September 17th, 2009 |
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Player Deaths
Steve Romanik, who quarterbacked for the Chicago Bears and Chicago Cardinals from 1950 to 1954, died on September 16. He was the Bears’ leading passer in 1952, sharing duties with George Blanda and Bob Williams.
Pictured here is Romanik’s 1952 Bowman Large card, one of the divisible-by-9 short prints. (See B is for Bowman.) He also appeared on a 1952 Bowman Small card, identical except for its size.
September 5th, 2009 |
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Player Deaths
Billy Parks, who played five years for the Chargers, Cowboys, and Oilers, died on July 22. Shown here is Parks’s rookie card, a 1973 Topps. Though the card says Parks was still with the Cowboys in 1973, he actually played for the Oilers that year.
According to his page on the Long Beach State Hall of Fame site, as a rookie with the Chargers, Parks led the league in catches for the first ten games of the year, before breaking his arm.
August 30th, 2009 |
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Player Deaths
Sam Etcheverry, a Hall of Fame quarterback for the Canadian Football League’s Montreal Alouettes, died on Saturday. Etcheverry also played for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1961 and 1962. Pictured here are Etcheverry’s 1961 Topps and 1962 Topps cards. He also appeared for the Cardinals on a 1962 Post Cereal card, and he had several CFL cards in the 1950’s. I don’t have pictures of his CFL cards, unfortunately.
Having seen only his NFL cards, I didn’t know about Etcheverry’s accomplishments in the CFL. As a player he appeared in three Grey Cups (CFL championship games), and he was the league’s most outstanding player in 1954. He passed for 586 yards in one game in 1954, and in 1956 he had a 109-yard pass–no, not a typo, because the CFL’s field is 110 yards long. Etcheverry’s CFL Hall of Fame page has a nice summary of his accomplishments and a great photo of him throwing a jump pass. (I love this shot: see my jumping quarterbacks post.)
I don’t yet have CFL cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery, but one day I hope to add them. It will be interesting to see how players like Etcheverry moved between the CFL and the U.S. leagues in their careers. With the addition of the Cowboys and Vikings to the NFL in 1960 and 1961, and with the creation of the AFL in 1960, the talent pool in the NFL was somewhat diluted, and I imagine that other longtime CFL players also got their shot at the NFL in the early 1960’s.
July 27th, 2009 |
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Player Deaths
Bob Boyd, a receiver for the Los Angeles Rams from 1950 to 1957, passed away earlier this month. With Norm Van Brocklin quarterbacking, Boyd led the NFL in receiving yards in 1954 with 1212.
Pictured here is Boyd’s rookie card, a brilliant 1951 Bowman. He also appeared on 1955 Bowman, 1957 Topps, and 1958 Topps cards.
July 16th, 2009 |
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Player Deaths
Pat Brady‘s granddaughter sent me a note a couple of days ago and told me that her grandfather had passed away. Brady was a quarterback and star punter for the Pittsburgh Steelers. According to RGJ.com, in the three years he played in the NFL, he led the league in punting average twice. In college at Nevada, he once kicked a 99-yard punt, the longest possible.
Pictured here is Brady’s rookie card, a 1953 Bowman.
July 12th, 2009 |
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Player Deaths
Lou Creekmur, a hall-of-fame offensive lineman, died last week. He played on the outstanding Detroit Lions teams of the 1950’s.
Pictured here is Creekmur’s rookie card, a 1951 Bowman. The back of the card says he was obtained by the Lions from the “frozen player pool,” which I had to look up. The frozen player pool, it turns out, was where the players from the AAFC were placed when that league folded, and the NFL had a special draft from the pool in 1950. Creekmur did not actually play in the AAFC, but both the Philadelphia Eagles from the NFL and Los Angeles Dons from the AAFC had drafted him in 1948, and evidently the Eagles did not still have the rights to him in 1950. (Instead of playing pro football in 1948, Creekmur stayed in school and got his masters.)
The Lions also obtained Bob “Hunchy” Hoernschemeyer from the frozen player pool. That doesn’t have a lot to do with Lou Creekmur, but Hunchy Hoernschemeyer is a great name, so I wanted to mention him.
May 4th, 2009 |
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Adventures in Card Dealing, My Collection, Player Deaths
I could tell that Jack Kemp had died even before I heard the news. A bunch of his cards suddenly appeared on eBay, and I got a couple of orders for his cards, as well. If I look at the log for my gallery, I’m sure I’ll also see a lot of recent searches there for Jack Kemp cards. I check the logs every week or so, and I can often tell that a player has died by the number of searches for him.
Pictured here is Kemp’s rookie card, the cornerstone of my 1960 Fleer set. I don’t recognize his jersey, though. Many of the players in this set are pictured in their college uniforms, but Kemp doesn’t appear to be in current Occidental colors. Before the Chargers, he also spent time with the Lions, Steelers, Giants, 49ers, and Calgary Stampeders, but I don’t recognize the jersey as being from any of those teams, either. Can anyone help?
