Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

Yesterday I added 1958 Topps CFL football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. These were the first CFL football cards that Topps produced, and they look very much like 1958 Topps NFL cards. There are 88 cards in the set. At least 18 players in the set also played in the AAFC, NFL, or AFL.

The set includes the first card of Cookie Gilchrist, pictured here. Gilchrist played six seasons in the CFL, then six more in the AFL. He led the AFL in rushing twice, in 1962 and 1964.

The 1958 set is the sixth CFL set I have added to the Gallery in the past few weeks. You can see the others on the Canadian football card page.

Yesterday I added 1959 Topps CFL cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. As you can see, they look very much like 1959 Topps NFL cards. Fans of the American Football League will find a number of familiar players in the set. Two of them are pictured here: Ernie Warlick, who played from 1962 to 1965 for the Buffalo Bills, and Sam DeLuca, who played from 1960 to 1966 for the Chargers and Jets. I identified several others in the set description.

Last week, in the process of adding 1960 Topps CFL football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery, I discovered that Bob Simpson, one of the players in the set, had played on Canada’s Olympic basketball team in 1952. Simpson went on to play thirteen seasons for the CFL’s Ottawa Rough Riders, and he was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1975. He is pictured here on his 1960 Topps CFL card, shooting a layup.

After my discovery, I added Simpson to my page of Olympic athletes who appeared on vintage football cards. In case you haven’t seen it, take a look. Check out my other “fun pages,” too!

You might recall that a couple of weeks ago I bought a lot of crudely hand-cut Baltimore Colts cards on eBay. Included in the lot was the 1961 Topps Raymond Berry card pictured below. The card to the left of the hacked-up Berry card appears to be Frank Ryan, so I was able to add a piece to my slowly growing 1961 Topps virtual uncut sheet. You can see my progress here.

For a full list of the virtual uncut sheets I have worked on, see the bottom of one of my previous blog articles, “U is for Uncut Sheets.”

This week I added 1960 Topps CFL cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. One of them, Tom “Corky” Tharp, is pictured here. Tharp, who skipped to the AFL’s New York Titans in 1960, also appeared on a 1960 Fleer AFL card. He is the only player I can think of who appeared on cards for two different leagues in the same season. (Thanks to Pastor Scott for that bit of trivia.)

This is the fourth CFL set I have added to the gallery in the past month. You can see the other CFL sets, recent and not, on my Canadian football card page.

Angelo Coia, a receiver from 1960 to 1966 for the Chicago Bears, Washington Redskins, and Atlanta Falcons, passed away on January 2. Coia was a member of the Bears team that won the NFL Championship in 1963. He also was a member of the first Falcons team, in 1966. According to Coia’s obituary at philly.com, he and Herb Adderley were teammates on the football and track teams at Northeast High School in Philadelphia. He played college football at The Citadel and USC.

Coia is pictured here on his rookie card, a 1962 Topps. He also appeared on a 1962 Post Cereal card and a 1965 Philadelphia football card.

Larry Bowie, a guard for the Minnesota Vikings from 1962 to 1968, passed away on December 31. His obituary appeared in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Star Tribune. Bowie played college football at Purdue.

Bowie appeared on two regular issue football cards, the 1964 Philadelphia and 1969 Topps cards pictured here. He also appeared on a 1969 Topps mini-card.

Happy New Year, everyone! So, what are your hobby goals and resolutions for 2013?

My main goal for the year is to dedicate more time to my Vintage Football Card Gallery. I enjoy selling cards, of course, but I enjoy working on the gallery more, so naturally that’s where I would like to spend my time. In 2013 I plan to add more obscure sets, add more trivia about the cards and players, and create more special pages like my vintage football card wrappers page and Heisman Trophy candidates page.

You can help, and it’s absolutely free!

1. Tell your friends about the Gallery–not just your card collecting friends, but anyone who loves football. What football fan wouldn’t enjoy browsing through old cards of his or her favorite pro or college team?
2. If you’re a Facebook or Google+ user, be sure to “like” or “+1” your favorite pages and blog articles. There are Facebook and Google+ buttons on the bottom of each page. (Idea: go back and do it right after you finish this article!)
3. If you have a web site or blog of your own, add links from your site to your favorite pages in the Gallery.
4. If you use an image or two from the Gallery on a message board, etc., please add a link back to the page where you found the image. (Please extend this courtesy to other publishers, as well. Give credit where it’s due, right?)
5. Last but not least, be sure to support the Gallery’s sponsors. I get a little ad revenue from the Gallery, and the better I do on ads, the more time I can spend working on the site.

From me, Happy Feller, and the football card All-Party Team, have a happy and safe New Year!

As I wrote last week, I recently won a group of crudely hand-cut 1961 Fleer Baltimore Colts cards on eBay. I thought that by piecing them together, I might be able to figure out the configuration of uncut sheets of first series 1961 Fleer cards. Well, I got the cards, and most of them indeed fit together. Though I haven’t quite figured out what a full sheet looked like, the cards gave me a pretty good clue. You can see the details toward the bottom of my 1961 Fleer virtual uncut sheet page.

Chuck Cherundolo, who played center from 1937 to 1948 for the Cleveland Rams, Philadelphia Eagles, and Pittsburgh Steelers, passed away on December 22. Cherundolo was a Pro Bowler for the Steelers in 1941 and 1942. After retiring, Cherundolo coached for 22 years in the NFL, according to the Scranton Times Tribune. At 96, he had been the fourth oldest living pro football player, behind Clarence “Ace” Parker, Johnny Kovatch, and Bill Glassford. (See oldestlivingprofootball.com for a list of the oldest 500 living pro football players.)

Cherundolo appeared on one football card, the 1948 Bowman card pictured here. Cherundolo’s last season, 1948, happened to be the first year since 1935 that a major card company issued football cards. Leaf also released a set of football cards in 1948.