March 29th, 2012 |
Published in
Player Deaths
Sisto Averno, a guard from 1950 to 1954 for the “old” Baltimore Colts, the New York Yanks, the Dallas Texans, and the “new” Baltimore Colts, passed away on March 26. The Baltimore Sun web site has a report and a recent photo. Averno moved so much because there was a lot of churn in the NFL in the early 1950s, and the franchises he played for kept folding.
Averno appeared on one football card, the 1953 Bowman card pictured here.
March 24th, 2012 |
Published in
Player Deaths
Lonnie Wright, who played defensive back for the Denver Broncos in 1966 and 1967, passed away yesterday. Wright also played four seasons for the Denver Rockets and one for the Floridians of the American Basketball Association. The Denver Post web site has a summary of his athletic career.
Wright appeared on one football card, a 1968 Topps card that shows him with the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals acquired him from Denver in the 1968 AFL Expansion Draft, but he retired from football before playing for the team. He also appeared on one basketball card, the 1971 Topps card pictured here. Like his football card, Wright’s basketball card pictures him in a Denver uniform, but with a different team.
March 20th, 2012 |
Published in
Football Card Trivia
With Peyton Manning going to Denver, Frank Tripucka has been in the news this week. Tripucka’s number, 18, is one of three numbers the Broncos have retired (the others are John Elway’s #7 and Floyd Little’s #44), and there is discussion about whether the team should un-retire #18 so Manning can have it. Tripucka, for one, is okay with reissuing the number.
Perhaps Tripucka isn’t too attached to #18 because it’s just one of several numbers he wore in his career. His page at pro-football-reference.com shows that he wore #8 with the Chicago Cardinals, #11 with the Dallas Texans, and #18 with the Broncos. His 1960 Fleer football card shows him in #36, which I’m guessing was his number with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Saskatchewan’s colors are green and white, and Tripucka played there from 1953 to 1959.
Other cards of Tripucka show him in numbers that I don’t believe he wore in games. His 1950 Bowman card shows him in #28, but I suspect that whoever colored the original black-and-white image either added or changed the jersey number. Also, Tripucka’s 1961 Topps, 1961 Fleer, and 1961 Fleer Wallet Picture cards all show him wearing #10. I’ll go out on a limb and guess that the pictures on those cards were taken in 1960 training camp, before the players’ official numbers were issued. My reasoning behind the guess? Well, the background on Tripucka’s 1961 Fleer Wallet Picture is the same as the one on Goose Gonsoulin’s. But the player shown on Gonsoulin’s Wallet Picture is actually Darryl Rogers, who was only with the Broncos before the 1960 season. See my Mistaken Identities page for details.
The cards pictured here are the only cards on which Tripucka is wearing #18: his 1962 Fleer card, and his 1963 Fleer card. You can see all of Frank Tripucka’s cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.
March 14th, 2012 |
Published in
CFL Cards, New in the Gallery
This week I added 1963 Topps CFL cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. This was my first CFL set, so most of the players were new to me. I did find a few familiar faces: Joe Kapp, Dave Mann, Pat Holmes, and Bobby Walden all appear on NFL cards, as well. Walden, I learned, was a running back and kick returner in the CFL, as well as a punter. After he moved to the NFL, he stuck to punting, though it appears from his NFL stats that he faked a few punts and ran instead.
Topps apparently really liked the image on Joe Kapp’s card, because they used the same image on his 1960, 1961, 1968, and 1969 cards, and on his 1969 mini-card. I don’t know why he is in a green jersey, though, because I don’t believe any of his teams wore green. I suspect that the image was originally a black-and-white photo from his days at the University of California, and that someone at Topps colored it. The jersey on his card resembles the one he is wearing in the photo on his College Football Hall of Fame page.
March 9th, 2012 |
Published in
New in the Gallery
This week I added the twelve football cards from the 1952 Wheaties multi-sport set to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. For details on the cards, see my 1952 Wheaties page. For a survey of other football cards that were distributed with food products, see one of my previous blog articles, W is for Wonder Bread–and Other Food Issues.
March 7th, 2012 |
Published in
Player Deaths | 1 Comment
Roland Lakes, a defensive lineman from 1961 to 1971 for the San Francisco 49ers and New York Giants, passed away on March 5. There is a story about Lakes on the San Francisco Chronicle web site. According to that article, until 2010, Lakes was the youngest lineman ever to start a game for the 49ers.
Lakes appeared on two regular issue football cards, both shown here. The first is his rookie card, a 1965 Philadelphia; the second is a 1970 Topps. He also appeared, as a Giant, on a 1972 Sunoco Stamp, but he did not play in 1972.
March 5th, 2012 |
Published in
Player Deaths | 1 Comment
John Panelli, a fullback and linebacker from 1949 to 1953 for the Detroit Lions and Chicago Cardinals, passed away on March 2. In college, Panelli was a member of Notre Dame’s national championship teams of 1946 and 1947, and of its undefeated team of 1948. JohnPanelli.com, an impressive web site dedicated to Panelli, contains a detailed account of his football career, including many photos.
Panelli appeared on one football card, the 1950 Bowman card pictured here.
March 3rd, 2012 |
Published in
CFL Cards, Halls of Fame, Player Deaths
Alex Webster, a running back for the New York Giants from 1955 to 1964 and the team’s head coach from 1969 to 1973, passed away today. The nj.com web site has a report and a recent photo. Webster was a member of the Giants’ NFL Championship team in 1956, he made the Pro Bowl in 1958 and 1961, and he was elected to the Giants Ring of Honor in 2011.
The cards pictured here are Webster’s rookie card, a 1956 Topps, and his last card, a 1964 Kahn’s Wieners card. You can see all of Webster’s NFL cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.
Before playing for New York, Webster spent two seasons with the Canadian Football League’s Montreal Alouettes. He appeared on at least one CFL card, a scarce 1954 Blue Ribbon Tea card. You can see it at cflapedia.com.
March 2nd, 2012 |
Published in
error cards
I discovered two more reversed images today, these on the 1961 Fleer Wallet Pictures of Dan McGrew and Chris Burford. It is easy to see the errors when you put the pictures alongside the players’ regular issue 1961 Fleer football cards. Fleer used the same images for all of the players who appear in both the Wallet Pictures set and the regular Fleer set, but they happened to get these two backward. They made lots more errors on the Wallet Photos, too, mostly misspelling the players’ names on the backs.
These are the ten and eleventh reversed images I have identified in the Vintage Football Card Gallery. All of them are pictured on the Gallery’s Reversed Images page.
February 29th, 2012 |
Published in
error cards, Football Card Trivia
As I have had time, I have been adding trivia for cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery. As I wrote in a previous article, PSA’s set registry allows collectors to add comments for cards that they register, and I like the information that some collectors have entered. I decided to try my hand at it, and it’s been fun: I’ve found lots of interesting tidbits about the cards and players. For examples, see my page of Doak Walker cards. Did you know that Walker was married to an Olympic skier?
Anyway, yesterday I was searching for trivia for 1950 Bowman football cards, and I got to card number 3, Bob Nowasky. Oddly, my search for “Bob Nowasky” turned up football cards, but nothing else. Knowing that cards sometimes have the players’ names misspelled, I tried “Nowaski” instead. Nothing–or at least nothing related to football. Then I tried “Nowaskey,” and bingo, I got lots of hits. So I had my trivia: Nowaskey’s 1950 Bowman card is an error card; it has his name misspelled. I am probably not the first person to notice–I’ll bet Nowaskey’s mom did!–but I haven’t seen the error documented anywhere else.
Pictured here is the front of the card, which shows Nowaskey in Baltimore Colts green. (Green, you ask? That’s another story.) His name is misspelled on the back.
Like knowing about errors like this? Well, in case you weren’t aware, you can search the Vintage Football Card Gallery for all of the error cards, or you can combine that search with others, say to find all of the error cards in the 1960 Topps set. Just go to the Advanced Search page and search away.
