Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

In a recent Interesting eBay Auctions article, I pointed out a 1957 Baltimore Colts team photo, and I said that the image was reused a year later on the 1958 Topps Colts team card. This week, using the photo as a reference, I made an interactive version of that team card. On the interactive card, you can move your cursor over the players to see their names, and you can click on a player to see all of his cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery. Give it a try!

As I was mapping the names on the photo to the image on the card, I found that a lot of the players didn’t appear on the team’s 1957 roster. I concluded that the photo must have been taken well before the 1957 regular season started. The Colts picked up several of the players in the photo in the 1957 draft, but apparently some of them did not make the team. One of the 1957 draftees who appears in the photo but not on the roster is Joe Unitas, Johnny Unitas’s cousin.

I was unable to find the first names of three of the players in the photo: Welch, Stephenson, and Pollard. The Colts didn’t draft them in 1957, and I couldn’t find matches in the online NFL player databases. My guess is that the players were walk-ons whom the Colts gave tryouts. If you happen to know any of their first names, let me know, and I’ll add them to the interactive card.

In honor of Al Davis, who passed away today, I added an interactive 1964 Topps Oakland Raiders team card to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. The card pictures the 1963 Raiders team, which Davis coached to a 10-4 record. That was the Raiders’ first winning season, and Davis was named the AFL Coach of the Year.

As always, I learned a few things while assembling the interactive card. One thing I learned is that one of the players pictured, Tom Morrow, holds the NFL record for most consecutive games with an interception. As far as I know, Morrow never appeared on a card by himself.

(Click on the card image shown here to go to the interactive version.)

Buzz Guy, a lineman from 1958 to 1961 for the New York Giants, Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos, and Houston Oilers, passed away on November 25. While with the Giants, Guy played in the 1958 NFL Championship game, “The Greatest Game Ever Played.” The Giants lost that game to the Baltimore Colts, 23-17, in overtime.

To my knowledge, Guy had only one football card, the 1961 Topps card pictured here. He also appeared on five New York Giants team cards and three Dallas Cowboys team cards. This happened because Topps used a photo of the 1958 Giants team on all of the Giants team cards from 1959 to 1963, and they used a photo of the 1960 Cowboys team on all of the Cowboys team cards from 1961 to 1963. (See my interactive 1959 Topps Giants team card and 1963 Topps Cowboys team card. Guy is number 60 on both of them.)

Guy also appeared on a Cowboys team issue photo in 1960, the team’s first year in the NFL. You can see that photo at thecowboysguide.com.

It’s been awhile, but I finally added another “interactive” team card to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. This one is a 1967 Philadelphia Cleveland Browns team card. Just click the image shown here to see it.

Whenever I create one of these, I find a surprise. This time it was #87, Tom Hutchinson, in the front row. I didn’t think I had a card of Hutchinson by himself, but I do: a 1961 Nu-Card, which pictures him still in college, at Kentucky. Hutchinson played for the Browns from 1963 to 1965, then for the Falcons in 1966. He apparently left the Browns shortly after this photo was taken.

Today I added another “interactive” team card to the Vintage Football Card Gallery: a 1959 Topps New York Giants team card. By placing the cursor over a player, you can see who the player is, and by clicking on him, you can see all of his cards. (It doesn’t work on the card pictured here–you have to go to the gallery page.)

Each time I do one of these, I find a surprise or two. This time it was Don Maynard, who was a rookie with the Giants in 1958, when the photo on this card was taken. Maynard caught only five passes in 1958, and in 1959 he did not play. In 1960 he joined the New York Titans (later the Jets) of the AFL, and he gained over 11,000 yards receiving in thirteen years with the team. He is one of six Hall of Famers on this Giants card.

Yesterday I added an “interactive” 1963 Topps Dallas Cowboys team card to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. By placing the cursor over a player, you can see who the player is, and by clicking on him, you can see all of his cards. (It doesn’t work on the card pictured here–you have to go to the gallery page.) As the gallery page says, this 1963 card actually pictures the 1960 Cowboys team, and only eight of the players were still with the team when the card was issued.

The Cowboys were an expansion team in 1960, and they obtained most of their players from the other teams via an expansion draft. Each of the other teams made nine players available, and the Cowboys chose three of them. Like the other teams, the Cowboys also obtained players via trades, free agency, and other teams’ waiver lists. Unfortunately, the league approved the franchise too late for the Cowboys to participate in the college draft, and the team also had to compete with the upstart AFL for free agents. The result: a 0-11-1 season.

To see how the Cowboys assembled their original team, check out The Original 1960 Dallas Cowboys Roster at thecowboysguide.com. The page includes pictures of the team-issued photos for most of the players, and it also shows many of the players’ first cards. Very interesting!

Yesterday I added an “interactive” 1961 Topps Packers Team Card to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. By placing the cursor over a player, you can see who the player is, and by clicking on him, you can see all of his cards. (It doesn’t work on the card pictured here–you have to go to the gallery page.)

In the process of looking up the players, I learned a few things:

• Ray Nitschke wore number 33 in his rookie season.
• Hall of Famer Len Ford spent the last year of his career with the Packers.
• Billy Kinard was a Packer before joining the AFL’s Buffalo Bills in 1960.
• Steve Meilinger appeared on a 1958 Topps card with the Redskins, but he actually played for the Packers that year.
• Joe Johnson, who appears on this team card, also appeared on a (very bright) 1951 Topps Magic card. I don’t believe he appeared by himself on any other cards.

For more gallery features, see A Tour of the Vintage Football Card Gallery.