1979 Coke Saints Archie Manning
February 7th, 2010 | Published in Fathers and Sons
Since I deal only with vintage football cards, I don’t have cards of any of the players in today’s Super Bowl. I couldn’t even tell you what football cards were produced for the 2009 season. I didn’t want to be left out of the fun, though, so I dug up a card of Peyton Manning’s dad, Archie. Archie, of course, also has ties to the Saints: he was their quarterback from 1971 to 1982.
Archie’s rookie card is in the 1972 Topps set, and you can see more of his early cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery. The card pictured here is a bit less common: it’s a 1979 Coke Saints card, one of a 45-card set. I don’t know what the roster size was in 1979, but 45 cards would have included nearly every player on the team. I can’t think of another set with so many players from a single team.
The Saints were so-so in 1979, and Archie is the biggest name in the Coke set. I haven’t added the set to my gallery yet–I’m still working on 1975–but there is a full list of the cards on the PSA site. Most individual 1979 Coke cards sell for a dollar or two on eBay.
