A Thing of Beauty

Most of the sets I collect appeal to me for nostalgic reasons, i.e. I collected the cards as a kid and they bring back memories of that time.

This is not one of those sets. I decided to collect the 1961 Fleer football set for one reason alone...it's flat out awesome. I have no recollection of having seen these things back in the day. I collected baseball starting around 1959 but the first football cards I remember having are the '63 Topps cards and the Philly Gum sets circa 1964.

But I've owned the Baltimore Colts from this set for a long time and the Lenny Moore card has always been one of my favorites from any set. You can see my post on this card by clicking here. And my look at the Colts in this set (and how they compare to the '61 Topps cards) is available by going here.

I think the set is beautiful in its simplicity. It was issued in two series, one for the NFL teams and the other of the AFL bunch. SCD has the background details in a story from 2017. I'm just going to throw some cards up here and comment on them.

That's not Jim Brown's best card but it's not his worst either. Bonus points for Brownie. The use of the cartoon-style logos, official or otherwise, is one of the set's charms.

At the TriStar show earlier this year I found myself with my needs list, sitting at a dealer's table leafing through a binder of these things. At that point, I was probably 40 or so short IIRC. When the guy saw what I was looking at he flipped out and went on and on about how much he loved this set, how beautiful he thought it looked in a binder (my kind of guy, obviously). He told me that it was the one set he had built in graded AND raw form.

I made big strides at that table and one other towards finishing this thing off. I can't remember exactly but I was down to needing less than a dozen when I walked out. As of this post, I still lack three, all rookies...Don Meredith, Tom Flores, and Johnny Robinson. I'm going to be patient with them as I've found some of the others pop up as bargains from time to time.

Whatever that is on the left side of  Bart Starr's head is part of the photo, not a flaw on the card's surface. And I didn't notice right away but the logo has Wisconsin flipped in the wrong direction. The logo on the back is the same way.

Speaking of the backs. They are simple, they are pale green on cream, they tend to fade, and the numbers seem to disappear on a lot of them. In other words, they suck. The back of the Don Joyce card is an example of a back that has survived without much fading. The Paul Maguire card back, on the other hand, is a pretty good example of what you'll find with the lower condition cards. Most of my set is somewhere in between. You'll also find that a lot of the cards are warped and a certain number are cut short top-to-bottom. I thought they might be trimmed but I believe it's just how they were cut at the factory.

The Oilers played their early games at what was then called Jeppesen Stadium on/next to the University of Houston campus. They practiced on fields that later became part of UH's recreation and intramural programs that I was heavily involved in through the early '80s. Those buildings in the background were across Scott Street from campus and were around when I worked there and some may still be.

I love this Blanda card, btw. High tops, wonderful Oilers uni and nearly matching blue sky and puffy clouds. Sweet.

The Titans played in the Polo Grounds before they became the Jets. Here's the guy who would become Joe Willie's favorite target in his navy and gold.

My guy, Tommy McDonald. This card doesn't match the rest of the Eagles in the set which is a bit odd considering he was in his fourth year with them. One of the neat things about the set is that so many cards within each team grouping 'match' in terms of background, style of photo, poses, or all three. More on that below.

I found a signed Paul Hornung. The sig is kind of faint but it's there. I gravitate to 'all-purpose' players like Hornung, Lenny Moore, Gale Sayers, etc and I collect a lot of their cards.

Here's former US Congressman, HUD Secretary, and 1988 presidential hopeful Jack Kemp. It's his rookie card and one of the pricier ones in the set.

The great Ray Berry. His pose, hands-on-hips at Memorial Stadium, is very much like that of Lenny Moore.

The Bears are the first team in the checklist, which is arranged using team nicknames alphabetically. They have nine cards in the set so it makes a perfect example of 'matching' cards within a team subset. This is Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, so I'd venture a guess they were photographed before the Colts-Bears game there in 1960. Colts won that one on a Johnny U to Lenny Moore TD pass late. Their second scoring hookup of the game.

A page of Chargers (with a Bronco sneaking in) shows that some Fleer photogs switched things up just a bit with their poses.

The Giants cards get that terrific Yankee Stadium-based logo. I know that some don't like the fact that a team nicknamed 'Big Blue' uses so much red but I gotta tell ya, these unis (and therefore cards) are fantastic. I love the Robustelli card. It's easy to imagine the photographer yelling 'Hey, Andy!' and snapping when Robostelli turned from the group of players he was standing with.

The Eagles were, for the most part, pictured in Franklin Field where they played back then. The stadium is on Penn's campus and still in use today. UPenn Quaker football, concerts, and the Penn Relays are regular occupants.

The fieldhouse in the background is distinctive.

Still looks about the same, yes?

Cowboys got their pics taken at Yankee Stadium. The date was December 4 of 1960 and the Cowboys tied the Giants, 31-31. It was the only game that they did not lose during that initial season for the club. The Giants, meanwhile, went 1-3-2 at home and Jim Lee Howell was canned.

1961 was the first season for the Minnesota Vikings and Fleer made cards of seven players who had been photographed the year before. Like former Colt Don Joyce.

Finishing up with an interesting card. Randy Duncan was one of the best college players you've never heard of. At Iowa in the late 50s, he was Big Ten MVP, Walter Camp Award winner, Heisman runner-up and led the Hawkeyes to consecutive Rose Bowl wins. He was drafted by the Packers as the first pick in the 1959 draft but opted to play in Canada. The BC Lions offered him a better contract. Oh, how times have changed.

After two seasons he returned to the States and was signed by the AFL's Dallas Texans. He started two games for the '61 Texans and retired after that one season after Hank Stram drafted Len Dawson. He returned to his other love and finished law school at SMU. He's in the College Football Hall of Fame.

This card is very different from the rest of the Texans' cards and I decided to poke around on the web.

Sure enough, I found this photo of Duncan from his days at Iowa.

My first thought was that Fleer had painted a helmet on him (in addition to obviously colorizing the uni in Texan's red/white) but I noticed that his left arm is in a different position. And the barely visible numbers on the side of his helmet match Iowa's helmets exactly. If  Fleer had created the helmet artistically they wouldn't have used those numbers I don't believe.

More likely is that the photographers at Iowa's picture day had players pose with and without helmets, etc.

Well, so much for that little side trip down a rabbit hole.

To paraphrase Bum Phillips on Earl Campbell...the 1961 Fleer set may not be in a class by itself but it damn sure doesn't take long to take roll.

Yes, I was busy

Just because I wasn't blogging here doesn't mean I wasn't doing hobby stuff. In fact, I was really getting after some sets I had been considering for a long time. They were all football sets and that was one reason I wasn't motivated to post. Not much interest in vintage football in the blogging world.

But I decided that I'd throw some stuff up here just because. I nabbed some oddball baseball sets as well and maybe they will find themselves here, too.

I posted some of the '71 Topps football set last year. I finished it off a few months ago with some COMC pickups. It's a fun set with the obvious colorful 1975T baseball set vibe going. The majority of the set is comprised of posed training field 'action' shots like Joe Willie here.

For the most part, the rest of the set consists of portraits. Many of them are practice field shots as well like this one of fellow Hall of Famer Paul Warfield, who will always be a Cleveland Brown in my mind. Some portraits were just cropped into headshots.

There is a sprinkling of game action shots. Dennis Shaw is one. Like everyone else seen in this set wearing a helmet, his is airbrushed.

Joe Greene's rookie card is the most expensive (and one of the least interesting) cards. But it's by no means hard to find. It was the last card I picked up for this bunch because I took my time to find one with the right balance of affordability and condition.

I pulled a random page to show off the colors and variety. AFC guys with red borders, NFC got blue. And the All-Stars got the combo treatment which really foreshadowed the '75 baseball set.

Kind of an interesting page there as I look at it. Alan Page has his game face on for sure. He is among the best defensive players I've ever seen. Spike Jones is not related to the 40s-era comedian and bandleader of the same name. But he does share the nickname. Duane Thomas was a real talent in the early 70s. His Wikipedia page is worth scrolling thru. Daryle Lamonica was known as the 'The Mad Bomber'. I always think of my childhood friend who called him Daryle Harmonica. It's no funnier now than it was then. 

And finally, there is Dick Anderson. He was a Pro Bowl level corner for a decade in Miami. He also sent a dagger through my heart in the 1971 AFC title game when he found a Johnny U pass in his arms and took it back 60+ yards for a soul-crushing score. Almost 50 years later and I'm still not sure I've ever recovered.

Because I like torturing myself I dug up (several) videos of the play on YouTube. The one below is in black and white but it features the NBC call by Curt Gowdy that still haunts me. Curt, of course, was an AFL guy and that came through in every broadcast. In this one, he all but explodes with joy. Funny thing, I never resented Gowdy. He was a fantastic broadcaster. I could stand watching more than I had to of this tape but it appears to be Curt's own analysis of the play from some sort of TV show. Whatever.

So that's the '71 Topps set. I have several more vintage sets complete. A couple have a few empty slots and are awaiting my COMC delivery scheduled for Tuesday.  I hope a few folks are interested in them because I'm going to keep posting 'em whether you like it or not. 😉😄

All in on '71T Football

Putting the 1969 Topps football set to bed didn't stop my interest in sets of that era. I had considered completing one of the Philly Gum sets that I have starter lots of but something else came along. I was sorting through some boxes as part of my hobby 'clean-up' and found a few stars from this '71 Topps set including the only high dollar card, the Terry Bradshaw rookie.

I've always liked the design of this thing. It's colorful and has that goofy cartoon 'position guy' on it. The fact that my Baltimore Colts were coming off a Super Bowl win probably helped. At 263 cards and only a couple of noteworthy rookies (Bradshaw and Joe Greene), it's not hard to complete.

When a Net54 member offered up a decently priced lot I bought it and committed to building the thing. The same guy offered me a second lot later and I nabbed that as well. Between the cards I already owned and the two lots I bought I was at about 100 cards.

Last Saturday's hotel card show netted me over 100 more. Show promoter/friend Darryl had promised to bring a box of them for me to browse, and he didn't disappoint. The cards he had were in great condition and I found almost 100 more that I needed. I found some others at another dealer's table and have since nabbed more on COMC. So just like that, I'm within striking distance of finishing it.

The cards I'm posting are a mix of those I already had and those I've nabbed in the last month. Starting off with one of my favorites, Gene Washington of the Vikes.

Washington as an alum of the school I taught at for much of my career. He came to speak to our kids a couple of times. I got him to sign one of these cards for me but it's part of a display at the school. When I retired I didn't want to take it with me. Here is part of a previous blog post I wrote about Gene Washington in 2017:

His is a pretty remarkable story of growing up as an athlete in Texas. His home town had no high school that would allow blacks so he took a bus to Baytown, across under the Houston Ship Channel, to all black G. W. Carver High School. He played football and ran track and set records against other black high schools in the Prairie View Interscholastic League. 

He went on to become an All American for the Spartans and is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. As for Carver...it's still there in Baytown. It's no longer a 'stepchild' and no longer a high school. I've taught and coached there for nearly 29 years. Gene has visited a few times and is a gracious, soft-spoken gentleman. When I look up from my door at school every day I see a fantastic framed nearly life-sized photo of him in posed action for Michigan State. Next to that are framed banner listing the football, hoops and track state titles the Gene Washington and his schoolmates won while at Carver.

Washington played seven NFL seasons, all for the Vikings. There is a neat video on the Vikings site. It's part of a documentary done by Gene Washington's daughter chronicling his 'road' to Michigan State and the pros. It's well worth the 10 minutes. 

This is the photo I mentioned in that post. It was hard to take a glare-free pic.

And now back to the '71s!

When I was a high school freshman our locker room was so small we shared lockers. My locker mate was a running back whose favorite player was this guy:

The two NFL Conferences were separated by card frame color in 1971. NFC cards were blue. AFC guys got red cards. All-Stars got fancier cards, both red and blue! These bear a strong resemblance to the '75 baseball design. Here's Alan Page.

As great a player as Page was (and trust me, he was terrific!) his accomplishments during his post-playing days dwarf anything he did to gain the Hall of Fame. Page obtained a law degree and went on to serve on the State Supreme Court of Minnesota.

Fran Tarkington made his name with the Vikings, but he still had that scrambling ability that made him famous when he played for the Giants.

The ageless George Blanda. Classic practice field photo on this one. Mis-cuts are a big issue with the '71 football set. Left-to-right, top-to-bottom, it is an equal opportunity challenge. These don't bother me as long as the cut doesn't run through the picture or text. I'd rather have decent corners if given a choice. Wrong backs and severely mis-cut backs are fairly common as well.

Mercury Morris! An electrifying kick return guy and he had his moments as a running back as well. The NFL has changed the rules so that kick returns are no longer much of a factor in games but back in Morris's day, he was a threat to do his 95-yard-momentum-changing thing every time.

Bonus points if you knew his given name is Eugene.

I can't post a group of football cards without a Baltimore Colt in the mix.

And here is my chance to show the back of one of these. Mackey's card has a cartoon that references his role as the Players Association president. It doesn't mention that the same role would influence the closed good ol' boy network of clowns who kept him from induction in Canton until it was almost too late.

Gale Gillingham's card brings to mind Ray Scott, Packer (and CBS) play-by-play man, who I have always considered the best I've ever heard. "Starr............. this is Dowler.......... Touchdown".

Spider Lockhart, a favorite of my Dad.

Charlie Krueger was 33 years old or younger when this shot was taken. I'm serious.

Jackie Smith was a Hall of Fame tight end for the Cardinals and later, the Cowboys. He had a fine career but is mostly remembered for his drop in the end zone in Super Bowl XIII. Another classic practice field card photo. "That's right, hold it up like you just caught it." It was a popular pose back then.

See?

Oh, and I have a better cut Moses waiting for me in my COMC queue.

I included this Don Hermann card because I think he resembles Eli Manning. 🤷

I think all the Raiders were photographed on this field. The photographer had Biletnikoff stand a little closer.

Preston Pearson is shown on a Steelers card but he was photographed when he was with the Colts. (which, BTW, hadn't been the case since May 1970).

Whoever was assigned to take the Colts' pics lined most of them up against that blue brick wall and snapped away. I pulled this page from my Baltimore Colts collection binder:

Check out the two different fonts Topps used for the team name. Lower card numbers have that wider font. Without digging into it I'll assume that corresponds to the two series, 1-131 and 132-263. Once I get my cards sorted I'll check other teams.

The 1970 set used a bunch of these shots as well:

We'll end this with another All-Star, Bob Griese...with an electrical or phone wire running through the pic behind him.

The last dozen or so cards I need for this set are listed over in the sidebar. I've got a nice stack of dupes if you are interested and have something to swap.

If you are not building it but have been thinking of going after a vintage football set... you could do worse than this one.

Collection Status...Part Two

Last week I posted about my progress with my primary set projects. I'll take a little time today to focus on the rest of what I'm working on these days. Public Service Announcement: Slabbed cards in this post will be freed as long as I have a binder page that will fix properly. (That's a PSA..get it? PSA? The grading company. Hell, never mind)

Player Collections, etc.  Nothing new on the Billy Pierce front. I add some oddball items from time to time but the 'White Whales', like his '59 Bazooka card, remain beyond the range of my harpoon.  I do grab vintage of him from cheap card boxes at shows. I just think I hate seeing him in quarter boxes, so undignified! LOL

My PC/Orioles Stars binder has fallen into disrepair lately. That'll get re-done in the next few months. Meanwhile, I discover fun stuff like this Dennis Martinez card by reading other blogs (thanks, Fuji!). It was pretty cheap on eBay and it just showed up.

Likewise, my University of Houston alum cards were put up in a box when I turned my hobby room into a nursery! After all these years I will re-binder them and fill in some gaps, next year probably.

Small/Oddball Sets I recently came across a box I had put away that continued a load of stuff like small Orioles sets, TCMA team sets, 1980s era Kmart and similar 33-card boxed sets, etc, etc. Some of those need to be bindered, many will just get broken up into teams and sent to fellow bloggers. Some will get burned in the fire pit.

Houston Aeros Over the last few years I've pulled this one on and off the 'back burner' of my collecting. Aeros games were fun, cheap entertainment back in the day. My friends and I made it to lots of them, particularly at the old Sam Houston Coliseum in downtown Houston.

A few years ago I decided to collect their team sets from the few companies making WHA cards back then. I already owned the Howe cards so finding the rest wasn't hard. I have all the base Aeros cards from the various O-Pee-Chee sets. I have a couple of the Quaker Oats cards and a few of the 75/76 team issued set. Those latter two sets are very tough.

I also add a few 'retro' set Aeros when I come across them cheap, mostly Gordie Howe cards on which he is shown with Houston.

More hockey...once I finish going through my boxes of stuff and sort out the Rangers I have I may try to finish some team sets.

Non-Sports Cards This covers so much that I will break it down, mostly for my benefit. I think I need to re-assess where I'm going with these. 😏

Batman I have the three original Topps 1966 Batman sets, red, blue and black bat. There are dozens of modern Batman sets and I have a handful. I made it a point to buy the boxed sets that were associated with the first Batman movies. I am nearing 50 Batman sketch cards. Every few months I'll remember to check for cheap sketch cards on eBay. I added this one for a few bucks some time back. I have no current 'goals' when it comes to my Batman collecting.

More or less related to this... my Civil War News set has long been finished. Once in a while I find an upgrade. Topps continues to add to the Mars Attacks franchise. I have several of the reprint/update/continuation sets from this franchise. 


Presidents I finished off a couple of JFK sets in the past two years and am currently working on the '64 Topps LBJ/Goldwater set. I have exactly half of the 66 cards and little hope of finishing it anytime soon. They don't pop up often for sale/auction online.

My vintage Topps/Bowman presidents cards are in a small box, unorganized. That needs fixing. I also have several oddball sets of Presidents/famous historical figures which need bindering. My hodgepodge of oddball & modern presidential cards (Panini, European etc) also needs sorting.

Entertainment My pursuit of the Topps Soupy Sales set has been very slow. Once I found that each card has different possible backs (Topps flipped the sheets in the middle of the press run apparently) I backed off. I need to figure out what I have and what I need which is tough with the cards being unnumbered and the backs being unrelated to the fronts. Ugh.

I continue to add actress and actor cards, from the old tobacco sets thru 'fan' sets of the 50s and 60s. I bought a small lot of Exhibit cards of actresses recently. There is no goal or checklist for this stuff. I just pick up what I like when I find it at reasonable prices.

I came across some boxes of Stranger Things 1 & 2 packs really cheap. My wife and I really enjoy that series, so I bought the boxes. They are under my desk, waiting for a rainy day. 

Baltimore Colts Collection  I still lack some Fleer Super Bowl cards but those are not a priority. I do come across oddball and retro cards here and there.

I have a lot of new postcards and publications but I'm sticking mainly to cards with this post. Those will have to wait for another day.