Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

This week I added 1924 Lafayette College cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. One of the cards in the set, Charlie Berry, is pictured here. Berry went on to play two seasons for the NFL‘s Pottsville Maroons, and he also played thirteen seasons of major league baseball. Several other players from the 1924 Lafayette team played in the NFL, as well.

For now I put the set in the Food and Regional Issues category of the Gallery, but I think I will create a separate category for college cards when I get a chance.

A big thanks to Carl Lamendola for providing the images for these cards. Carl recently co-authored an article about the Lafayette set; it appears in Issue 41 of Gridiron Greats magazine.

This morning, as I scanned some 1968 Topps cards to put up for sale, I amused myself by reading the little cartoons on the backs. Below are a few of them. For each cartoon, see if you can guess the player on the front of each card. Click on the cartoon to see the answer.




I wondered whether “Cornell’s brother, Pumpsie” appeared on any baseball cards, so I did a little search. Sure enough, he has. I learn something every day.

I just saw this card pop up on eBay; it’s a scarce 1949 Silber’s Bakery Baltimore Colts card of John Mellus. I don’t see Silber’s cards very often, so I thought I’d point this one out before it sells.

There is also a Y.A. Tittle pre-rookie card in the Silber’s set, as well as a card of Rex Grossman Sr. You can see the Tittle card and a description of the set in one of my previous articles.

Update: the seller has also listed a Silber’s card of Charlie O’Rourke. O’Rourke later appeared on a card in the 1955 Topps All-American set.

This week I added 1956 Parkhurst Canadian cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery–or most of them, anyway. There are fifty cards in the set, and they are printed on photo stock. The fronts of the cards originally came undeveloped, and the packs included squares of developing paper for revealing the images. You can see an example of the developing paper on eBay.

I didn’t know much about this set before I bought it, and it was a nice surprise to find that it includes the card shown here. The card pictures Cal Jones, the first African-American to win the Outland Trophy. Jones also placed tenth in Heisman Trophy voting in 1955, and this card filled a hole on my page of cards of Heisman candidates. Jones and four other Canadian football players died in a plane crash after the 1956 season. 1956 was Jones’s first year as a pro, and I didn’t know he had appeared on a card. Two of the other crash victims, Mel Becket and Gordon Sturtridge, appear in the set, as well.

This is the eleventh Canadian set I have added to the Gallery; you can see all of them on the Canadian football card page. I will be adding the 1972 O-Pee-Chee CFL set soon.

This week I picked up another piece for my virtual uncut 1965, 1966, and 1967 Philadelphia uncut sheets: the miscut 1966 Philadelphia Steelers team card pictured here. There’s barely enough to tell, but the right side of the shows a little of John David Crow’s card. Here are the two cards together:

I have determined that 1965, 1966, and 1967 Philadelphia uncut sheets all had the same numbering pattern, so the miscut Steelers team card tells me that cards #144 and #175 were together on all three sheets. Those of you who are following my geeky project can see my progress on my Uncut Sheets in Progress page.

I also spotted another card this week that would help me, but it’s part of a large eBay lot, and I’m not quite crazy enough to spend $95 to get it. If you look carefully, you can see a miscut 1967 Brig Owens card in this group of miscellaneous vintage cards. I think the card to its left is John Brodie, but I’m not quite certain. Maybe I can get it if the auction ends without bids.

Yesterday, by looking at some miscut cards, I was able to add a few pieces to my virtual uncut sheet of 1955 Topps All-American football cards. One of the miscuts is pictured here: a Bob Odell card with a bit of Elmer Oliphant’s card showing along the bottom. As I find more of these, I hope to be able to piece together the whole 220-card sheet.

Check out my progress, and if you have any miscut cards that might help the effort, please send them my way.

The newest interactive team card in the Vintage Football Card Gallery is the 1956 Topps Washington Redskins team card. Click on the image pictured here to see the interactive version.

The card pictures the 1955 Redskins team. About fifteen of the players on the card never appeared on cards of their own. While searching for some of the players, I found another, much cooler photo of the 1955 Redskins, with the United States Capitol in the background. Unfortunately, the wide format of the photo wasn’t suited for a football card.

This is my eighth interactive 1956 Topps team card; I have four more to go. Next up: the Pittsburgh Steelers.

If you follow this blog, you know that recently I have been creating interactive versions of the team cards in the 1956 Topps football card set. You also know that, while working on these team cards, I have encountered some notable players who did not appear on cards of their own. For example, Deral Teteak, a member of the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame, appeared on the 1956 Topps Packers team card, but he never appeared on a card by himself. And Chuck Noll, the Hall of Fame coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, appears on the 1956 Topps Cleveland Browns team card, but the card companies never gave him his own card as a player.

Well, Steve Liskey, owner of thecowboysguide.com, has been giving these neglected players their due. Steve calls his creations “RetroCards,” and he sells them on his web site and on eBay. Here are his Deral Teteak and Chuck Noll cards, part of the “StarCards” series. Click on any image to see a larger version.

This week I added 1979 Cowboys Police cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. The Roger Staubach card is pictured here.

This is the third police set I have added in the past few weeks. You can see the others on the Police Sets page. Next up is the fourth and final 1979 police set, the Los Angeles Rams.

Hall of Fame defensive back Emmitt Thomas is celebrating his 70th birthday today. Thomas played from 1966 to 1978, all for the Kansas City Chiefs. He played in both of the team’s two Super Bowls: a loss to the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl I, and a win against the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV. He had 58 career interceptions, still a Chiefs record, and he is 11th on the list of all-time interception leaders in the NFL.

After retiring as a player, Thomas began a long coaching career. He is currently the defensive backs coach for the Chiefs, a position he has held since 2010. The 2013 season will be his 33rd as an NFL assistant coach.

Thomas is pictured here on his rookie football card, a 1972 Topps. He appeared on many more cards, as well.

Happy birthday, Mr. Thomas!