Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

Last week I added 1969 Drenk’s Green Bay Packers pins to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. The Bart Starr and Ray Nitschke pins are pictured here. See the Gallery for the rest of the pins and a description of the set. I filed the pins under Oddball.

Yesterday I added 1974 USC Discs to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. The set includes discs of 25 USC players and one of coach John McKay. Remarkably, 17 of the 25 players in the set went on to play in the NFL. One of them, Pat Haden, is pictured here. Haden was a quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams from 1976 to 1981.

I filed the discs in the Oddball section of the Gallery.

Over the weekend I added 1950 Bread for Health Labels to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. My favorite, Charley Conerly, is shown here. I listed the labels in the Oddball section of the Gallery. A huge thanks to my friend Jeff Payne for providing the images for this set. Check ’em out!

Artie Owens is 60 years old today; he was a wide receiver and kick returner from 1976 to 1980 for the San Diego Chargers, Buffalo Bills, and New Orleans Saints. He also played one season, 1983, for the Philadelphia Stars of the USFL. Owens played college football at West Virginia University, where he also starred in track. He was inducted into the WVU Sports Hall of Fame in 1997.

As far as I know, Owens did not appear on a football card as a pro, but he did appear on the 1974 West Virginia playing card pictured here. A few of his teammates in the deck of 1974 West Virginia cards made it to the NFL, as well.

Happy birthday, Mr. Owens!

Yesterday I added 1976 Coke Bears Discs to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. There are 22 players in the set; I believe they were intended to represent the Bears’ 1976 starting lineup. Like most regional sets, the set contains a few players who never appeared on a regular issue football card. See my description of the set for more details. I filed the discs under Oddball.

Last week I added 1972 University of Alabama playing cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. The key card in the deck is a pre-rookie card of John Hannah, who went on to a 13-year, Hall of Fame career with the New England Patriots. See the Gallery for more details on the set.

This is the eighth set of college playing cards I have added to the Gallery. You can see the rest on the Gallery’s Playing Card page.

Yesterday I added 1976 Buckmans Discs to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. The discs were distributed by Buckmans Ice Cream and Bakery (now out of business) in Rochester, New York. Oddly, though Rochester is only about 75 miles from Buffalo, there are no Buffalo Bills in the 20-disc set. There are no New York Giants or Jets, either. See my Gallery page for the discs for more details. I filed the discs under “Oddball.”

Yesterday I added 1976 Crane Discs to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. The Crane Potato Chip Company was based in Decatur, Illinois, and most of the discs picture players from NFL teams in the Midwest. See my Gallery page for the discs for details. I filed the discs under “Oddball.”

Once upon a time, long, long ago, I bought a set of 1972 Sunoco Stamps, and I started adding them to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. I said at the time that it would take me months to take pictures of all the stamps, and it did: 30 months, to be precise. I finally scanned and uploaded the last of them yesterday–all but one, that is. I discovered yesterday that I have two Verlon Biggs stamps, but no Ron McDole stamp. Anyone have a picture of a McDole they can send me?

As I was scanning the stamps yesterday, I noted one thing I like about them: the images on them aren’t airbrushed. In 1972, Topps was still airbrushing logos off helmets and airbrushing new uniforms onto players–badly–but the Sunoco stamps show the players in the uniforms of their current teams, logos intact. I especially like seeing old helmets, and for most teams there’s at least one stamp with a good picture of the team’s helmet. Below are a few examples.

Now, on to the 82-stamp update set!

Last week I added 1969 New Orleans Saints Doubloons to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. These are the first coins I have added to the Gallery, and I filed them under Oddball. As usual with team sets, this set contains a few players who never appeared on regular issue football cards. That is my favorite feature of team sets: seeing players I have not seen before.

Doubloons are common souvenirs in New Orleans, and the Saints have been commemorated on other doubloons, as well. One example I found online is a series of doubloons showing the Saints’ 1967-1975 schedules, sponsored by Falstaff beer. Another set of doubloons, sponsored by Jax beer, contains a coin for each 1967 home game. You can see an example of that set on eBay.