May 16th, 2013 |
Published in
Milestone Birthdays
Former NFL running back and punter Donny Anderson is celebrating his 70th birthday today. Anderson played from 1966 to 1974 for the Green Bay Packers and St. Louis Cardinals. He gained over 1000 yards from scrimmage four times, and he made the Pro Bowl with the Packers in 1968. He played on the Packers teams that won the first two Super Bowls.
Before his pro career, Anderson starred at Texas Tech. He is a member of both the College Football Hall of Fame and the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame.
Anderson is pictured here on his rookie card, a 1968 Topps. He also appeared on at least a dozen more cards, stamps, and stickers.
Happy birthday, Mr. Anderson!
January 25th, 2011 |
Published in
Football Card Trivia
In 1968, after the NFL and AFL decided to merge, Topps became the sole major producer of American football cards for the first time since 1959. The 1968 Topps football card set was the first since 1961 to contain cards of both NFL and AFL players. To mark the occasion, Topps decided to honor the teams who had participated in the first two NFL-AFL World Championship Games–or, as they came to be known, the first two Super Bowls.
First, Topps honored the Super Bowl II contestants, the Green Bay Packers and Oakland Raiders, by using a horizontal format and alternate design for their cards. The two examples pictured here are Donny Anderson, on his rookie card, and Daryle Lamonica. You can see all of the horizontally-oriented 1968 Topps Packers cards and 1968 Topps Raiders cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.
Second, Topps honored the quarterbacks of Super Bowl I, Bart Starr of the Packers and Len Dawson of the Kansas City Chiefs, by putting puzzles of them on the backs of some of the 1968 second series cards. The piece pictured here, Dawson’s right eye, is on the back of Ernie Wright’s card. A page in the gallery shows both assembled puzzles. Oddly, for Dawson’s puzzle, Topps chose a seven- or eight-year-old photo from when he was still with the Browns, though they had been picturing him in his Chiefs uniform since 1965.
August 19th, 2009 |
Published in
Football Card Oddities
I have always thought that these were odd: they’re boyhood photo cards that were part of the 1973 Topps football card set. It’s a 528-card set, so why are there only three boyhood cards? Why did Topps pick Anderson, Gabriel, and Garrett? Were they the only players whose moms responded to requests for old photos? Did the other moms respond, but their kids weren’t cute enough? Did Topps intend to have a Boyhood Photo insert set and fail to turn up enough photos? Every time I encounter one of these, I wonder how they came to be.
