Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

Terry Owens, a tackle for the San Diego Chargers from 1966 to 1975, passed away on October 27. His obituary on the Shelton Funeral Home web site includes a recent photo and a summary of his career. Owens suffered from dementia, which his wife, Alison, described on Dave Pear’s blog.

At Jacksonville State University, Owens starred at both football and basketball. He was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 1975.

The two cards pictured here are Owens’s rookie card, a 1973 Topps, and his 1975 Wonder Bread card. He also appeared on a 1972 Sunoco stamp, a 1974 Topps card, and a 1975 Topps card.

Last week I added 1973 Alabama playing cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. Eleven of the players in the deck went on to play in the NFL or CFL. Woodrow Lowe, pictured here, had the longest pro career, eleven seasons with the San Diego Chargers. Lowe was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2009. See the Gallery for more details on the set.

Sam Gruneisen, an offensive lineman from 1962 to 1973 for the San Diego Chargers and Houston Oilers, passed away on September 28. There is a picture of Gruneisen and a summary of his career on the Chargers web site. Gruneisen played in two AFL championship games with the Chargers, in 1964 and 1965, both losses to the Bills. At Villanova, Gruneisen was a tight end, linebacker, and kicker. He was elected to the Villanova Wall of Fame in 2000.

Pictured here is Gruneisen’s rookie card, a 1964 Topps. His name, unfortunately, is misspelled “Gruniesen” on the card. He also appeared on a 1966 Topps card–with his name spelled correctly–and on a 1969 Glendale stamp.

Once upon a time, long, long ago, I bought a set of 1972 Sunoco Stamps, and I started adding them to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. I said at the time that it would take me months to take pictures of all the stamps, and it did: 30 months, to be precise. I finally scanned and uploaded the last of them yesterday–all but one, that is. I discovered yesterday that I have two Verlon Biggs stamps, but no Ron McDole stamp. Anyone have a picture of a McDole they can send me?

As I was scanning the stamps yesterday, I noted one thing I like about them: the images on them aren’t airbrushed. In 1972, Topps was still airbrushing logos off helmets and airbrushing new uniforms onto players–badly–but the Sunoco stamps show the players in the uniforms of their current teams, logos intact. I especially like seeing old helmets, and for most teams there’s at least one stamp with a good picture of the team’s helmet. Below are a few examples.

Now, on to the 82-stamp update set!

Sam DeLuca, an offensive lineman from 1960 to 1966 for the Los Angeles/San Diego Chargers and New York Jets, passed away on September 13. NYDailyNews.com has a report. DeLuca also spent two seasons, 1957 and 1958, with the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts. After his playing career, DeLuca was a radio broadcaster for New York Jets games; you can see his profile at musicradio77.com.

The card pictured here is DeLuca’s first AFL card, a 1960 Fleer. The image shows DeLuca in his University of South Carolina uniform; there is a similar image on the USC Athletic Hall of Fame web site. DeLuca also appeared on a 1959 Topps CFL card (though he did not play that year) and on several cards while in the AFL.

You can see all of DeLuca’s AFL football cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery. I don’t yet have CFL cards in the Gallery, but there are usually copies of his 1959 Topps CFL card on eBay.

John Mackey, the Hall of Fame tight end, passed away on July 6th. Mackey played for the Baltimore Colts from 1963 to 1971 and for the San Diego Chargers in 1972. He was a five-time Pro Bowler for the Colts–three times on the first team–and he played in two Super Bowls: the Colts’ loss to the Jets in Super Bowl III and their win agains the Cowboys in Super Bowl V. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1992.

The cards pictured here are Mackey’s rookie card, a 1964 Philadelphia, and his last card, a 1973 Topps. The 1973 card was actually issued after Mackey’s last season. You can see all of John Mackey’s football cards and stamps in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

Yesterday I identified the members of the San Diego Chargers Hall of Fame in the Vintage Football Card Gallery. To search for them, go to the Advanced Search page and pick Chargers Hall of Fame in one of the Honor menus.
As usual, I learned something by looking at a team’s hall of fame. I was surprised to see Bob Laraba among the inductees, because, to my knowledge, he had appeared on only one football card, the 1961 Golden Tulip Chargers card pictured here. I did a web search and learned that Laraba had died in a car accident after his second season with the Chargers. In fact, according to a page on the team’s web site, all four members of the inaugural Chargers Hall of Fame class–Laraba, Frank Buncom, Emil Karas, and Jacque MacKinnon–were “inducted posthumously as honorary members.” Buncom, Karas, and MacKinnon all spent several years with the Chargers, so I suspect that their play was also a factor in the decision to induct them.

Emil Karas also appeared in the 1961 Golden Tulip Chargers set; his card is pictured on the left. You can read about the Golden Tulip cards in one of my earlier posts, K is for KDKA–and Other Regional Sets.

I learned from Todd Tobias’s new blog, Tales from the American Football League, that Rick Redman’s rookie card, the 1965 Topps card shown here, does not picture Rick Redman. So, if it’s not Rick Redman, who is it? Well, Todd has a nice story to tell about it, so I’ll direct you to his article.

A surprising number of vintage football cards picture the wrong player. I keep a list of them, and Mr. Redman’s card is just the latest addition. You can see all of them on my Mistaken Identities page.

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.

Steve DeLong, who played defensive end and defensive tackle from 1965 to 1972 for the San Diego Chargers and Chicago Bears, passed away on Wednesday. DeLong made the Pro Bowl once, in 1969, with the Chargers. Prior to his pro career, DeLong was a standout at Tennessee, and he was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1993. His obituary at knoxnews.com includes some nice photos from his college days.

DeLong appeared on a lot of football cards for a lineman. Pictured here is his rookie card, a 1965 Topps “tallboy.” Topps apparently liked this image, because they used it on his cards for the next four years, also. On one of them, his 1966 card, Topps airbrushed DeLong’s left shoulder off, making for a strange picture.

You can see all of Steve DeLong’s football cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.