Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

Former NFL quarterback John Roach is celebrating his 80th birthday today. Roach played seven seasons for the Chicago/St. Louis Cardinals, Green Bay Packers, and Dallas Cowboys. He was a member of NFL Championship teams with the Packers in 1961 and 1962.

Roach appeared on two football cards, both in 1961, but with different teams. His 1961 Topps card pictures him with the Cardinals, but he was traded before the 1961 season first to the Cleveland Browns, then to the Packers, and he ended up on a 1961 Lake to Lake Packers card, as well. Both of his cards are pictured below.

According to OldestLivingProFootball.com, Roach is the 496th oldest former professional American football player.

Happy birthday, Mr. Roach!

J.C. Caroline, who played defensive back for ten seasons with the Chicago Bears, is 80 years old today. Caroline made the Pro Bowl in his rookie season, 1956, and he collected 24 interceptions in his career with the Bears. He also played running back and returned kicks his first three seasons. He was a member of Chicago’s 1963 NFL Championship team.

In 1953, his sophomore year at Illinois, Caroline led the nation in rushing, and he finished seventh in voting for the Heisman Trophy. (See my page of football cards of Heisman candidates.) He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1980.

The card shown here is Caroline’s 1961 Topps football card. He also appeared on several other cards, which you can see on his page in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

According to the Oldest Living Pro Football Players web site, Caroline is the 491st oldest living pro football player.

Happy birthday, Mr. Caroline!

You might recall that a couple of weeks ago I bought a lot of crudely hand-cut Baltimore Colts cards on eBay. Included in the lot was the 1961 Topps Raymond Berry card pictured below. The card to the left of the hacked-up Berry card appears to be Frank Ryan, so I was able to add a piece to my slowly growing 1961 Topps virtual uncut sheet. You can see my progress here.

For a full list of the virtual uncut sheets I have worked on, see the bottom of one of my previous blog articles, “U is for Uncut Sheets.”

In last week’s “Interesting eBay Auctions” article, one of the auctions I featured was a group of sheet-cut and otherwise trimmed 1960s Baltimore Colts cards. Well, I ended up winning the auction myself. Really, for resale, you’re wondering? No, I wanted them because they might help me figure out what a first series 1961 Fleer uncut sheet looked like. I have seen pictures of second series 1961 Fleer sheets (see my 1961 Fleer virtual uncut sheet page), but I haven’t yet seen a first series sheet. I’m hoping that the edges of the hand-cut cards from the eBay lot will fit together such that I can deduce the numbering pattern of the first series sheet.

As a bonus, the lot includes a 1961 Topps Raymond Berry card that is showing part of the card next to it. That should provide another piece to the first series 1961 Topps virtual uncut sheet that I am assembling. Stay tuned; I’ll post what I learn here.

As always, if you encounter uncut panels or miscut cards that you think could help me piece together an old sheet, please send me an email. See the bottom of a previous blog article, “U is for Uncut Sheets,” for a full list of the sheets I have worked on, both complete and incomplete.

Yesterday I showed you some miscut 1967 Topps cards that I picked up at the National; today I have a handful of 1961 Topps cards. I hope to collect enough of these to determine what uncut sheets of 1961 Topps cards looked like. I have not seen an uncut sheet, partial sheet, panel, or strip of 1961 Topps cards, so I am starting from scratch with this set. To see what I have so far, check out my 1961 Topps virtual uncut sheet page. As always, if you have miscut cards that would help the project, I would love to see them.

Don Joyce, a defensive lineman from 1951 to 1962 for the Chicago Cardinals, Baltimore Colts, Minnesota Vikings, and Denver Broncos, passed away on February 26, according to the twincities.com web site. Joyce made the Pro Bowl in 1958, and he was a member of the Colts’ NFL Championship teams of 1958 and 1959.

Joyce finally appeared on football cards in his 11th NFL season, after the Vikings acquired him in the 1961 NFL Expansion Draft. The cards shown here are his 1961 Fleer and 1961 Topps cards. He also appeared with the Vikings on a 1962 Post Cereal football card, but he played for the AFL’s Denver Broncos in 1962.

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.

For Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d give you a bunch of Flowers. As always, you can click on any image to get more details.

First is Keith Flowers, on a 1952 Bowman Small card. Flowers had a short NFL career, playing nine games in 1952 for the Dallas Texans and Detroit Lions. Bowman issued two sets of football cards in 1952, identical except for their size, so Flowers appeared on a 1952 Bowman Large card, as well. Not bad for a few games.

Next is Stan Flowers, who appeared on a 1960 Fleer card with the Patriots but never saw playing time. (I’m inferring this because he does not have a page at pro-football-reference.com.) Fleer apparently chose the players for their 1960 set well before the season started, because I’d guess that a third of the players in the set never actually played in the AFL.

Charlie Flowers is also in the 1960 Fleer set, and he did see playing time: two seasons at fullback with the Chargers, and one with the New York Titans. He appeared on several cards with the Chargers, one being the tough 1961 Golden Tulip Chargers card shown here.

Unlike the guys above, Richmond Flowers actually played awhile before he appeared on a card. He was a defensive back and kick returner for the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants from 1969 to 1973, and he made his debut on a 1973 Topps card. In 1973, Topps increased the size of their football card set from 351 to 528, so they were able to include many players who had not appeared on cards earlier.

Finally, we have Tom Flores, a longtime quarterback and coach for the Oakland Raiders. (He also played a couple of years for the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs.) This is one of his rookie cards, a 1961 Topps; the other is a 1961 Fleer. Flores appeared on a bunch of other colorful 1960s cards, as well.

That’s it! If you haven’t gotten your sweetie something yet, maybe you can dig through your collection and find a couple of these guys. But first I’d see if Hallmark is still open.

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.

The New York Jets announced yesterday that their new stadium, New Meadowlands Stadium, will include a Jets Ring of Honor. The Jets chose five former players and a former coach as the first inductees. Here are the inductees, along with information on their cards:

• Weeb Ewbank – Ewbank coached the Jets from 1963 to 1973; before that he coached the Baltimore Colts from 1954 to 1962. I don’t believe Ewbank appeared by himself on a card in his coaching days, but he did appear on some of the Colts team cards (he’s named on the 1956 Topps card), and probably on the 1964 Topps Jets team card–if Topps didn’t use an old photo. It’s usually hard to pick out coaches on team cards, unfortunately, since the coaches don’t wear numbers. Ewbank did appear on some cards in tribute sets in the 1980s and later, though. You can find a lot of the tribute cards on eBay.
• Winston Hill – Hill’s rookie card is the 1965 Topps card pictured here, and he also appeared on a bunch of cards after that. You can see most of Hill’s cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.
• Joe Klecko – Klecko’s rookie card is a 1978 Topps, and he appeared on a lot of cards in the 80s. As I wrote in an earlier post, I once bought a bunch of his rookie cards from Teletrade, and I sold them recently for next to nothing. Will they jump in price now that he’s in the Ring of Honor? Probably not. You can find most of Klecko’s cards on eBay.
• Curtis Martin – Martin appeared on a billion cards between 1995 and 2006. I don’t handle modern cards, so I’m afraid I can’t say much about them. You can find a nice selection on eBay.



• Don Maynard – Maynard has two rookie cards, a 1961 Topps (pictured here) and a 1961 Fleer, and he appeared on cards every year through his last season, 1973. (His 1973 Topps card has him still with the Jets, but he played for the Cardinals that season.) You can see most of Maynard’s cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.
• Joe Namath – Namath’s rookie card, a 1965 Topps, is one of the most familiar cards in the hobby. (See J is for Joe Namath–and the 1965 Topps Tall Boys.) From 1965 to 1973, he appeared on numerous regular issue cards, oddballs, and inserts. Oddly, though he was still playing, he did not appear on any cards from 1974 to 1977. After he retired, he appeared on cards in a lot of tribute sets. You can see most of Namath’s cards from his playing days in the Vintage Football Card Gallery, and a lot of the rest on eBay.