Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

Former NFL and WFL player Rickie Harris is celebrating his 70th birthday today. Harris was a defensive back and return specialist from 1965 to 1972 for the Washington Redskins and New England Patriots. He had the NFL’s longest punt return in 1969, 86 yards for a touchdown. He finished his career in the World Football League, playing for the Florida Blazers in 1974 and the Memphis Southmen in 1975.

Harris is shown here on his 1969 Topps football card. He appeared on several other cards, as well.

Happy birthday, Mr. Harris!

Former AFL, NFL, and WFL defensive back Miller Farr is celebrating his 70th birthday today. Farr played from 1965 to 1973 for the Denver Broncos, San Diego Chargers, Houston Oilers, St. Louis Cardinals, and Detroit Lions, and he finished his career in 1974 with the WFL’s Florida Blazers. His best seasons were his three with the Oilers, 1967-1969. He led the AFL with 10 interceptions in 1967, he was voted First Team All-AFL in 1967 and 1968, and he was an AFL All-Star all three years.

Farr’s younger brother, Mel, also played in the NFL. The two brothers were teammates with the Lions in 1973. Their cards from that season are featured on the Teammate Brothers page of the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

Farr is pictured here on his 1969 Topps football card. He appeared on several other cards and stamps, as well.

Happy birthday, Mr. Farr!

Former NFL defensive end Roy Hilton is celebrating his 70th birthday today. Hilton played from 1965 to 1975 for the Baltimore Colts, New York Giants, and Atlanta Falcons. He was a member of the Colts teams that played in Super Bowls III and V. He got 1 1/2 sacks in Super Bowl V, which the Colts won 16-13 against the Dallas Cowboys.

Hilton is shown here on his rookie card, a 1969 Topps. He appeared on a few more cards, as well.

Happy birthday, Mr. Hilton!

Two players in the Vintage Football Card Gallery are celebrating milestone birthdays today: Tom Vaughn is 70, and Roland Harper is 60.

Tom Vaughn, a defensive back and kick returner, played from 1965 to 1971 for the Detroit Lions. Before joining the Lions, he starred at Iowa State. He was elected to the Iowa State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2005. Vaughn appeared on one football card, the 1969 Topps card pictured here.

Roland Harper played fullback from 1975 to 1982 for the Chicago Bears. His best season was 1978, when he rushed for 992 yards and had 340 receiving yards. If Harper had gained just 8 more yards rushing, he and his running mate, Walter Payton, would have been the third pair of teammates to rush for 1000 yards in the same season. Harper is pictured here on his rookie card, a 1976 Topps.

Happy birthday, Messrs. Vaughn and Harper!

Bill Asbury is celebrating his 70th birthday today; he was a running back from 1966 to 1968 for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Asbury’s best season was his rookie year, 1966, when he gained 772 yards from scrimmage and scored 9 touchdowns. In 1967, Asbury and Dave Osborn tied for the NFL’s longest run of the season, 73 yards.

Asbury is pictured here on a 1969 Topps card, wearing the Steelers’ “Batman” jersey. He also appeared on at least three other cards and stamps. You can read about the Batman jerseys in one of my previous blog articles.

Happy birthday, Mr. Asbury!

We have two milestone birthdays today: Rudy Kuechenberg is 70, and Robert Brazile is 60. Kuechenberg played linebacker from 1967 to 1971 for the Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, Cleveland Browns, and Atlanta Falcons. He also played for the Chicago Fire of the World Football League, in 1974. Kuechenberg’s younger brother, Bob, was a guard for fourteen seasons with the Miami Dolphins. Rudy Kuechenberg appeared on one football card, the 1969 Topps card pictured below.

Robert Brazile played linebacker from 1975 to 1984 for the Houston Oilers. He was the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year in 1975, and he made the Pro Bowl seven consecutive seasons after that. (The Corpus Christi Caller-Times web site has a nice summary of his career.) Brazile is pictured below on his 1978 Topps football card, and there are a couple more of his cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

Happy birthday, Messrs. Kuechenberg and Brazile!

Larry Bowie, a guard for the Minnesota Vikings from 1962 to 1968, passed away on December 31. His obituary appeared in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Star Tribune. Bowie played college football at Purdue.

Bowie appeared on two regular issue football cards, the 1964 Philadelphia and 1969 Topps cards pictured here. He also appeared on a 1969 Topps mini-card.

Jim Whalen, a tight end from 1965 to 1971 for the Boston Patriots, Denver Broncos, and Philadelphia Eagles, passed away on December 18. There is an article about Whalen on the Patriots web site. According to the article, Whalen led the Patriots in receptions and receiving yards during his five seasons with the team.

Whalen is shown here on his 1968 Topps and 1969 Topps football cards. His first three cards, from 1965 to 1967, picture him in his Boston College uniform, with his face obscured. You can see all of Whalen’s cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

Pete Duranko, a defensive lineman for the Denver Broncos from 1967 to 1974, passed away on July 8. Today’s Denver Post has a report. Duranko played college football at Notre Dame, and he was a member of the Irish’s 1966 National Championship team.

The cards pictured here are Duranko’s rookie card, a 1969 Topps, and his last card, a 1975 Topps. His last card was issued the year after his last season–a common occurrence in the 1970s.

You can see all of Pete Duranko’s football cards and stamps in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

I was looking at some 1969 Topps cards today, and I ran across this Marv Woodson card. When I read the cartoon on the back, I thought, wow, now that has to be a record! So I did a search for the 1967 Pro Bowl, and I found a nice article about it. The article, it turned out, didn’t support the cartoon; it said Woodson’s team, the NFL East, had a total of four interceptions in the game. I then checked Woodson’s page at pro-football-reference.com and got the real story: Woodson had seven interceptions during the 1967 season, and he also made the Pro Bowl that year. The cartoonist sort of contracted those two accomplishments.

Though I don’t often look at the cartoons, this is the second big error I have found in a cartoon on a Topps card. The other was on Homer Jones’s 1968 Topps card, which said that “Homer Defeated the Russians in the 1960 Olympics.” As I wrote in an earlier blog post, Jones never competed in the Olympics.

So now I’m skeptical: Did Butch Byrd really love to read detective stories in his spare time? Did Roy Jefferson really dabble in investments after football season? Did Ron McDole really play paddle-racquets to stay in condition? I’ll check my facts before quoting the cartoonist!