September 14th, 2009 |
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Football Card Trivia, Sites I Like
According to the Oldest Living Pro Football Players web site, Ralph Kerchival is the oldest living pro player, at nearly 98 years old. He was a back and kicker with the Brooklyn Dodgers of the NFL from 1934 to 1940. In a 1993 interview, Kercheval said that he played on both offense and defense for the Dodgers, and in his rookie year he played for all but five minutes of the entire season. (Don’t miss the cartoon clipping from the Additional Photos section of the interview page.)
Pictured here is Kercheval’s 1935 National Chicle rookie card. He also appeared on a 1955 Topps All-American card.
July 25th, 2009 |
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Player Bios, Sites I Like
A few weeks ago I posted an entry about the impressive Ed Meador Hall of Fame Nomination site. Other people have their own favorite Hall of Fame candidates, of course, and some of them have built web sites, too. One such site is Crazy Canton Cuts, which at last count made a case for 39 players! In particular, the site owner would like to see Chris Hanburger inducted, and he has started a petition in Hanburger’s behalf.
Another site, Remember the AFL is dedicated to the American Football League, and it makes the case for 42 ex-AFL players. This list of candidates overlaps only a little with that of Crazy Canton Cuts, so the two sites together promote over 60 candidates.
Finally, a Google search for “pro football hall of fame petition” turns up a raft of petitions for individual players. A few not included in the sites above are L. C. Greenwood, John Brodie, Andre Tippett, Rickey Jackson, and Glenn Presnell.
So, in total, what is that, 65 or 70 candidates? Plenty of good reading, for sure. But wait a minute, then there’s Jerry Kramer, Alex Karras, Ken Stabler, Ken Anderson…
Tags:
Alex Karras,
Andre Tippett,
Chris Hanburger,
Glenn Presnell,
Hall of Fame,
Jerry Kramer,
John Brodie,
Ken Anderson,
Ken Stabler,
L. C. Greenwood,
Rickey Jackson
June 18th, 2009 |
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Football Card Trivia, Player Bios, Sites I Like
Earlier this week, via the Remember the Rams blog, I came across the Eddie Meador Hall of Fame Nomination site. The site is well-done and thorough–did you know that he worked in an Arkansas pickle plant during college?–and it’s clear that his friends and family are very devoted to him.
Meador played mostly before my time, and until I read his Awards and Statistics page, I didn’t know how good he had been. Meador’s rookie card, a 1963 Topps, is relatively easy to find, and it is inexpensive for a rookie card of a hall-of-fame candidate. Meador also had three cards issued before his rookie card: 1959 Bell Brand, 1960 Bell Brand, and 1962 Post Cereal, all of which are challenging to find. I can’t think of another other player with three “pre-rookie” cards, so if he does make the hall-of-fame, I’ll have to add a new section to my pre-rookie card page.
Altogether, Meador appeared on at least eleven cards, a large number for a defensive player in the 1960’s. The card pictured here is his 1960 Bell Brand Potato Chips card.
May 17th, 2009 |
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Sites I Like
Even a non-Redskins fan could spent a couple of hours poking around the Redskins Football Card Museum. My favorite “room” in the museum is the author’s collection of oddball cards, posters, and lids. Many of the items there were new to me, such as the 1972 Gatorade lids pictured here.
The author also keeps a blog, where he chronicles his progress on his collection and the web site. I particularly enjoyed his entry on the technology he used for the site. I intend to come back to it for ideas for my sites!
February 12th, 2009 |
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Sites I Like
Remember those old electric football games, where you lined up all your players, turned on the machine, and watched them all vibrate to the side of the field? Well, people collect those, too. C_A_Panther Electric Football has a history of electric football, descriptions of the different types of players (Bigmen, Hoglegs, Chicken Legs–oh my!), and lots of colorful pictures. One of my favorite pages is the Game of the Week, a feature that apparently lasted just one week. The author evidently had better luck getting his players to move downfield than I did.
The picture is the Bears vs. the Packers–but are they Bigmen or Hoglegs? Sayers scores!
December 31st, 2008 |
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Funny Poses, Sites I Like, Uniforms
The Helmet Project has hundreds of beautiful illustrations of professional and college football helmets past and present. It includes helmets of teams from defunct professional leagues such as the XFL, USFL, WFL, and WALF. It also includes college helmets down through NCAA Division 3 and NAIA.
Shown here are most of the helmets the Denver Broncos have used since their first season in 1960. Personally, I like the old cartoonish figures more than the current angry horse head, but I suppose cartoon figures aren’t intimidating enough these days.
Not many football cards show the players wearing their helmets, since the facemasks cover the players’ faces. Frank Emanuel’s 1968 Topps card, shown here, is one exception, and as you can see, it turned out badly. Wise photographers who wanted helmets in the pictures asked the players to hold them.
Because Topps did not have the rights to reproduce team logos on its cards, in the 70’s the company airbrushed the logos off the helmets. This made for some ugly cards, this 1972 Topps Ken Willard in Action card being one example. Topps also realized that they could use airbrushing when a player was traded, to change his uniform from one color to another without having to take another picture. This made for some very ugly cards, but that’s a topic for another day.
To see all those missing helmet logos, do check out The Helmet Project!
December 23rd, 2008 |
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Sites I Like
The Fleer Sticker Project features pictures and descriptions of the baseball and football stickers Fleer has printed since 1960. Some of the stickers varied only slightly from year to year, and the site describes how to distinguish between the different years. Also included are lots of pictures of old sports programs, magazines, catalogs, cards, bottle caps, pop cans, and so on. You pretty much just have to go browse around.
November 29th, 2008 |
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Sites I Like
