Pandemic Life

Things have been pretty quiet as far as my hobby activities are concerned. No card shows mean I'm cut off from my chief source of want-list killing. I've had some stuff arrive in fits and spurts so I figured they'd make a post if I stuck 'em together.

Up top is the Tom Flores card from the 1961 Fleer set. It was one of the three pricey rookies that I put off finding until the end. The others are Don Meredith and Johnny Robinson. This card was an absolute bargain due to the pencil mark on the front. Oh, and a worn-down corner. Paying $14 for a card that averages 10 times that is a small victory. The Meredith card is going to be much tougher to nab.

It was just announced that Flores is a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame for 2021. He was the first Hispanic coach in the NFL. I hope he makes it into the HoF. But the good old boys that do the voting have some strange ways.

This next card falls into a category I mentioned in my last post, the "I'd have sworn that set was done but turns out I need it!" thing. When I bought the Bart Starr card for this 1960 Topps set I thought I'd put it to bed. Nope. Flipping through the pages showed me an open slot where Dave Middleton should have been so it was off the SportsLots I went.

Middleton played halfback and split end (I'm showing my age, I know what those positions are) for the Lions from 1955 through 1960 after a college career at Auburn. He finished with the expansion Vikings in 1961 (he's got a card in the '61 Fleer set). His claim to fame is catching a TD pass in the NFL title game in 1957 when the Lions destroyed the Browns, 59-14.


No story behind the rest of these other than the '79s being upgrades to that finished set. Yes, it really is finished, I checked.

I bought a '96 Topps set to commemorate my fantasy football title that season and the thing was missing the Farve card on the right. That's the second or third time in the last year that a set listed as 'complete' on eBay has arrived with something missing. Luckily, the cards I've had to track down were easy to locate and cheap enough.

I added the one of the left to the order because I liked it. And if I'm going to spend a buck for shipping on a 50 cent card I might as well buy a second fifty center and call it even.

That's it for now. I'm taking advantage of the quiet hobby time to write up a bunch of posts for my 1960 blog and finish up my look at the many color combos that Topps used. Lots of work, but some fun research.

Card Show Vintage Football

Well, football season is encroaching of baseball's summer spotlight and I know that bugs a lot of you. I'm OK with it though. I don't pay a lot of attention to the preseason football other than to gripe about having two meaningless games included with my Texans tickets...and paying the full regular season price for them.

But soon it'll be September and the baseball pennant races will be cranked up to 11, the NHL camps will be open and exhibitions underway and I'll be knee deep in the Texans season to say nothing of my Houston Cougars. It's my favorite time of the year.

In my more nostalgic moments I think about long ago Saturdays in the fall when I'd be supervising intramural football games. Then we'd all head for the Athletics office to watch pennant race baseball on TV when the shadows seemed always to be covering the mound in the late afternoon. Finally it was off to work the UH game versus Arkansas or Texas in the Astrodome. Wish I could be that carefree now.

These are some of the vintage football cards I snapped up at the last monthly card show I attended. They came out of the dollar bin but with my 'regular customer' discount I paid less than that per card. Back up at the top is a 1960 Topps Y.A. Tittle. I remember him as the quarterback of the Giants back when I'd listen to their games with my father.

Then there is Howard 'Hopalong' Cassady on his card from the same set. Cassady won the Heisman at Ohio State and played eight years in the NFL. Although he never had the impact in the pros that he did in college he was able to help the Lions win the league title in 1957. He had about a half dozen cards during his pro career but this is the only one that uses his nickname on the front.  BTW...the original Hopalong Cassidy was a fictional cowboy romanticized in pulp novels, movie shorts and on TV.

The last card is a Philly Gum Giants team card from the 1967 set. The '67 Giants added QB Fran Tarkington and in the process were able to rebound from a 12 loss season to a couple years of .500 football. And they were pretty entertaining with Scramblin' Fran at the helm.

For all the greatness of the Philly Gum sets of the mid-60s you can tell by reading the blurb on the back that they would have benefited by employing a better proofreader.

I have other stuff from the bargain bins at the show to post, including a few cards from a TV show I loved as a kid but haven't thought about in years.