Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

Two players in the Vintage Football Card Gallery are celebrating milestone birthdays today: Frank Gallagher and Jim Allison are both 70.

Frank Gallagher was a guard from 1967 to 1973 for the Detroit Lions, Atlanta Falcons, and Minnesota Vikings. Gallagher started for the Vikings in Super Bowl VIII, though he joined the team just a few games before the end of the 1973 season. (The Vikings lost to the Dolphins, 24-7.) In 1974 he played for the Philadelphia Bell of the World Football League. As far as I know, Gallagher did not appear on a football card, but he did appear on a 1972 Sunoco stamp, pictured here.

Jim Allison was a running back from 1965 to 1968 for the San Diego Chargers. In 1964, at San Diego State University, Allison set the school’s single-game rushing record with a 271-yard game against San Francisco State. That record held until Marshall Faulk broke it in 1991. Allison appeared on the 1967 Topps card pictured here, and he also appeared on a 1969 Topps 4-in-1 insert card.

Happy birthday, Messrs. Gallagher and Allison!

Last week, at the National Sports Collectors Conference, I picked up two badly miscut 1967 Topps football cards that will help me determine what an uncut sheet looked like. Here they are: a Johnny Robinson card with a bit of Wahoo McDaniel on the left, and a Jim Hunt card with a bit of Johnny Robinson on the left. You can see the pieces of the sheet I have so far on my virtual 1967 Topps uncut sheet page.

For a full list of the virtual uncut sheets I have assembled, see my previous blog article, U is for Uncut Sheets. If you happen to have pictures of full sheets, partial sheets, or miscut cards that would help the effort, I’d love to see them!

While putting some 1967 Topps cards up for sale today, I noticed that on George Sauer’s card, the name on the back of his jersey was covered. That’s interesting, I thought, the jersey must have had someone else’s name on it. So I did some digging to figure out whose.

First I looked at Sauer’s other cards, and I found that his 1966 Topps card showed the same covering over the name. Sauer was a rookie in 1965, so I guessed that the pictures on his 1966 and 1967 cards came from a photo session early in 1965, before he had a jersey with his name on it. I then looked at pro-football-reference.com to see who wore number 83 the prior season, 1964. I found that it was Bill Rademacher. Rademacher switched to number 23 in 1965, so I’ll bet the jersey Sauer is wearing says “Rademacher” under the tape.

Sauer did pretty well wearing number 83. He played six seasons for the Jets, and he had over 1000 yards receiving in three of those seasons, 1966 through 1968. He lead the AFL with 75 receptions in 1967, and he had eight catches for 133 yards in Super Bowl III, the Jets’ famous upset of the Baltimore Colts.

As I have mentioned in other articles, I have been gradually adding fun facts for the cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery. In May I identified the players whose brothers also played pro football (see my blog article Teammate Brothers), and this month I marked the players whose fathers or sons also played professionally. I used the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s list as a reference.

Many of the players on the Hall of Fame’s list never appeared on cards, and some of them appeared on newer cards that I don’t yet have in the Gallery. I did find five pairs of fathers and sons who both appear in the Gallery, though. In honor of Father’s Day, here they are:

Tony Adamle played six seasons for the Cleveland Browns in the AAFC and NFL; his son Mike played six seasons for the Chiefs, Jets, and Bears. Tony is pictured here on his 1951 Bowman card, and Mike on his 1975 Topps card.

Ted Fritsch Sr., a member of the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame, played from 1942 to 1950 for the Packers. Ted Fritsch Jr. played from 1972 to 1979 for the Falcons and Redskins. Ted Sr. appears here on his 1950 Bowman card; Ted Jr. is shown on his 1974 Topps card.

Dub Jones played for the Miami Seahawks, Brooklyn Dodgers, and Cleveland Browns in the AAFC, and he remained with the Browns when they joined the NFL in 1950. He is shown here on his 1953 Bowman card. Bert Jones, Dub’s son, was a quarterback for ten seasons with the Baltimore Colts and Los Angeles Rams. His 1976 Topps card is shown here.

George Sauer Sr. played from 1933 to 1935 for the Green Bay Packers; he is shown here on his 1955 Topps All-American card. George Jr. played from 1966 to 1970 for the New York Jets; he is shown on a 1969 Glendale stamp.

Finally, George Wilson Sr. played for the Chicago Bears for ten seasons, and he was head coach of the Detroit Lions and Miami Dolphins for thirteen. Wilson never appeared on a card of his own, but there is a small image of him on the 1964 Philadelphia Lions’ Play card shown here. Wilson’s son, George Jr., played for his father for one season at Miami. His 1967 Topps card is shown here.

Last night I added a virtual partial uncut sheet of 1967 Topps cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. I modeled it after a proof sheet I found in an internet search. For now the partial sheet is on my Sheets In Progress page. At some point I will move it to a page of its own.

One bit of trivia: the cards in the bottom row of the partial sheet also appeared in Milton Bradley’s Win-A-Card game in 1969.

Click the image to see the rest of the partial sheet. (When the “In Progress” page comes up, scroll to the bottom.)

George Wilson Jr., quarterback for the Miami Dolphins in their first season, 1966, passed away on August 6. The Miami Herald web site has a report of his death. Wilson led the Dolphins to their first regular season win, which came against Denver in the sixth week of the season.

The card pictured here is Wilson’s 1967 Topps card, issued the season after he played for the Dolphins. He also appeared on a 1967 Royal Castle Dolphins card. The Royal Castle card is one of the rare short prints in the set, and I have never seen one.

Wilson’s father, George Wilson Sr., was the Dolphins’ coach in their first season. Before joining the Dolphins, Wilson Sr. coached the Detroit Lions for eight seasons. He made a cameo appearance on a Detroit Lions Play of the Year card in the 1964 Philadelphia set.

A few weeks ago, in a previous blog article, I asked readers to send me any images they had of miscut vintage football cards. In response, Steve Liskey of TheCowboysGuide.com sent me this image of a 1967 Topps Steve Tensi card. You can see that it has a sliver of a Buffalo Bills card showing; the card happens to be Jack Kemp. Steve’s contribution prompted me to create a page of virtual sheets in progress. It’s short for now, but hopefully you can help me make it grow.

Thanks, Steve!

Here is one last group of players in my favorite pose, about to put on their helmets. (For more of these, see My Favorite Pose and More of My Favorite Pose.)

This time we have a 1969 Topps Joe Scarpati and a 1967 Topps Johnny Robinson:

A 1968 Topps Andy Russell rookie and a 1966 Philadelphia Roger LeClerc:

A 1965 Philadelphia Dick Schafrath and a 1967 Philadelphia Willie Davis:

Unfortunately, the photographers from many teams–notably the AFL teams–never used this pose, so in this series I could feature cards from only about half the teams. That’s a pity: I love Pat Patriot and Denver’s drunk Bronco, and it would have been nice to include them.

Last week I talked with a customer who collects football cards of University of Memphis (formerly Memphis State University) alumni, and he told me about the web sites of two alumni, Andy Nelson and John Bramlett. It was interesting to see where the players were now, so I thought I’d pass the web sites along. If I find enough sites of former players, I’ll create a page to summarize them.

Andy Nelson, after graduating from Memphis, played eight seasons with the Baltimore Colts. His 1962 Topps card is pictured here, and he also appeared on a 1959 Topps card. After retiring from football, Nelson founded Andy Nelson’s Barbeque, in Cockeysville, Maryland. The business still appears to be going strong. (I thought about joining Andy’s Swine Social Club, but I live kind of far away.) There’s a recent picture of Nelson in a Baltimore Examiner article about the restaurant.

Another Memphis grad, John “Bull” Bramlett, played seven seasons for the Broncos, Dolphins, Patriots, and Falcons. The card pictured here is Bramlett’s rookie card, a 1967 Topps; he also appeared on a 1969 Topps 4-in-1 insert and a 1971 Topps card. After football, Bramlett started John Bramlett Ministries, in Cordova, Tennessee. The web site includes a few recent photos of Bramlett.

• Search Nearmint’s Cards for: John Bramlett, Andy Nelson, Memphis Alumni.
• Search eBay for Andy Nelson, John Bramlett.

Did you know that the card companies sometimes hired photographers from the DMV to take pictures for sports cards? As you can see from these examples, it’s true. Those DMV folks are experts at catching people with their eyes closed. At least driver’s licenses expire after a few years. People keep sports cards forever!

So, who are our sleepy players, and what cards do they appear on? From the top, we have:

• 1950 Bowman Bob Kelly, of the original Baltimore Colts (also see Baltimore Colts in Green?)
• 1951 Bowman Al Derogatis
• 1967 Topps Babe Parilli
• 1969 Topps Don Maynard (Maynard is also sleepy on his 1967 Topps and 1968 Topps cards)
• 1970 Topps Mike Tilleman
• 1971 Topps Gerry Philbin

I am undoubtedly missing some. If you know ’em, post ’em!