Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

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!

Two players in the Vintage Football Card Gallery have just turned 70: Ron Smith’s 70th birthday was yesterday, and Jim Butler’s is today.

Ron Smith was a defensive back and kick returner in the NFL from 1965 to 1974. He started his career with the Chicago Bears, then went to the Atlanta Falcons, the Los Angeles Rams, the Bears again, the San Diego Chargers, and the Oakland Raiders. In 1966 and 1967, with Atlanta, he led the league in kick return yards. In 1972, with Chicago, he led the league in kick return average. He also made the Pro Bowl in 1972.

Smith is pictured here on his 1972 Topps football card. He appeared on at least seven other cards and stamps, as well.

Jim “Cannonball” Butler was a fullback and kick returner from 1965 to 1972 for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Atlanta Falcons, and St. Louis Cardinals. (Coincidentally, he succeeded Smith as Atlanta’s kick returner in 1968.) Butler’s best season was 1969, when he gained 1357 all-purpose yards: 655 rushing, 297 receiving, and 405 returning kicks. He also made the Pro Bowl in 1969.

Butler is pictured here on his 1969 Glendale stamp. He also appeared on numerous other stamps and cards.

Happy birthday, Messrs. Smith and Butler!

Two players in the Vintage Football Card Gallery are celebrating milestone birthdays today: Nemiah Wilson is 70, and Jeff West is 60.

Nemiah Wilson played defensive back from 1965 to 1975 for the Denver Broncos, Oakland Raiders, and Chicago Bears. He was a member of five Raiders teams that played in AFL or AFC Championship games. Wilson is pictured here on his 1972 Topps card, one of the tough third-series cards from that set. He appeared on numerous other cards and stamps, as well.

Jeff West was a punter from 1975 to 1985 for the St. Louis Cardinals, San Diego Chargers, and Seattle Seahawks. There is a short summary of his NFL career on the Seahawks web site. West’s 1978 Topps card is pictured here.

Happy birthday, Messrs. Wilson and West!

Earlier this week, the National Football Foundation announced the names of the 2013 Football Bowl Subdivision candidates for the College Football Hall of Fame. Eleven of the 82 players and coaches on the ballot appear on cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery. (One of them appears on someone else’s card, however.) Here are the eleven in the Gallery:

Bob Berry, Quarterback, Oregon. Berry had a long NFL career with the Vikings and Falcons. He is shown here on his 1972 Topps card.

John Didion, center, Oregon State. Didion played six seasons for the New Orleans Saints. This is his 1974 Topps card.

Charlie Gogolak, kicker, Princeton. Gogolak played six seasons for the Washington Redskins and Boston/New England Patriots. In 1966, he set a record for most extra points attempted in a game, with 10. (He made 9 of them.) He is shown here on his rookie card, a 1967 Philadelphia. Gogolak’s brother, Pete, also played in the NFL.

Rob Lytle, running back, Michigan. Lytle played seven seasons for the Denver Broncos. This is his rookie card, a 1978 Topps. Lytle finished third in voting for the Heisman Trophy in 1976, so he also appears on my page of cards of Heisman Trophy candidates.

Paul Naumoff, linebacker, Tennessee. Naumoff had a 12-year NFL career with the Detroit Lions. He is pictured here on his 1973 Topps card.

Tom Nowatzke, linebacker, Indiana. Nowatzke played eight seasons for the Detroit Lions and Baltimore Colts. This is his 1969 Topps football card.

Phil Olsen, defensive end, Utah State. Olsen played six seasons for the Los Angeles Rams and Denver Broncos. One of his teammates with the Rams was his brother, Merlin. (See my Teammate Brothers article.) Olsen is shown here on his 1973 Topps football card.

Jim Otis, fullback, Ohio State. Otis played nine seasons for the New Orleans Saints, Kansas City Chiefs, and St. Louis Cardinals. His 1976 Buckmans Disc is pictured here. Otis also appears on my page of cards of Heisman Trophy candidates.

Don Trull, quarterback, Baylor. Trull played six seasons for the AFL’s Houston Oilers and Boston Patriots, and two seasons for the CFL’s Edmonton Eskimos. He is shown here on his 1971 O-Pee-Chee CFL card. Trull also appears on my page of cards of Heisman Trophy candidates.

Clancy Williams, running back, Washington State. Though Williams was a running back in college, as a pro he played defensive back. He played his whole eight-year NFL career with the Los Angeles Rams. Williams’s son, Clarence, also played a season in the NFL. The elder Williams is shown here on his only card, a 1967 Philadelphia.

Darryl Rogers, coach, several schools. Rogers never played in a regular season game as a pro, but he did coach the Detroit Lions from 1985 to 1988. Apparently, he also tried out with the Denver Broncos in the early 1960s, because his picture ended up on Goose Gonsoulin’s 1961 Fleer card. For more cards that picture the wrong player, see the Mistaken Identities page of the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

You can see all 82 of the 2013 Football Bowl Subdivision candidates on the National Football Foundation web site.

Today is the 40th anniversary of the longest NFL game, a Christmas Day AFC semi-final playoff game between the Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs. The game went 7 minutes and 40 seconds into the second overtime before Garo Yepremian ended it with a field goal. The final score: Miami 27, Kansas City 24.

Kansas City’s Ed Podolak was the star of the game; he rushed, received, and returned the ball for a total of 350 yards. The Pro Football Hall of Fame’s summary of the game includes a great photo of Podolak in action. Dig the facemask!

Topps commemorated the game in 1972, sort of. The 1972 Topps football card set was the first to contain a card for each of the previous years’ playoff games, and the Miami-Kansas City marathon happened to be one of them. Unfortuately, Topps missed an opportunity and didn’t mention that the game was the league’s longest ever. I believe that’s Ed Podolak running the ball on the front of the card. Podolak wore number 14, and that facemask looks familiar.

Merry Christmas!

Forrest Blue, who played center from 1968 to 1978 for the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Colts, passed away on July 16. Blue was a four-time Pro Bowler for the 49ers, twice on the first team. There is a report of Blue’s death on the San Francisco Chronicle web site–and a photo of him scoring his only NFL touchdown.

The card pictured here is Blue’s rookie card, a 1972 Topps. Another card of note is his 1974 Parker Brothers card. As I showed in a previous blog article, it is one of the few Parker Brothers cards that has a different image than its counterpart in the 1974 Topps set.

You can see all of Forrest Blue’s cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

Today I identified the members of the New Orleans Saints Hall of Fame in the Vintage Football Card Gallery. Pictured here are cards of the first two members, Archie Manning and Dan Abramowicz, who both were inducted in 1988. Manning is on his 1972 Topps rookie card, and Abramowicz is on his 1969 Topps rookie card.

While researching Saints Hall of Fame players, I found something interesting: according to several web sites, including the Pro Football Hall of Fame site, the Saints have retired Jim Taylor’s number, 31. Taylor played only one season for the Saints, however, and he is not a member of their Hall of Fame. The team also retired Doug Atkins’s number, though Atkins was a Saint for only three seasons. It appears that someone in charge was in a hurry to retire numbers. (Taylor is shown here on a 1968 Topps card, though he retired before the 1968 season. Atkins is shown here on his 1969 Topps card.)

You can see the full list of Saints Hall of Famers on the team’s web site.

The 1972 Topps football card set is full of bad airbrushing. (See my earlier posts on John Brockington and MacArthur Lane and on College All-Star jerseys in the 1972 Topps set.) Here’s another example: Deacon Jones in red. The Rams traded Jones to the Chargers in 1972, and Topps apparently didn’t want to show him in his old Rams jersey. But the Rams wore blue, and the Chargers wore blue, so how did Jones end up in red? Did the artist see “Chargers” and think it said “Cardinals”? Did he just finish Randy Vataha and not want to put his pen down? Who knows, maybe he just thought Jones would look good in red. And he does, doesn’t he?

Speaking of the Chargers, the two 1972 Chargers cards below, Dennis Partee and Jerry LeVias, also caught my eye the other day. I thought that the players’ helmets, with just numbers on them, looked strange. So I visited the Helmet Project web site and found that the Chargers helmets of the time had both lightning bolts and the players’ numbers on them. Topps airbrushed the trademarked lightning bolts away, but left the numbers behind.

Last year I wrote about players who appeared on other players’ cards, and I noted that some players who made guest appearances never appeared on cards of their own. Today I dug up a few more cards with uncredited players.

First is Andy Robustelli’s 1961 Fleer card. Number 60 from the Giants also appears on the card, with his back to the camera. Who is it? Well, there was no number 60 on the Giants’ 1961 roster, but the photo was probably taken the year before, and number 60 on the Giants’ 1960 roster was Bill Crawford. Crawford played in four games in 1960, but that was the extent of his NFL career, so having his back appear on another player’s card was a reasonably good showing. According to cflapedia.com, Crawford also went on to play in the CFL for four seasons. I don’t believe he appeared on a CFL card, though.

Next is a 1973 Topps Jim Files card, which actually shows two other players more clearly than Files. One of the players is Dave Roller, who played for the Giants in 1971. (He might also have been on the roster other years, but according to his page on pro-football-reference.com, he did not play.) Roller went on to play six seasons for the Packers and Vikings, but, as far as I know, he never appeared on a card of his own.

The other player on the Jim Files card, number 76, appears to be Fred Miller, a defensive tackle for the Colts from 1963 to 1972. Though Miller had a long career and made the Pro Bowl three times, he did not appear on a regular issue card. Perhaps, if he had played another year, he would have made it onto a 1973 Topps card, since Topps increased the size of their football card set from 351 cards to 528 in 1973. Miller did appear on a couple of oddball items–a 1967 Williams Portrait and a 1967 Johnny Pro Die-Cut–that you can sometimes spot on eBay.

Finally, we have a 1972 Topps Ed Podolak Pro Action card. The defensive player on the card–who’d like to smack that ball away from Podolak–appears to be Al Clark of the Lions. Clark spent the 1971 season with Detroit, then played five seasons for the Rams and Eagles. I don’t know of any other cards of Clank.

I frequently get inquiries from the families and friends of players who had short pro careers, and I have to tell them, sadly, that I don’t know of any cards of their uncle or granddad or friend. If I had more of these uncredited players cataloged, I could probably sell more cards!

• Search eBay for: Andy Robustelli, Jim Files, Ed Podolak
• Search Nearmint’s Cards for: 1961 Fleer, 1972 Topps, 1973 Topps

In a previous post, I said that John Brockington’s 1972 Topps card pictured him in what looked like his College All-Star jersey with the stars airbrushed away. Browsing through the rest of my 1972 Topps football cards, I found four other players, all rookies, in the same jersey: Jim Plunkett, Lyle Alzado, Ron Hornsby, and Julius Adams. Here are pictures of them.

I checked Marc Bolding’s College All-Star Game site and found that the five players indeed appeared on the roster for the 1971 game. Adams and Brockington also appear in photos on the game summary page. I assume that the jerseys Adams and Brockington are wearing in the game photos are the very same ones they are wearing on their cards.

At least two more players on the 1971 All-Star roster have rookie cards in the 1972 Topps set: John Riggins and Dan Pastorini. These two appear in their new pro uniforms, Riggins with the Jets and Pastorini with the Oilers.