sid Watson card that shows Kyle Rote’s toe. If I see enough cards like this, I might be able to piece together what the uncut sheet looked like–especially if there is a pattern to the card numbers.

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New in the Gallery: 1960 Eagles Team Issue Photos

August 29th, 2010  |  Published in Football Card Oddities, New in the Gallery, Team Issue Photos

Today I added 1960 Eagles Team Issue Photos to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. There are eleven 5-by-7 prints in the set, and the prints have blank backs.

Jimmy Carr 1960 Philadelphia Eagles Team Issue PhotoThe composition of the set is easily the oddest I’ve seen. First, Nick Skorich, an assistant coach in 1960, appears in the set, but Buck Shaw, the head coach, doesn’t. (Skorich took over as head coach in 1961.) Second, there are no quarterbacks, running backs, or receivers in the set! Hall of Famers Norm Van Brocklin and Tommy McDonald were both established starters in 1960, but neither is included. Finally, the Eagles had six Pro Bowlers in 1959 (Van Brocklin, McDonald, Jess Richardson, Marion Campbell, Bill Barnes, and Tom Brookshier), they were all still with the team in 1960, and not one of them appears in the set! It’s like the photographer was in a hurry, and he just grabbed the first eleven guys who showed up for practice.

(Speaking of Van Brocklin, this wasn’t the only set from which he was conspicuously absent. In 1958, after nine seasons and six Pro Bowls with the Rams, Van Brocklin was traded to the Eagles. He played three seasons for the Eagles, making the Pro Bowl in each of them, but he did not appear in any of the 1958-1960 Topps football sets. The only card I know of that shows him as an Eagle is his 1963 Stancraft playing card.)

As I’ve said in previous articles, one reason I like team sets is that they usually include players who never appeared on cards in mainstream issues. In this set, those players are Howard Keys and John Wittenborn, both offensive linemen. Keys was a rookie in 1960, and he played for the Eagles for four seasons. Wittenborn spent ten years in the NFL and AFL, with the 49ers, Eagles, and Oilers.

My favorite photo in the set is the one shown here, Jimmy Carr. Carr was a defensive back, but he could have been the drum major!

Oh, and incidentally, the Eagles won the NFL championship in 1960.

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To Be Continued?

July 31st, 2010  |  Published in Football Card Oddities

1963 Fleer unnumbered football card checklistLast week, on my Facebook page, Pastor Scott asked if I knew if Fleer had planned a second series of football cards in 1963, since the 1963 checklist says “1st SERIES.” I told Scott that I had not noticed the label before, but that it was reasonable to surmise that Fleer had planned another series. Fleer printed two series in 1961–one of NFL players and one of AFL players–and perhaps the company had hopes of doing the same in 1963. (For more on Fleer’s early 1960s football cards, see F is for Fleer.)

The 1963 checklist is also curious for other reasons:

  • It’s the first and only checklist that Fleer printed in its four years of producing football cards.
  • It is the only card in the 1963 set that is not numbered.
  • On an uncut sheet, the player cards were in a predictable order, by number, but the checklist was stuck in the middle, displacing two of the player cards. (You can see this on my virtual uncut 1963 Fleer sheet.)
  • It is a short print (and so are the two cards it displaced on the sheet).
  • It is orange and green, though the base color of the player cards is red. Checklists typically have the same color scheme as the rest of the set.

To me, it looks like a new Fleer manager came in just before production and said, “Hey, Topps has checklists, so we need to throw one in there, too. And maybe we’ll have a second series, so put ‘first series’ on it.” And then they left the kiddies hanging.

Back of 1935 National Chicle Phil Sarboe cardFleer wasn’t the only company that had football card plans grander than they could execute. As I wrote in N is for National Chicle, the backs of 1935 National Chicle cards say “one of 240 football players with playing tips,” but there are only 36 cards in the set. There were only eight pro teams at the time, so 240 cards would have covered practically every player in the league. As I said in the article, I suspect that the company planned to include college players and coaches in their set, as well.

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The Bears Were Late in 1959

July 28th, 2010  |  Published in Football Card Oddities

1959 Topps Joe Fortunato football cardLast week a reader asked me why there aren’t any Chicago Bears in the first series of 1959 Topps football cards. My expert answer was, “Huh, I never noticed that.” But the reader was right: the 1959 Topps first series cards are numbered 1 through 88, and the Bears cards are all numbered 90 and higher. Topps compensated by putting eleven Bears in the 88-card second series, but, over the whole set, the Bears are still outnumbered by every other team.

Imagine being a young Bears fan, spending all of your paper route money on a stack of wax packs, and not getting any cards of your favorite team! Why might the Bears have been omitted? Did they send their photos to Topps too late to make the first series? Did Topps forget that Chicago had two teams? My guess is that Topps and the Bears had some sort of contract problem, but that’s only a guess. If anyone else has more information, please let me know.

1959 Topps Chicago Bears team football cardIronically, the Bears team card is one of the three easiest 1959 Topps cards to find in high grade, the others being the Giants and Steelers team cards. All three cards are in the second series, which appears to have been printed in greater quantities than the first series. (This is unusual: Topps typically printed the earlier series in greater numbers.) All three were also in the interior of the full sheet (see my virtual uncut 1959 Topps sheet), so they were less susceptible to damage in production than cards on the edge of the sheet. And, finally, I think that the team cards’ oval interior design makes them more forgiving of cutting problems. The other cards in the set–namely the player and team pennant cards–have rectangular interiors, making off-centering and diamond cuts more obvious.

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Y.A. Kept His Hat On

March 22nd, 2010  |  Published in Football Card Oddities, Uniforms

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.

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Brad Ecklund, AAFC and NFL Center

February 11th, 2010  |  Published in Football Card Oddities, Player Deaths

Brad Ecklund, who played center for five years in the AAFC and NFL, passed away on February 6. Ecklund started his pro career with the New York Yankees of the AAFC in 1949, then joined the New York Yanks (formerly the New York Bulldogs) of the NFL when the AAFC merged with the NFL in 1950. He remained with the team when they became the Dallas Texans in 1952 and the Baltimore Colts in 1953. He made the Pro Bowl twice, in 1950 and 1951.

After his playing days, Ecklund coached for nineteen years for five NFL teams. His obituary in the Philadelphia Enquirer includes a nice photo from his days as an Eagles coach.

Ecklund’s rookie card is a 1951 Bowman, pictured here. Like the other Yanks cards in the 1951 Bowman set, it shows a picture of Yankee Stadium rather than a logo. Perhaps the team never had a logo as the New York Yanks: I don’t see one on logoserver.com, and the team’s Wikipedia page shows a Bulldogs logo.

Ecklund also appeared on two other cards, a 1952 Bowman Large and a 1952 Bowman Small, in the team’s only year as the Dallas Texans.

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L is for Leaf

October 23rd, 2009  |  Published in ABCs of Vintage Football Cards, Football Card Oddities, Football Card Trivia

The Leaf Gum Company printed football cards in 1948 and 1949. The cards from the two years are very similar. In fact, except for the variations in the 1948 cards, for players who appear in both sets, the fronts of the cards appear identical. The backs are different for the two years, fortunately, and the copyright date on the bottom of the back tells which year a card is from. Shown here are Leaf’s two Herb Seigert cards, the first from 1948, and the second from 1949.
1948 Leaf Herb Siegert football card1949 Leaf Herb Siegert football card
The images on the Leaf cards started as black and white photos, and then someone colored the images’ backgrounds and the players’ uniforms. On some cards, such as the Harry Szulborski card below, the coloring makes it look as if the player’s head was cut out and pasted on a colored background.

1948 Leaf Harry Szulborski football cardMy favorite feature of the Leaf cards is that many have both the player’s first name and nickname on the front: ‘Slingin’ Sammy Baugh, ‘Bullet’ Bill Dudley, Charlie ‘Choo Choo’ Justice, and so on. A quick bit of trivia: which player’s nickname is in double quotes? Answer: Clyde “Bulldog” Turner‘s.

The 1948 Leaf set consists of 98 cards, with cards 1-49 being easier to find and cards 50-98 being difficult. The set features both pro and college players, with slightly more than half of the cards being pros. The bigger stars of the day–mostly pros–are concentrated in the first half of the set, and most of the college players are in the second half.

1948 Leaf Pete Pihos rookie card with yellow numbersThe set contains many variations: mostly in the colors used, but in the players’ names as well. The 1948 Leaf set composition page on PSA’s web site lists most of the variations, but I don’t believe it is complete. It lists two variations of the Pete Pihos rookie card, for example, one with yellow numbers and one with blue. I have also seen a variation with greenish numbers, though. It is pictured here with the yellow-numbered version for contrast.

Because there had been no major football card issues since 1935 National Chicle, all of the 1948 Leaf football cards are rookie cards. Fourteen of the players in the set are of Hall of Famers, making it a key set for Hall of Fame rookie card collectors. Fortunately for those collectors, only two of the Hall of Fame players–namely Leo Nomellini and Chuck Bednarik–are in the tougher second half of the set. (Nomellini and Bednarik were both still in college at the time.) An article by Kevin Glew on the Collectors Universe web site lists the Hall of Famers and describes the other challenges facing 1948 Leaf collectors.

Compared to the 1948 Leaf set, the 1949 Leafs are not very interesting. The 1949 set contains only 49 cards, all pro players, and there are no new players in the set. Also, as I wrote above, there is no perceptible difference in the card fronts for players who appear in both sets. So Leaf’s 1949 offer was essentially half of 1948’s cards, but with different backs.

One odd thing about the 1949 set is that it is skip-numbered, with the numbers of its 49 cards scattered between 1 and 150. When I first learned this, I wondered if Leaf had intended to release more cards to fill in the gaps. It turns out, though, that they also skip-numbered their 1949 baseball set. That suggests to me that they were trying to trick kids into buying more cards, even if they already had the whole set. I’d call that just plain mean. It’s not surprising that this was Leaf’s last football set.

You can see all of the 1948 Leaf and 1949 Leaf cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

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