Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

Yesterday I finished adding 1961 Topps CFL cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. Two of them are pictured here: Jim G. Taylor, whose picture Topps had mistakenly on Jim C. Taylor’s 1959 Topps and 1960 Topps cards; and Cookie Gilchrist, who later starred for the Buffalo Bills, Denver Broncos, and Miami Dolphins. Gilchrist is one of several players in the 1961 Topps CFL set who went on to play in the AFL or NFL.

You can see all of the CFL sets I have so far on my page of Canadian football cards.

Augustus Holly and Gordon Jolley just about span the range of years represented in the Vintage Football Card Gallery. Next year I hope to add cards into the early 80s–but then maybe it will no longer be just a vintage gallery?

Whatever you celebrate this time of year, I hope it’s been happy for you. Thank you for your business, for visiting my gallery, and for reading my silly blog. Throughout the year, and especially on holidays, I try to remember how fortunate I am to be able to spend money on bits of cardboard. I hope you do, too. Stay in touch in 2013!

Error card collectors, here’s another error that isn’t marked in any of my price guides: Dave Hoppmann’s last name is missing an “n” on his 1961 Nu-Card card. I noticed the misspelling last week, when adding Hoppmann’s 1964 Topps CFL card to the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

For more undocumented error cards, see my previous articles on the subject. You can also search the Gallery for all of the error cards I know about. If you know of others, drop me a line.

This week I added 1964 Topps CFL cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. There are 88 cards in the set: nine or ten cards for each of the CFL teams, plus two nearly identical checklists. The card pictured here is Sherman Lewis, who placed third in Heisman voting in 1963 (see my page of Heisman candidates), played in the CFL in 1964 and 1965, played for the New York Jets in 1966 and 1967, and went on to a long coaching career in college and the NFL. Sherman was an assistant coach with four Super Bowl championship teams: three with San Francisco and one with Green Bay.

I filed the 1964 set under–what else?–Canadian football cards. Watch for four more CFL sets in the next few weeks.

Larry Morris, a linebacker from 1955 to 1966 for the Los Angeles Rams, Chicago Bears, and Atlanta Falcons, passed away on December 19. Morris was a member of the Bears team that won the NFL championship in 1963. At Georgia Tech, Morris starred in both football and baseball, and he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1992. There is an obituary for Morris, including a recent photo, on the legacy.com web site.

The cards pictured here are Morris’s 1958 Topps and 1959 Topps cards. Though the 1959 card shows him with the Redskins, he played with the Bears that season. He also appeared in several food and regional issues with the Rams and Bears. You can see all of Morris’s cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

In last week’s “Interesting eBay Auctions” article, one of the auctions I featured was a group of sheet-cut and otherwise trimmed 1960s Baltimore Colts cards. Well, I ended up winning the auction myself. Really, for resale, you’re wondering? No, I wanted them because they might help me figure out what a first series 1961 Fleer uncut sheet looked like. I have seen pictures of second series 1961 Fleer sheets (see my 1961 Fleer virtual uncut sheet page), but I haven’t yet seen a first series sheet. I’m hoping that the edges of the hand-cut cards from the eBay lot will fit together such that I can deduce the numbering pattern of the first series sheet.

As a bonus, the lot includes a 1961 Topps Raymond Berry card that is showing part of the card next to it. That should provide another piece to the first series 1961 Topps virtual uncut sheet that I am assembling. Stay tuned; I’ll post what I learn here.

As always, if you encounter uncut panels or miscut cards that you think could help me piece together an old sheet, please send me an email. See the bottom of a previous blog article, “U is for Uncut Sheets,” for a full list of the sheets I have worked on, both complete and incomplete.

Jim Whalen, a tight end from 1965 to 1971 for the Boston Patriots, Denver Broncos, and Philadelphia Eagles, passed away on December 18. There is an article about Whalen on the Patriots web site. According to the article, Whalen led the Patriots in receptions and receiving yards during his five seasons with the team.

Whalen is shown here on his 1968 Topps and 1969 Topps football cards. His first three cards, from 1965 to 1967, picture him in his Boston College uniform, with his face obscured. You can see all of Whalen’s cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

Today I added 1965 Topps CFL cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. The set includes a few players who also saw playing time in the NFL or AFL, but who didn’t appear on any NFL or AFL cards. Two of those players are pictured here: Jim Battle played for the Minnesota Vikings and Charles Brown played for the Oakland Raiders, but neither of the players appeared on an American football card. To see more such players, scroll through the set in the Gallery.

This is the fourth set of CFL cards I have added to the Gallery; you can see the others on my Canadian football card page. I will be adding another five CFL sets in the next few weeks.

Chuck Gavin passed away on December 1; he played defensive end for the British Columbia Lions in 1959, and for the Denver Broncos from 1960 to 1963. Gavin attended Tennessee State University, where he was a two-time All-American. There is a story about him on the school’s web site.

Gavin appeared on two football cards with the Broncos: the 1963 Fleer and 1964 Topps cards shown here. The 1964 Topps card is one of the short prints in the set. Though he appeared on a 1964 card, Gavin did not play in 1964. According to his obituary at tributes.com, a knee injury ended his football career.

John Small, a defensive tackle and linebacker from 1970 to 1974 for the Atlanta Falcons and Detroit Lions, passed away on December 10. The Charleston Post and Courier has a story about Small, along with a recent photo.

Small did not appear on a regular issue football card, but he did appear on a 1972 Sunoco stamp and a 1972 NFLPA stamp. The Sunoco stamp is pictured here.