Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

In yesterday’s article about 1974 Nebraska Cornhusker Playing Cards, I included an image of the Wonder Monds card. Von Spalding, of Von’s Card Blog, saw the article and pointed out that a player named Wonder Monds had also appeared on an Atlanta Braves baseball card. Von guessed that Wonder Monds the Brave was the son of Wonder Monds the ‘Husker, and, as it turns out, he guessed correctly. An article at bleacherreport.com says that Wonder Monds the Brave is actually the third Wonder, and his full name is Wonderful Terrific Monds III.

After Nebraska, Wonder II played three seasons for the CFL’s Ottawa Rough Riders and one season for the San Francisco 49ers. Wonder III played several years of minor league baseball in the Braves, Rockies, and Reds farm systems. And Wonder III’s brother, Mario, spent two seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals and Miami Dolphins.

The card pictured here is Wonder Monds II’s 1973 Nebraska Cornhuskers Playing Card. Son Mario appeared on a 2001 Bowman Chrome football card, which I know nothing about, but I did see a couple on eBay. Wonder III appeared on a handful of baseball cards, and you can find those on eBay, as well.

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.