Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

Last week I added an interactive 1956 Topps Detroit Lions team card to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. To see it, click on the non-interactive image shown here.

Though it was printed in 1956, the card pictures the 1955 Lions team. About eight of the players in the photo never appeared on cards of their own. One of the things I enjoy about making these team cards is giving the cardless players a little recognition.

This is my tenth interactive 1956 Topps team card; I have two more to go. Next up: the Los Angeles Rams.

Yesterday I added a virtual uncut panel of 1965 Topps football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. An 1965 Topps uncut panel recently appeared in an online auction, and I used that panel as a model. I have also assembled a few more bits and pieces of the full sheet by looking at badly miscut cards.

The Gallery now includes virtual uncut sheets, partial and whole, for 28 football card sets. For the full list, see one of my previous blog articles, U is for Uncut Sheets.

(Click on the image to see the full virtual sheet.)

The backs of some 1964 Topps CFL cards have puzzle pieces printed on them, and I spent the morning putting the puzzle together for you. I can’t say it’s a pretty picture. I believe it was the first puzzle to appear on the backs of football cards, however, so the Canadians do get some innovation points. I also did some consolidation and put the puzzles from the 1968 Topps and 1969 Topps NFL/AFL sets on the same page. Check out the full set of 1960s puzzles.

Earlier this year I added 1953 University of Oregon cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. At the time I had only 8 of the 20 cards in the set, and I didn’t expect to find the rest anytime soon. I got lucky, though, and picked up most of the rest this fall. My set is now missing just one card.

Two of my recent purchases are shown here. Quarterback George Shaw later played for the Baltimore Colts, New York Giants, Minnesota Vikings, and Denver Broncos, and he appeared on numerous cards as a pro. Tackle Hal Reeve played one season, 1955, for the Calgary Stampeders. You can see the rest of the 1953 Oregon set (minus one, that is) on my Gallery site.

I am also looking for 1956 and 1958 University of Oregon cards. If you happen to have some for sale, please send me an email.

Today I added an interactive 1956 Topps Pittsburgh Steelers team card to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. To see it, click on the non-interactive image shown here. Though it was printed in 1956, the card pictures the 1955 Steelers team. You can see a larger version of the 1955 Steelers team photo at steelersuk.com.

As usual, I found a couple of surprises while working on the interactive card. First, I was surprised to see Hall of Fame running back Marion Motley in the back row. I didn’t know it, but Motley, after sitting out the 1954 season, finished his career with Pittsburgh in 1955. Second, center Fred Broussard appears on this card, and he also appears on the 1956 Topps New York Giants team card! Broussard, it turns out, played for both Pittsburgh and New York in 1955, and he ended up in both team pictures.

About nine of the players on the Steelers card never appeared on cards of their own. It’s always fun to give those players a little recognition.

This is my ninth interactive 1956 Topps team card; I have three more to go. Next up: the Detroit Lions.

Earlier this week, eBay seller irishhosta put seven uncut panels of 1956 Topps football cards up for sale. You can see the individual listings here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Following the card arrangement shown on these panels and on a partial sheet I had seen earlier, I was able to complete my virtual uncut sheet of 1956 Topps cards. You can see the full virtual sheet in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

There are a handful of inconsistencies in how the cards are arranged on the panels, so I am not 100% certain of the configuration of the full sheet. I am reasonably sure that the ordering of the rows is correct, but there is a slight chance that some of the cards within the rows are out of place.

Another project of mine is making the team cards in this set “interactive.” You can see my progress in some earlier blog posts.

Last night, while talking on the phone, I was looking at a 1960 Topps Forrest Gregg football card that happened to be on my desk. Hmm, I thought, I don’t think I ever noticed that “Forrest” is missing an “r” on this card. So I checked my Gallery to see if I had previously marked it as an error. Nope. Then I checked my Beckett catalog to see if it was marked in there. Nope again. Then I checked a few more online checklists that I know of. Nope, nope, nope. Surely someone has noticed the error before–it’s a rookie card of a Hall of Famer, after all–but for some reason it hasn’t made it into the hobby publications.

So, at long last, I documented the error in my Gallery. Below are some pictures; you can see the misspelling once on the front and three times on the back.

To see all of the error cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery, click here. For my previous blog articles about error cards–including others that don’t appear in the publications–click here.

Yesterday I added 1926 Shotwell Red Grange Blank Back cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. These cards, which were packaged with “Red Grange” candy bars, picture Grange in scenes from the silent movie “One Minute to Play.” I added the cards to the Food and Regional Issues section of the Gallery.

Jeff Payne kindly provided the images for this set. Thanks, Jeff!

Last week I added 1977 Holsum Bread cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. The set, which was produced for Holsum by Topps, contains only Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings. I filed the cards under Food and Regional Issues. Check ’em out!

Over the weekend I added 1972 O-Pee-Chee CFL football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. The 1972 O-Pee-Chee cards closely resemble 1972 Topps NFL cards, but they’re somehow even plainer. The images on the O-Pee-Chee cards tend to be dark, also, particularly on the fourteen “Pro Action” cards. According to my Beckett catalog, the Pro Action card pictured here shows Joe Theismann in action. Kind of hard to tell, isn’t it?

As you probably guessed, I put the 1972 O-Pee-Chee set in the Canadian football card category.

Coincidentally, there is currently an uncut sheet of 1972 O-Pee-Chee cards on eBay, as well as an empty wrapper.