Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

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.