Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

Yesterday I was looking at some 1964 Philadelphia football cards, and I happened to read the cartoon on the back of Lamar McHan’s card. The cartoon says that McHan won the Heisman Trophy. Hmm, I thought, that doesn’t sound right. So I checked my Heisman Trophy candidates page, and sure enough, the highest McHan finished in Heisman voting was ninth. Ninth is great, of course, but it isn’t first.

This is at least the second whopper I have seen in a cartoon on the back of a card. Homer Jones’s 1968 Topps football card says that “Homer defeated the Russians in the 1960 Olympics,” but that isn’t true, either. For a list of football players who did win Olympic medals, see my page of Olympic athletes on vintage football cards

Last month I posted examples of my favorite pose on football cards, the pose in which the player is sitting, holding his helmet. This month I thought I’d post my favorite action shot: the quarterback throwing a jump pass. Shown here are 1960 Fleer Tom O’Connell, 1959 Topps King Hill, 1956 Topps George Shaw, and–complete with blockers!–1958 Topps Lamar McHan. Want more? The 1960 Fleer set uses the shot for at least five quarterbacks.

I couldn’t recall ever seeing a jump pass–or at least an intentional one–in a game, so I did a little YouTube search. I turned up a couple: Ralph Guglielmi of Notre Dame (at about 1:20) and Tim Tebow of Florida.

• Search Nearmint’s Football Cards for: George Shaw, Lamar McHan, King Hill
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