Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

Last week I finished adding 1968 O-Pee-Chee CFL football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. As I have said before, one thing I enjoy about browsing CFL sets is finding players who also played in the NFL or AFL. The 1968 O-Pee-Chee set contains several players who had brief NFL or AFL careers, but who never appeared on an American football card.

The 1968 O-Pee-Chee set also includes one player, Pete Liske, who appeared on AFL, NFL, and CFL cards. He is now the fifth player to appear on my Cards in Three Leagues page. Liske was named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player in 1967.

A huge thanks to CFL collector Larry Oleskiw, who provided the images for the 1968 O-Pee-Chee set. Larry also sent me images for several other Canadian sets, and I will add those to the Gallery as I have time.

Yesterday I added virtual uncut sheets of 1971 Topps football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. The sheets are not quite complete, but if you happen to have any badly miscut 1971 Topps cards in your collection, perhaps you can help fill in the holes. Click on the image below to see the sheets so far.

The Gallery now includes virtual uncut sheets, partial and whole, for 29 football card sets. For the full list, see one of my previous blog articles, U is for Uncut Sheets.

My friend John recently dug up an ad from an old auction catalog that shows two sections of a sheet of 1965 Topps football cards. This week I incorporated those sections into the 1965 Topps virtual uncut sheet page I had already started. You can check out the page to see my progress. If you happen to see more partial sheets or badly miscut cards that will help the effort, please send me an email.

Last week I added interactive 1956 Topps Los Angeles Rams and Chicago Bears team cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. You can see them by clicking on the non-interactive images shown here.

Like the other team cards in the 1956 Topps set, these two cards picture the 1955 teams. I believe that all of the players on the Rams card also appear in the 1955 Rams Team Issue set. About six of the players on the Bears card never appeared on cards of their own, so it was nice to give them a little recognition. One of the Bears players, Harry Hugasian, played part of the 1955 season for Baltimore, and he also appears on the Colts team card.

I have now finished making all of the 1956 Topps team cards intereractive; you can see the whole array here. Next up are the team cards in the 1958 Topps set.

Last week I added an interactive 1956 Topps Detroit Lions team card to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. To see it, click on the non-interactive image shown here.

Though it was printed in 1956, the card pictures the 1955 Lions team. About eight of the players in the photo never appeared on cards of their own. One of the things I enjoy about making these team cards is giving the cardless players a little recognition.

This is my tenth interactive 1956 Topps team card; I have two more to go. Next up: the Los Angeles Rams.

Yesterday I added a virtual uncut panel of 1965 Topps football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. An 1965 Topps uncut panel recently appeared in an online auction, and I used that panel as a model. I have also assembled a few more bits and pieces of the full sheet by looking at badly miscut cards.

The Gallery now includes virtual uncut sheets, partial and whole, for 28 football card sets. For the full list, see one of my previous blog articles, U is for Uncut Sheets.

(Click on the image to see the full virtual sheet.)

The backs of some 1964 Topps CFL cards have puzzle pieces printed on them, and I spent the morning putting the puzzle together for you. I can’t say it’s a pretty picture. I believe it was the first puzzle to appear on the backs of football cards, however, so the Canadians do get some innovation points. I also did some consolidation and put the puzzles from the 1968 Topps and 1969 Topps NFL/AFL sets on the same page. Check out the full set of 1960s puzzles.

Earlier this year I added 1953 University of Oregon cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. At the time I had only 8 of the 20 cards in the set, and I didn’t expect to find the rest anytime soon. I got lucky, though, and picked up most of the rest this fall. My set is now missing just one card.

Two of my recent purchases are shown here. Quarterback George Shaw later played for the Baltimore Colts, New York Giants, Minnesota Vikings, and Denver Broncos, and he appeared on numerous cards as a pro. Tackle Hal Reeve played one season, 1955, for the Calgary Stampeders. You can see the rest of the 1953 Oregon set (minus one, that is) on my Gallery site.

I am also looking for 1956 and 1958 University of Oregon cards. If you happen to have some for sale, please send me an email.

Today I added an interactive 1956 Topps Pittsburgh Steelers team card to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. To see it, click on the non-interactive image shown here. Though it was printed in 1956, the card pictures the 1955 Steelers team. You can see a larger version of the 1955 Steelers team photo at steelersuk.com.

As usual, I found a couple of surprises while working on the interactive card. First, I was surprised to see Hall of Fame running back Marion Motley in the back row. I didn’t know it, but Motley, after sitting out the 1954 season, finished his career with Pittsburgh in 1955. Second, center Fred Broussard appears on this card, and he also appears on the 1956 Topps New York Giants team card! Broussard, it turns out, played for both Pittsburgh and New York in 1955, and he ended up in both team pictures.

About nine of the players on the Steelers card never appeared on cards of their own. It’s always fun to give those players a little recognition.

This is my ninth interactive 1956 Topps team card; I have three more to go. Next up: the Detroit Lions.

Earlier this week, eBay seller irishhosta put seven uncut panels of 1956 Topps football cards up for sale. You can see the individual listings here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Following the card arrangement shown on these panels and on a partial sheet I had seen earlier, I was able to complete my virtual uncut sheet of 1956 Topps cards. You can see the full virtual sheet in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

There are a handful of inconsistencies in how the cards are arranged on the panels, so I am not 100% certain of the configuration of the full sheet. I am reasonably sure that the ordering of the rows is correct, but there is a slight chance that some of the cards within the rows are out of place.

Another project of mine is making the team cards in this set “interactive.” You can see my progress in some earlier blog posts.