February 17th, 2013 |
Published in
Milestone Birthdays
Two players in the Vintage Football Card Gallery, John Lee and Scott Laidlaw, are celebrating their 60th birthday today. Lee was a defensive end from 1976 to 1981 for the San Diego Chargers and New England Patriots, and Laidlaw was a running back from 1975 to 1980 for the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants. Laidlaw played on three Super Bowl teams in his first four seasons, all with the Cowboys. The Cowboys won one of them, Super Bowl XII, against the Broncos.
As far as I know, Lee did not appear on a football card during his NFL career, but he did appear on a 1974 Nebraska playing card while still in college. That card is shown below. He was one of at least fourteen players in the 1974 Nebraska football deck who later played in the NFL.
Laidlaw appeared on the 1977 Topps card pictured here, as well as a Mexican version of the same card. You can read about the 1977 Topps Mexican cards at toppsmexican.com.
Happy birthday, Mr. Lee and Mr. Laidlaw!
March 5th, 2011 |
Published in
New in the Gallery, Oddball
Yesterday I added 1974 Nebraska Cornhuskers Playing Cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. The 54-card deck includes cards of 52 players, Memorial Stadium, and Head Coach Tom Osborne. The cards’ design is nearly identical to that of the year before, but there is an easy way to tell the two years apart: in 1974, all of the players’ jerseys have “NEBRASKA” printed on them. For a couple of players, this required some cutting-and-pasting–literally, it appears. Willie Thornton’s image, for instance, is the same as on his 1973 card, except for the “NEBRASKA” pasted onto his jersey. Maybe Thornton had his eyes closed in his 1974 photo, so they used the one from the year before? Bobby Thomas’s image also appears to have gotten some primitive photoshopping.
The 1974 ‘Huskers team finished 9-3, tied for second in the Big Eight, and ranked #9 nationally. (Oklahoma went undefeated and won both the Big Eight and the National Championship.) By my count, 14 players in the 1974 ‘Huskers playing card deck made it onto NFL teams, at least for a few games. Wikipedia’s 1974 Cornhuskers page lists a few additional team members who played in the NFL, CFL, or WFL.
