Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

Yesterday I added 1958 Topps CFL football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. These were the first CFL football cards that Topps produced, and they look very much like 1958 Topps NFL cards. There are 88 cards in the set. At least 18 players in the set also played in the AAFC, NFL, or AFL.

The set includes the first card of Cookie Gilchrist, pictured here. Gilchrist played six seasons in the CFL, then six more in the AFL. He led the AFL in rushing twice, in 1962 and 1964.

The 1958 set is the sixth CFL set I have added to the Gallery in the past few weeks. You can see the others on the Canadian football card page.

Yesterday I added 1959 Topps CFL cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. As you can see, they look very much like 1959 Topps NFL cards. Fans of the American Football League will find a number of familiar players in the set. Two of them are pictured here: Ernie Warlick, who played from 1962 to 1965 for the Buffalo Bills, and Sam DeLuca, who played from 1960 to 1966 for the Chargers and Jets. I identified several others in the set description.

Last week, in the process of adding 1960 Topps CFL football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery, I discovered that Bob Simpson, one of the players in the set, had played on Canada’s Olympic basketball team in 1952. Simpson went on to play thirteen seasons for the CFL’s Ottawa Rough Riders, and he was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1975. He is pictured here on his 1960 Topps CFL card, shooting a layup.

After my discovery, I added Simpson to my page of Olympic athletes who appeared on vintage football cards. In case you haven’t seen it, take a look. Check out my other “fun pages,” too!

This week I added 1960 Topps CFL cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. One of them, Tom “Corky” Tharp, is pictured here. Tharp, who skipped to the AFL’s New York Titans in 1960, also appeared on a 1960 Fleer AFL card. He is the only player I can think of who appeared on cards for two different leagues in the same season. (Thanks to Pastor Scott for that bit of trivia.)

This is the fourth CFL set I have added to the gallery in the past month. You can see the other CFL sets, recent and not, on my Canadian football card page.

Yesterday I finished adding 1961 Topps CFL cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. Two of them are pictured here: Jim G. Taylor, whose picture Topps had mistakenly on Jim C. Taylor’s 1959 Topps and 1960 Topps cards; and Cookie Gilchrist, who later starred for the Buffalo Bills, Denver Broncos, and Miami Dolphins. Gilchrist is one of several players in the 1961 Topps CFL set who went on to play in the AFL or NFL.

You can see all of the CFL sets I have so far on my page of Canadian football cards.

This week I added 1964 Topps CFL cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. There are 88 cards in the set: nine or ten cards for each of the CFL teams, plus two nearly identical checklists. The card pictured here is Sherman Lewis, who placed third in Heisman voting in 1963 (see my page of Heisman candidates), played in the CFL in 1964 and 1965, played for the New York Jets in 1966 and 1967, and went on to a long coaching career in college and the NFL. Sherman was an assistant coach with four Super Bowl championship teams: three with San Francisco and one with Green Bay.

I filed the 1964 set under–what else?–Canadian football cards. Watch for four more CFL sets in the next few weeks.

Today I added 1965 Topps CFL cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. The set includes a few players who also saw playing time in the NFL or AFL, but who didn’t appear on any NFL or AFL cards. Two of those players are pictured here: Jim Battle played for the Minnesota Vikings and Charles Brown played for the Oakland Raiders, but neither of the players appeared on an American football card. To see more such players, scroll through the set in the Gallery.

This is the fourth set of CFL cards I have added to the Gallery; you can see the others on my Canadian football card page. I will be adding another five CFL sets in the next few weeks.

Last week, when I added 1971 O-Pee-Chee CFL cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery, I discovered that three of the players in the set had played in exactly one NFL game before going to the CFL. So I added the three players–Greg Barton, Don Jonas, and Benjy Dial–to my Cups of Coffee page. If you haven’t seen it, have a look!

This week I added 1971 O-Pee-Chee CFL football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. One thing I enjoyed about adding the cards was finding a few players who had also played in the NFL or AFL, but who did not appear on NFL or AFL cards. One of them, Dave Raimey, is pictured here. Raimey played for the Cleveland Browns in 1964, then he played ten seasons in the CFL and made the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.

In the notes for the 1971 O-Pee-Chee cards, I identified all of the players who also played in the NFL or AFL. I also marked the players who are members of the Canadian Hall of Fame. Check ’em out!

This week I added 1962 Topps CFL cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. There are 169 cards in the set, about 21 per team. Most Topps sets contain about 10-12 cards per team, so many of the players in the 1962 CFL set were making their first appearance on a card.

As usual with non-NFL sets, I enjoyed finding players who had played in the NFL but who had not appeared on cards for their NFL teams. Pictured here are three of the those players: Hal Ledyard played for the 49ers in 1953, Chuck Quilter played for the 49ers in 1949 and 1950, and George Scott played for the Giants in 1959. I identified a few other ex-NFL players, as well; just browse the set to see them.