Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

Greg Cook, a quarterback with the Cincinnati Bengals from 1969 to 1974, has passed away. Cook was an American Football League Co-Rookie of the Year in 1969, but he suffered an injury during the 1969 season from which he never fully recovered. He led the AFL in passer rating, completion percentage, yards per attempt, and yards per completion in 1969. After the 1969 season, he appeared in just one regular season game, in 1973.

Pictured here are Cook’s rookie card, a 1970 Topps, and his 1969 Tresler Comet Bengals pre-rookie card. Cook also appeared on several other cards in 1970, all of which showed the same image as his regular-issue Topps card. You can see all of Greg Cook’s football cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

Clarence Self, a back from 1949 to 1955 for the Chicago Cardinals, Detroit Lions, and Green Bay Packers, passed away on January 21. Self played college football at Wisconsin, and he still holds the school record for kickoff return yards in a game, with 178.

Self appeared on one football card, the 1948 Leaf card pictured here, while still at Wisconsin. It is one of the scarce high-numbered cards in the set. 1948 Leaf cards were printed on two sheets, one holding cards 1-49 and the other holding cards 50-98, and Leaf apparently printed the second sheet in much smaller quantities. The Self card is number 78.

Joe Paterno did not play professional football, but he was a quarterback and defensive back in college, at Brown University. He appeared on one football card, the tiny 1950 Topps Felt Back pictured here. The image on the card resembles the one in a photo on the Sports Illustrated web site; my guess is that they were from the same photo session.

According to the Sports Illustrated page, Paterno’s record as a quarterback was 15-3 over two seasons, 1948 and 1949. He also intercepted 14 passes in his college career, still a school record. (He shares the record with Greg Parker.)

One of Paterno’s teammates at Brown was his brother George, who played fullback. George Paterno led the team in rushing in 1949, with 480 yards. From 1976 to 1999, George was a broadcaster for Penn State football. He passed away in 2002.

You can see all of the 1950 Topps Felt Back cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

I’ll bet I’ve looked at Del Shofner’s 1960 Topps football card a hundred times, and yesterday I finally noticed that his image on the card is reversed. Here it is alongside his 1961 Topps card. The images on the two cards appear to be from the same photo session, and if you compare the numbers and lines on Shofner’s jersey, you can see that the image on the 1960 card is backward. Shofner wore number 29 for his four seasons with the Rams.

At least three more 1960 Topps football cards also have reversed images: Bill Wade, Doug Atkins, and Frank Varrichione. I have seen a few more examples in other sets, but the 1960 Topps set has the most, by far. I thought that maybe there was a pattern to the errors on the uncut sheet, but the cards were not together on the sheet. I guess someone working at Topps in 1960 simply wasn’t paying attention.

Mike Current, a tackle for 13 seasons with the Denver Broncos, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Miami Dolphins, has passed away. According to his page at bucpower.com, Current started 105 consecutive games for the Broncos and played in a total of 169 AFL and NFL games. Current was elected to the AFL West All-Star team after the 1969 season.

The cards pictured here are Current’s rookie card, a 1970 Topps, and his last card, a 1976 Topps. You can see all of Current’s cards and stamps in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

In a previous article I featured the football cards of several players who played in exactly one NFL, AFL, or AAFC game. Today I added Larry Joe’s 1948 Leaf football card to that article. Joe, I learned, played in one game in 1949 for the AAFC’s Buffalo Bills. Check out the whole list.

This weekend I added 1971 Kellogg’s football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. This missing set was the biggest gap in the Gallery, I’d say, since Kellogg’s cards are popular and not too difficult to find. Thanks to Mike Ford for providing many of the images.

I found a few small surprises as I entered the information for the set. First, there is little overlap with the 1970 Kellogg’s set: only five players appear in both the 1970 and 1971 sets. Second, though most of the players in the 1971 Kellogg’s set were among the stars of their teams, two of the players never appeared on a card in a major issue. Finally, the cards apparently were issued–or at least designed–well before the 1971 season, because a number of players either played for a different team in 1971 or didn’t play at all. You can read the details on the Gallery page for the set.

Happy New Year, everyone! Time to start those diets, budgets, and exercise programs! But it’s okay to wait until tomorrow–it’s a holiday, right?

I was thinking about what I want to accomplish in 2012 in the Vintage Football Card Gallery, and I decided that my goals follow two themes. The first theme is to finish some of the things I have already started. For example, last year I started identifying players who are in the College Football Hall of Fame, but I haven’t finished because there are way more of them than I thought. On the other hand, in the process of identifying the College Hall of Famers, I have learned some interesting things about them. Did you know, for instance, that Cosmo Iacavazzi, who played in only two games professionally, led the nation in scoring at Princeton in 1963? I love uncovering nuggets like that.

Which brings me to my second theme: doing more with the cards I already have. The Gallery now contains pictures of most of the vintage football cards out there, so now I can work more on depth than breadth. One thing I have started doing in this area is adding trivia for each card. Going back to Mr. Iacavazzi: did you ever notice that his 1965 Topps card pictures him in his college uniform, recolored Jets green? Until yesterday, I didn’t, either, but as I learn such things, I will make note of them. (For more examples, see the 1953 Rams Team Issue cards I recently added to the Gallery.)

Of course, as well as looking ahead to the new year, we should look back and remind ourselves of what we accomplished in 2011. This morning I took a quick look through my “New in the Gallery” blog articles, and it was gratifying to see all of the new cards and virtual uncut sheets I was able to add over the year. Most gratifying, I think, is that I had so much fun doing it.

Enjoy your collections, keep in touch, and have a terrific 2012!

Houston Antwine, a defensive lineman from 1961 to 1972 for the Boston/New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles, passed away last night, according to the Boston Globe web site. His wife passed away today. Antwine was an American Football League All-Star six straight seasons, from 1963 to 1968.

Antwine appeared on numerous football cards and stamps during his career. The cards pictured here are his rookie card, a 1964 Topps, and his last card, a 1970 Topps. You can see all of Antwine’s cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

It’s not unusual to encounter football cards of players who have the same name. Among others, I have cards of two J.D. Smiths, two Gene Washingtons, two Bob Boyds, and three Bob Browns. I also have cards of two Bobby Dodds, but it was only yesterday that I learned that they were father and son. Bobby Dodd Sr. appeared on a 1955 Topps All-American card, and Bobby Dodd Jr. appeared in the 1961 Nu-Card set. I believe these were their only cards.

Dodd Sr. was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame as both a player at Tennesse and a coach at Georgia Tech. Dodd Jr. was a quarterback and defensive back at Florida. From what I can tell, they met on the field three times, when Georgia Tech played Florida in 1960, 1961, and 1962. Florida won the 1960 game on a last-minute two-point conversion, and Georgia Tech shut out the Gators in 1961 and 1962.