Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

Carroll Hardy, who played halfback for one season with the San Francisco 49ers, is celebrating his 80th birthday today. Hardy made the most of his opportunities to handle the football: on 12 pass receptions, he gained 338 yards and scored 4 touchdowns. He is pictured here, in a great pose, on his 1955 49ers team issue photo.

Hardy is better known as a baseball player. After his stint with the 49ers, he played major league baseball for the Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox, Houston Colt .45s, and Minnesota Twins. I don’t have his baseball cards, but you can see lots of them on eBay.

According to oldestlivingproplayers.com, Hardy is the 494th oldest living professional American football player.

Happy birthday, Mr. Hardy!

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

A lot of you liked the interactive 1956 Topps Packers team card I told you about yesterday, so I thought I would knock out another interactive card. This time I did the 1956 Topps 49ers team card. Clicking on the card pictured here will take you to the interactive version.

This card went faster, since most of the players also appear on 1955 49ers team issue photos, and I didn’t have to enter the data for them. Only two players, Frank Mincevich and Lowell Wagner, were not already in my database. Also, there are no coaches or staff in the picture, so I didn’t have to find their information.

I will work on the remaining 1956 Topps team cards as I have time.

Tom McCormick, who played halfback from 1953 to 1956 for the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers, passed away on September 20. According to his obituary at legacy.com, McCormick served as an assistant coach with Minnesota and Green Bay after retiring as a player.

McCormick did not have a football card in a major issue, but he did appear on Rams team issue cards in 1953, 1954, and 1955. His 1953 Rams team issue card is pictured here. The back of the card says that he set school records at the College of the Pacific for yards rushing in a season, yards rushing in a career, and touchdowns in a season.

R.C. Owens, 49ers, a receiver from 1957 to 1964 for the San Francisco 49ers, Baltimore Colts, and New York Giants, passed away on June 17. Owens was known for his “alley oop” catches, which you can see him demonstrating on the San Francisco Chronicle web site. Owens was the first 49er receiver with 1000 yards receiving in one season; he accomplished that in 1961. He was inducted into the 49ers Hall of Fame in 2011.

Owens appeared on several football cards with the 49ers. His 1959 Topps card is pictured here. His rookie card, a 1958 Topps, pictures Don Owens, unfortunately.

Jerry Tubbs, who played ten seasons for the Chicago Cardinals, San Francisco 49ers, and Dallas Cowboys, passed away on June 15. There is a story and a nice picture of Tubbs on the Tulsa World web site. Tubbs played on two National Championship teams at the University of Oklahoma, and he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1996. He was an All-Pro with the Dallas Cowboys in 1962. After retiring as a player, he remained with the Cowboys as an assistant coach for over two decades.

Tubbs appeared on a lot of football cards during his NFL career. His rookie card, a 1957 Topps, is pictured here. You can see the rest of Tubbs’s cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

It’s Trivia Tuesday! Just pick the “Answer” links to see the answers.

1. What is the error on R.C. Owens’s 1958 Topps football card, pictured here? Answer
2. Who were the first two players elected to the New Orleans Saints Hall of Fame? Answer
3. What USC quarterback, who appeared on a 1955 Topps All-American football card, became a film editor and received an Academy Award for his work in Mary Poppins? Answer
4. What Hall of Fame defensive tackle, who spent his entire 14-year NFL career with the San Franciso 49ers, was born in Lucca, Italy? Answer
5. What Pro Football Hall of Famer was married for 25 years to actress Jane Russell? Answer
6. What member of the College Football Hall of Fame, who spent most of his NFL career with the Minnesota Vikings, played Officer Joe Coffey in the TV series Hill Street Blues? Answer
7. One card in the 1935 National Chicle football card set does not picture an NFL player. Which card is it? Answer

Like these? See my trivia questions from past weeks.

This week I added 1962 Topps CFL cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. There are 169 cards in the set, about 21 per team. Most Topps sets contain about 10-12 cards per team, so many of the players in the 1962 CFL set were making their first appearance on a card.

As usual with non-NFL sets, I enjoyed finding players who had played in the NFL but who had not appeared on cards for their NFL teams. Pictured here are three of the those players: Hal Ledyard played for the 49ers in 1953, Chuck Quilter played for the 49ers in 1949 and 1950, and George Scott played for the Giants in 1959. I identified a few other ex-NFL players, as well; just browse the set to see them.

Roland Lakes, a defensive lineman from 1961 to 1971 for the San Francisco 49ers and New York Giants, passed away on March 5. There is a story about Lakes on the San Francisco Chronicle web site. According to that article, until 2010, Lakes was the youngest lineman ever to start a game for the 49ers.

Lakes appeared on two regular issue football cards, both shown here. The first is his rookie card, a 1965 Philadelphia; the second is a 1970 Topps. He also appeared, as a Giant, on a 1972 Sunoco Stamp, but he did not play in 1972.

Yesterday I identified the members of the San Francisco 49ers Hall of Fame in the Vintage Football Card Gallery. The 49ers Hall of Fame was created recently, in 2009, so most of the inductees thus far have been members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I presume that over the next few years, the 49ers will add team stars that have not been inducted into the Pro Hall.

Pictured here is one of the 2011 inductees, R.C. Owens, on his 1959 Topps card. (Ordinarily I feature players’ rookie cards, but Owens’s rookie card pictures Don Owens, not R.C.) Owens played his first five seasons for the 49ers, then moved on to other teams. After retiring as a player, he returned to work for the 49ers for over 20 years.

The 49ers web site has a list of the all of the team’s hall of famers, along with photos and short summaries of their careers. I especially like the photo of John Henry Johnson, who is wearing a funky clear facemask.

If you’re not a 49ers fan, you can probably find your team’s Hall of Famers via the Gallery’s Advanced Search page. Not all teams have a hall of fame, but I have finished most of the teams that do.