1975(?) Sugar Daddy Connie Hawkins

I found this in a box of junk cards I was going through while trying to find something else. I'd forgotten about it and until now I didn't even have it on my Hawkins checklist. Sugar Daddy candy 'pops' were pretty popular when I was a kid. I'm sure they are still around. The elongated shape of Sugar Daddys led to the small size of the card (illustrated below) and odd shape.

This little card comes from the second of four mid-70s issues from Nabisco/Sugar Daddy. The first two sets were multi-sport and had 25 guys in each.  Hawkins is included in both of the first two series but the two checklists (again, look below) had a lot of overlap but were not exactly the same. They were both laid out with football players as the first cards, followed by hockey and then hoops. oddly, there is a lone stray hockey guy in the middle of the basketball players in both. This article from SCD in 2015 has a lot more info on these.

Another quirk, which I can't explain, is that the sets are listed as being from 1974 and 1975. But the stats on this '1975' Hawkins (note the copyright) come from the '72-'73 season.

 

I've enlarged the back for readability. And I noticed there were something called Sugar Mama Pops. I don't remember them but apparently they were the chocolate-coated version. I found a label and a photo of the 'poster' that these were supposed to be displayed on.

Here's the card next to a standard Topps card:

 

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Oh, good old Sugar Daddys..

 

Here are the checklists. The later series issued after these two showed non-specific athletes from all sorts of different sports. They are as boring as they sound.

1974 Sugar Daddy Pro Faces

1 Roger Staubach              
2 Floyd Little              
3 Steve Owens              
4 Roman Gabriel              
5 Bobby Douglass              
6 John Gilliam              
7 Bob Lilly              
8 John Brockington              
9 Jim Plunkett              
10 Greg Landry              
11 Phil Esposito              
12 Dennis Hull              
13 Reg Fleming              
14 Garry Unger              
15 Derek Sanderson              
16 Jerry Korab              
17 Oscar Robertson              
18 Spencer Haywood              
19 Jo Jo White              
20 Connie Hawkins              
21 Nate Thurmond              
22 Mickey Redmond              
23 Chet Walker              
24 Calvin Murphy              
25 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

1975 Sugar Daddy

1 Roger Staubach              
2 Floyd Little              
3 Alan Page              
4 Merlin Olsen              
5 Wally Chambers              
6 John Gilliam              
7 Bob Lilly              
8 John Brockington              
9 Jim Plunkett              
10 Willie Lanier              
11 Phil Esposito              
12 Dennis Hull              
13 Brad Park              
14 Tom Lysiak              
15 Bernie Parent              
16 Mickey Redmond              
17 Jerry Sloan              
18 Spencer Haywood              
19 Bob Lanier              
20 Connie Hawkins              
21 Geoff Petrie              
22 Don Awrey              
23 Chet Walker              
24 Bob McAdoo              
25 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

I don't have the other Hawkins. This '74 series (or Series No. 1 as Nabisco called it) show players in team uniforms on plain backgrounds rather that with the 'All Star' motif.

Late addition...Sugar Mama wrapper:

These apparently were like Milk Duds on a stick. I'm sure they paid for a few dentists' car notes.

1988 Swell Gum Football Greats (H-O-F)

I love oddball sets and I was happy to pick up this 1988 Swell Gum Football Greats set on Net54. As you might expect it features all the members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame as of the issue date.

The logo on the front is a bit hard to make out but it signifies that 1988 was the Hall's 25th Anniversary. There are 144 cards in the set. Here's that logo.

 

Swell Gum was a brand name under the Philly Gum umbrella and Philly Gum is lasted (it's very hard to see) on the back of the cards.

The checklist is quirky in that it starts off with the five 1985 Hall inductees. That group included Joe Willie Namath, O. J. Simpson, and Pete Rozelle. 1985 was three years prior to the set being issued. The newest inductee class (1988) is at the end. It's as if the set was put together in '85 with the newest members featured but not issured for three years. In between the '85 and '88 groups the rest of the Hall members are in alphabetical order..sort of. Some cards are 'out of place' in the alphabetical lineup...Dick Butkus and Willie Brown landed in behind the inductees with 'C' names and others are scrambled as well. 

The cards themselves have a decent design. The Hall logo takes up too much space but it doesn't deter from the cards much.

 

 

 

Nothing wrong with the Jim Brown card. It's better than some of the Topps and Philly Gum cards that were produced during his career.

I had to stop and think when I was sorting these and saw "John Johnson". I just didn't recognize the name or the face.

 

But when I flipped it over I saw it was John Henry Johnson.He was a powerful runner for the Steelers and a few other teams back in the day but I know I never once heard him referred to as simply John Johnson. Henry was always part of his name. That's how he's listed everywhere. 

This is as good as any a spot to show the back of the cards. The text is exactly the same as is posted on the member's Hall of Fame website page.

A few more of my favorite cards...

Then there is this....

The Jim Parker and Gino Marchetti cards are perfect examples of the wide gap in photo quality. I mean is that the best pic of Parker available? It appears to be a faded Polaroid Instamatic shot. OTOH, the Marchetti photo used is a classic.  

Some, like Lance Alworth's picture, fall somewhere in between.

 

 

I've mentioned a few times the letter I received unsolicited from 70s era Giants runningback Ron Johnson. It was something prompted by a meeting between Johnson and my Uncle Gerard. The same sort of thing happened with Hall inductee Alex Wojciechowicz. One day in the mid 1980s I got a large envelope in the mail which contained a Pro Football Hall of Fame wall calendar. It had been sent by Alex Wojciechowicz who had become a customer at my Uncle's pharmacy. In it Wojciechowicz had written a bit about his career and some notes on other Hall members he'd played with and against in the 40s. What I remember most about it is that every he signed his full name to every comment. I'm sure i have the calendar among the stuff I packed away when I gave up my hobby room whn we needed space for a second nursery.  I'll dig it out one of these days.

I'm a sucker for sideline cape pics so I'll finish with this one of Doug Atkins.

Swell followed up this set with sets in 1989 and 1990. If I can find them cheap enough I may grab those as well.

1960 Union Oil Patti Waggin's Husband

Sidebar......We here in the Houston area got very lucky when Hurricane Laura moved east before landfall. It came in just below Cat 5. Bad news. But here on the far east side of the county we had hardly a hint of wind all night. Wish I could say the same for the folks nearer the state line and in Louisiana. I have several college friends living in Lake Charles and I believe they all got out of harm's way yesterday.

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Ok, so it's a Don Rudolph card. But you wouldn't have even clicked in your reading list had I used that as the post's title, right?

A little background is in order.

Sorry, not THAT sort of background.

This is what I meant....

When I came across Don Rufolph's card for my 1959 blog I flipped it over and saw that this was the cartoon.

THAT got my attention. I dug around and found that Don had married burlesque star Patti Waggin. That's her that is referenced as a 'professional dancer' in the cartoon. Down the rabbit hole I went and found that Miss Waggin (born Patricia Artae Hardwick) was a Baltimore star and, by all accounts, a peach of a lady.

Here's a bio I dug up on IMDB:

Patti was born in 1926 and was married three times. A second marriage to championship motorcycle racer Bill Brownell took place in Chico, California. She attended Chico State majoring in dance and acting. She was athletically gifted and played sports in college.

After her divorce in 1950, she took the stage name of Patti Waggin, given to her by then manager Lillian Hunt. She continued performing until 1960. She married baseball pitcher Don Rudolph in 1955 and stayed with him until his death in a truck accident in 1968. They had one child, a girl.

Patti incorporated athleticism into her act and was considered one of the friendliest girls on the burlesque circuit. She was alternately billed as The Educated Torso, The Sex Oomph Girl, and the Fresh Faced Girl Next Door. She answered all of her own fan mail and kept the letters. These were incorporated into a book, "Fan Letters To A Stripper: A Patti Waggin Tale."

She died in 1992 from an intestinal disorder.

As noted in that bio she had previously been married to a motorcycle racer and I just found this bike site that has an article and some photos (some locked except for members apparently) of Patti in her riding days.

But back to the reason for this post. As I got more familiar with Don Rudolph I picked up the rest of his Topps cards. He had cards in '58 and '59 as well as '62 through '64. The first three issued all used the same photo.

He also had several food/retail cards from his days with the Seattle Rainiers of the PCL in '59/'60. Some are quite pricey so they are off the table for me but this Union Oil issue, from a 1960 set of nine, had a small pinhole and came cheap.

Neat little reference to Don's marriage on the reverse as well. Look below for a bigger image.

 Just for reference, here is the Union Oil card scanned with his '59 Topps.

All his cards are here on the Trading Card Database site. And there is more info and plenty of pics in my post of that '59 Topps card.

Modern Day Benders

This post has been stuck in my drafts folder for so long I can't remember starting it.

Now, as we prepare for what may be a sizeable hurricane mid-week, I figured this may be the last chance to post for a while. No time to do any scanning.

This is a mix of Charles Bender 'art cards', legit issues, and nonsense I've picked up over the last few years.

These Helmar 'art stamps' pay homage to the original cigarette premiums smokers were collecting in 1911. The 'modern' versions are nicely done and look a lot like the vintage ones but differ in that these are not as wide.

Next up is a strip panel from the artist known as Gypsy Oak. I've picked up a few things from him in the past. We communicated when I was on Twitter buy he subsequently blocked me. Politics most likely. (ง •̀_•́)ง

The Topps Bazooka Chief Bender below comes from 1963. It's interesting in that it uses a photo of Bender from his coaching days. This set was unlike many of the candy/food issues in that it was not part of the box but rather a bonus that was inside the box. The checklist counts 41 players/personalities and were done in either silver (scarce) or gold tone. More info here.

Another modern piece done in throwback style. This 'Turkey Red' Bender isn't in front of me right now so I can't do much more than posting the scan. The real Bender Turkey Red has a different pose and is just a bit more costly.

Up last is a Panini 'postcard' that shows Bender's Hall of Fame plaque. I think I added this to my last SportsLots order. It's standard card size.

That's it for now. I hope anyone in the path of these two storms in the Gulf stays safe. See ya on the flip side.

Here's Johnny (Callison)

I'm 'nickel and dime-ing' my way through my Johnny Callison want list. He hasn't reached Billy Pierce's collection status. In other words I'm not going to go out and try to find every stupid Topps Lineage Canary Diamond sparkle card like I did with BP.

But I am trying to build a solid career-era collection and add will mix in assorted oddball post-career stuff when it's available cheaply. Same as I am doing with Elston Howard and a few others.

And Callison doesn't really have much in the way of Heritage-type cards. Most of them fall into the buyback/re-issue realm and if I have an 'original' I can do without the gold stamped versions.

This came from a Net54 member. Seriously miscut (but signed) '59 Rookie Stars. I love the design.  Part of the appeal of the vintage sets I built were the subsets. The rookie and All-Star cards Topps birthed in those days were just so cool.

But when it came to the '65 Embossed...Topps whiffed. Actually, this Callison bears a decent resemblance to him. But go find the Yaz Embossed. That ain't Yaz.

Here's an example of a post-career card that was easy to add to my PC. 1981 TCMA Go-Go White Sox Callison.

The seller sent it in a Card Saver inside a PWE which is fine by me. But he used a sticker to seal the thing:

Even if you're selling cheap oddballs, do better.

Scan Dump 1

I've been accumulating stray cards here and there over the last couple of months. Sometimes I'll add cards to an eBay order to take advantage of reduced shipping or a multi-card discount. Sometimes I just pull cards I don't really need from discount boxes at card shows or buy stuff from Net54 guys on an impulse.

I've scanned a bunch and figure that now is as good a time as ever to post them, with or without comment.

This signed Bobby Thomson is from the 1982 G. S. Gallery set about which I have very little knowledge. I've seen references to Gallery being a dealer and that may be the case. The set had 24 cards of some of the bigger names from the 50s and 60s on its checklist.

Looking at the reverse side I was reminded that Thomson spent about three weeks with the Orioles in July of 1960. They were his last couple of appearances in the majors. Here he is with O's catcher Clint Courtney.

This early 60s Dutch Gum card of Bob Dylan came from a Net54 purchase. Seeing him in concert last fall was a kick.

This signed Billy Pierce phone card is the second in my collection. It was a Sox giveaway item.

The other Pierce phone card is from 1996 and I posted about it back in 2014.

And finally here is a rarity in my collection...a Topps Now card. I bought it from a reseller which is the only way to go with these things.

LOL...my man Crush Davis. I'm not really sure what prompted me to grab this other than my giddiness at him ending that sad hitless streak. As I think I posted (or tweeted back then) he is too good a guy to have had to endure the foolishness that came along with his futility.


I've got more scans but that will have to do for tonight. I need to go pick out my attire for this weekend's Orioles visit to Houston. 

Oh, and here is Bob Dylan along with the late, great Tom Petty doing Knocking on Heavan's Door live in 1986.  One of my very favorite songs.

It's hockey, baby

Tonight is Game Six of the Western Semifinals with the Blues leading the Sharks 3-2. As is usually the case the semis produce some of the most outstanding games of the playoff season (Boston-Carolina this year being the exception).

I'll likely head to Houston's Midtown and watch at the hockey bar there. I have a friend from St. Louis who will be there and it's fun to watch with a crowd.

Meanwhile, here are some hockey cards. Up top is the Howe 'family' card from the 1974-75 OPC set. It's one of my favorites. I posted it when I picked it up back in 2015. Lot's of great memories wrapped up in that one.

these next are new to me. They are part of an oddball set called the Superstar Heroes Inc set from 1992. I've seen these on a blog I think but I can't find them now. I picked this 12 card set up from a dealer's table at the last TriStar show for a few dollars.

These are so Broder-ish! And the backs are better produced than the fronts.

And Go Blues!! I guess. I am a Joe Thornton fan so I could get into him playing for the Cup in the Finals.