Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

John Henderson, a wide receiver from 1965 to 1972 for the Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings, is celebrating his 70th birthday today. Henderson’s best seasons were 1969 and 1970, when he gained over 500 yards each season. He was the leading receiver in Super Bowl IV, with 7 receptions for 111 yards. It wasn’t enough: the Vikings lost to the Kansas City Chiefs, 23-7.

Though he played for eight seasons, I don’t believe that Henderson appeared on any standard football cards during his NFL career. He did, however, appear on a 1972 Sunoco Stamp, pictured here.

Happy birthday, Mr. Henderson!

Not surprisingly, there has been a lot of interest in Curley Culp’s 1973 Topps rookie card since he was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame a week ago. Less known are Culp’s pre-rookie issues, but there are collectors who find pre-rookies highly desirable, as well. Culp appeared on at least two: the 1971 Kellogg’s card and 1972 Sunoco stamp pictured here. They are the latest additions to the pre-rookie card page of the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

John Small, a defensive tackle and linebacker from 1970 to 1974 for the Atlanta Falcons and Detroit Lions, passed away on December 10. The Charleston Post and Courier has a story about Small, along with a recent photo.

Small did not appear on a regular issue football card, but he did appear on a 1972 Sunoco stamp and a 1972 NFLPA stamp. The Sunoco stamp is pictured here.

John Williams, an offensive lineman from 1968 to 1979 for the Baltimore Colts and Los Angeles Rams, passed away yesterday. There is a story and recent photo of Williams on the Minneapolis StarTribune web site. Williams played on three Super Bowl teams: the 1968 Colts, who lost to the Jets; the 1970 Colts, who beat the Cowboys; and the 1979 Rams, who lost to the Steelers.

Though Williams played twelve seasons in the NFL, and though he started every game at tackle for the Rams from 1973 to 1978, he never appeared on a regular issue football card. He did appear on a 1972 Sunoco stamp; it is pictured here.

Once upon a time, long, long ago, I bought a set of 1972 Sunoco Stamps, and I started adding them to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. I said at the time that it would take me months to take pictures of all the stamps, and it did: 30 months, to be precise. I finally scanned and uploaded the last of them yesterday–all but one, that is. I discovered yesterday that I have two Verlon Biggs stamps, but no Ron McDole stamp. Anyone have a picture of a McDole they can send me?

As I was scanning the stamps yesterday, I noted one thing I like about them: the images on them aren’t airbrushed. In 1972, Topps was still airbrushing logos off helmets and airbrushing new uniforms onto players–badly–but the Sunoco stamps show the players in the uniforms of their current teams, logos intact. I especially like seeing old helmets, and for most teams there’s at least one stamp with a good picture of the team’s helmet. Below are a few examples.

Now, on to the 82-stamp update set!

The holiday made me think of the movie, and thinking of the movie made me wonder what NFL players were born on the Fourth of July. I found the full list at pro-football-reference.com; the eight who appear in the Vintage Football Card Gallery are shown below. Wish them a happy birthday!

Six-time Pro Bowler Erich Barnes was born on July 4, 1935. Barnes’s rookie card, shown here, is a 1960 Topps. Two-time Pro-Bowler Emerson Boozer was born on July 4, 1943; he is shown here on his 1971 Topps card. (Boozer also appeared on my all-party team.)

Two-time Pro Bowler Rosey Taylor was born on July 4, 1937; he is pictured here on his 1965 Philadelphia card. 1963 Pro-Bowler Lee Folkins was born on July 4, 1939; his rookie card, a 1964 Philadelphia, is shown here. (I heard from Mr. Folkins once. He told me that the signature on his 1964 Wheaties Stamp is not in his handwriting.)

Five-time Pro-Bowler Rick Casares was born on July 4, 1931. His rookie card, shown here, is a 1955 Bowman. Hall of Famer Floyd Little was born on July 4, 1942; he is shown here on his 1968 Topps Stand Up insert card.

1981 Pro Bowler Frank Lewis was born on July 4, 1947; his rookie card, a 1973 Topps, is shown here. And, finally, Fred Forsberg was born on July 4, 1944. I don’t believe Forsberg appeared on a card, but I do have his 1972 Sunoco Stamp.

Enjoy your picnics!

Yesterday I added the ability to search the Vintage Football Card Gallery for members of the Atlanta Falcons Ring of Honor. The Falcons established the Ring in 2004; you can see all of the inductees on the Falcons web site.

Atlanta entered the league in 1966, and the Gallery contains cards only up to 1976, so I have cards for only three Ring of Honor members: Claude Humphrey, Tommy Nobis, and Jeff Van Note. They are pictured here on their 1972 Sunoco Stamps.

What’s remarkable about these three players is the amount of time they were with the team. Humphrey played 14 seasons in the NFL, 11 of them with the Falcons. Nobis played 11 seasons, all with the Falcons. And Van Note played 17 seasons, all with the Falcons! None of the three has yet been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, though Humphrey has been a finalist four times. I would like to see one of the old-timers get in before Deion Sanders, who was inducted into the Ring of Honor in 2010. Sanders spent just 5 of his 14 NFL seasons with the Falcons.

I am slowly identifying the members of all of the individual teams’ Halls of Fame in the Vintage Football Card Gallery. You can see the others I have finished on the Advanced Search page.

Yesterday a reader sent me this picture of 1972 Sunoco Stamp “Trader Wallets” and asked me if I knew their value. Since I had never seen them before, I had to say no. Sunoco did quite a job of marketing these stamps: in addition to the trader wallets, they also made stamp albums, team sheets, and update stamps available via mail order. I didn’t collect the stamps as a kid–I don’t remember there being any Sunoco or DX stations around my hometown–but if I had, I’m sure I would have wanted all of the accessories.

The two stamps in the photo marked “NEW PLAYER” are from the update set. The NEW PLAYER part detaches from the rest of the stamp along a perforation. You can see this in better detail in an earlier article.

I am still slowly adding pictures of the stamps to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. I am about halfway finished now–Atlanta through Miami!

Jim Copeland, who played guard and center for the Cleveland Browns from 1967 to 1974, passed away on June 4. Copeland played in two NFL Championship games: in 1967, against the Baltimore Colts, and in 1968, against the Minnesota Vikings. After his NFL career, Copeland served as athletic director at William and Mary, Utah, Virginia, and Southern Methodist. There is a nice photo of Copeland and a summary of his career at VirginaSports.com.

To my knowledge, Copeland did not appear on any football cards–not unusual for a lineman. He did, however, appear on the 1972 Sunoco Stamp pictured here. There are twenty-four players per team in the base 1972 Sunoco Stamp set–twice as many as in a typical card set of the time–so the set includes numerous players who never made it onto cards. As I wrote in an earlier article, the photos of several Browns in the Sunoco set, including Copeland, were from a mud game against the Colts.

As I reported earlier, a few weeks ago I bought a set of 1972 Sunoco Stamps, and now I’m scanning them for the Vintage Football Card Gallery. Yesterday I did the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns. As I’ve said, overall, I’m not fond of the images used in the set. The stamps are small, and because the images are mostly action shots, you can’t see much of the players.

When scanning the Browns cards, though, I noticed that several of the action shots pictured the Browns in a mud game. Now these I like! I love watching weather games, be they in snow, rain, mud, or wind. For one thing, I prefer defensive battles to offensive shows, and bad weather slows the offenses down. For another, it’s just fun to see guys flopping around in the mud. To me, the weather is part of the game, and playing in a dome is playing something short of real football. I’ll take a mud game in Cleveland or a snow game in Buffalo over a dome game anytime.