Baltimore Colts Card History Pt. 2... the late 50's

1956 Topps #60 Lenny Moore

1956 saw Topps take over Bowman and this marks the first year of their football set.

1956 Topps

The first Topps effort strongly resembles the final Bowman one. The posed shots are set against a red/orange background. The 'colt over the crossbar' logo returns but it's more of a closeup than a full logo. It appears that each team's cards had a consistent color and it seems that it's a coincidence that the Colts had the same background color two years in a row. There are ten Colts cards in the 120 card set including the Colts team card and I've acquired all ten. This season saw the first team cards produced for football. The first checklists are also part of the '56 Topps set and at the prices I've seen I'm glad they are not on my wantlist.

1956 Topps #72 Jim Mutscheller 

1956 Topps #48 Baltimore Colts Team Card

The backs didn't change much from the previous season. They are again red and black but now contain vitals, a blurb, simple stat line and a cartoon.

The team card has a write-up and a listing of team record holders.

Lenny Moore's card is his rookie and it's the most expensive of the team set but it's not unreasonable in decent shape. Mine is way off-center and has a crease but it's mighty fine nonetheless. I love the classic pose he's striking on his card. The back is dominated by text as he obviously has no previous NFL stats.

1957 Topps

In 1957 Topps made a great leap away from the Bowman 'template' with a set of horizontal cards featuring two shots of each player, a portrait and a posed action photo. Each team had their own combination of colors. The Colts cards were all orange and green with the players names in a box done in either black or white on green. Player positions and the team nickname were black on white. No team logos were used. This was the first year that Topps issued cards in what we have come to know as the 'standard' size.

There are 13 Colts in the set and I have completed it. The cards are not terribly pricey except for the John Unitas and Ray Berry rookie cards. I've bought, sold and re-bought the Unitas rookie. I picked up a Berry card at the last card show I attended. It has a crease the length of the white strip between the two photos and wouldn't get much of a grade but in a binder page the crease isn't all that noticible and I knew I'd never find another copy for $20 in usable condition.

Billy Vessels whose picture is reused from the '56 set, was no longer active in 1957. He had been a Heisman winning college star at Oklahoma who played in Canada and served in the Army before his one NFL season.

1957 Topps #29 Billy Vessels

1957 Topps #17 Art Spinney

This Spinney card is faded to the point his background appears to be yellow, but the card is actually orange in better conditioned copies. Like the Marchetti card below my scanner did it no favors. They both look much better in hand than to do in these scans.

1957 Topps #5 Gino Marchetti

Topps didn't revise the backs as much as they did the fronts from prior years. The colors remained the same. In a layout that follows the front design there are sis-by-side sections with the left containing vitals, a paragraph blurb and, for skill players, stats. The right side has two cartoons.

Topps included checklist cards in the set but team cards took a year off. Following the breathrough 1957 set Topps issued football sets the next two years that foreshadowed the following spring's baseball issue.

1958 Topps

Real photo backgrounds, circular photos and card color variety highlight the '58 Colts cards. These cards with their oval posed photos resemble the 1959 baseball set. 

There are ten Colts players in the '58 set plus the team card and I have completed it. Eight of the players cards are framed with orange while the clubs two running backs, L.G. Dupree (yellow) and Lenny Moore (red) are exceptions to that rule. Most of the players are shown in posed action while Moore and DB Milt Davis have portraits. 

As far as prices go the Unitas card, as expected, tops the list. In fact the Unitas card is the most costly card to acquire in any upcoming team set until you get to a handful of 1972 high numbers. 

1958 Topps #120 Raymond Berry

The iconic (well, it is!)  horseshoe helmet makes it's first card appearance this year. It's tucked under the arm of DB/kicker Bert Rechichar.  The players are still wearing the old jerseys with three sleeve stripes. The 'UCLA loops' a.k.a. shoulder loops were adopted in '58 but don't appear until the 1959 cards. 

1958 Topps #74 Bert Rechichar

1958 Topps #117 L.G. "Long Gone" Dupre

The '58 Colts team card is one of my favorites as it shows them in what seems to be a training camp shot and, unlike the upcoming '59 baseball team cards, retains the background to the photo. Add in the old school logo and it's a winner in my eyes.

1958 Topps #110 Baltimore Colts Team Card

The card backs in '58 are the first to employ a 'gimmick', this one being a 'Football Fun' question whose answer is revealed by rubbing the box with the edge of a coin.

The rest of the gaudy red card backs were pretty mainstream with vitals, bios and numbers.

The back of the team card had to be music to the ears of young Colts fans back then. It foretells the soon-to-be championship the club would bring home that fall.

1959 Topps

Topps 1960 baseball set with it's gaudy alternating color lettering received a 'trial run' with the 1959 football set. As defending champs the Colts apparently earned a bigger share of the checklist. There are 15 Colts players included as well as a checklist-backed team photo card and a team pennant card. I recently picked up the pennant card and finished this year off.  

1959 Topps #17 Baltimore Colts Team card/First Series checklist

1959 Topps #68 Baltimore Colts Pennant card

Mostly posed action shot again dominate the team with backgrounds in orange, yellow, pink-red and one green. Johnny Unitas, coming off his remarkable rise to the top of the league in 1958 got the honor of having card #1 in the set.

The leaping colt logo returns, minus the crossbar. Interestingly the little colt has a helmet which is 'white' on some of the cards and colored either light or dark blue on others. There is no rhyme nor reason for the variation as far as card background color or card numbering. I suspect that it is all due to printing variations /flaws. I see some variations of shading on different copies of the same card which also would make it seem like part of the printing process.

The logo colts' white and dark blue helmets can be seen on the Mutscheller and Unitas cards below.

1959 Topps #89 Jim Mutscheller

1959 Topps #1 Johnny Unitas, the Greatest Football Player Ever (Well, he is!)

The team photo card has the Series One Topps checklist on the reverse (see below). The same checklist appears on other team photo cards. Others later in the set carry the Series Two checklist. 

The player card backs and the pennant card back follow a fairly similar layouts, The pennant card has a blurb about the Colts championship and then a 'magic' football question for which the answer is revealed by rubbing the space with a coin. That's just like it was done in 1958.

The player cards have vitals and stats for the 'skill position' players with a short paragraph replacing those stats in all other players (linemen, etc).

Topps was done, at least for awhile, as a football card monopoly after 1959. Fleer entered the picture with an AFL set in 1960 and went head to head with Topps with NFL cards in 1961. Those sets and more will kick off the next post in this Baltimore Colts card history series.

EDIT 10/7/2017

The remarkable blog, The Topps Archive, has posted a truly great and rare find. It's a football counterpart to the 1959 Bazooka baseball set. The cards came on the back of 20 piece gum boxes. Lo and behold the example posted on the blog is of Colts' fullback Alan Ameche.

There is more about this rare and beautiful set in this entry at SCD online. the checklist is below. In addition to Ameche John Unitas appears in the set. There is a third Colts card but that one is a Colts card with a huge asterisk... Giants qb Chuck Conerly is labeled as a Colt but a corrected version fixes his team affiliation. Both versions are very rare as is this set in general. Looks like I have a coupls of new white whales!

• Alan Ameche Baltimore Colts
• Jon Arnett Los Angeles Rams
• Jim Brown Cleveland Browns
• Rick Casares Chicago Bears
• Chuck Conerly ERR Baltimore Colts
• Chuck Conerly COR New York Giants
• Howie Ferguson Green Bay Packers
• Frank Gifford New York Giants
• Lou Groza Cleveland Browns
• Bobby Layne Pittsburgh Steelers
• Eddie LeBaron Washington Redskins
• Woodley Lewis ERR Chicago Cardinals
•  Ollie Matson Los Angeles Rams
• Joe Perry         San Francisco 49ers
• Pete Retzlaff Philadelphia Eagles
• Tobin Rote Detroit Lions
• Y.A. Tittle San Francisco 49ers
• Tom Tracy Pittsburgh Steelers
• Johnny Unitas Baltimore Colts

Here's the Johnny U as seen on the Trading Card Database....

And the Conerly error from the same site:

Baltimore Colts Card History Pt. 1... the early 50's

 1950 Bowman #112 Billy Stone

As I've worked to complete the Baltimore Colts vintage card checklist I've toyed with different ideas about presenting it here. I fully realize that football posts don't get much readership but then again if it was readership I was after I'd stick to newer baseball stuff. I've decided, after all this time, just to post what I feel like posting and have fun with it. So there ya go. My plan is to do at least two for each decade of the team's history and show the evolution of the cards. I'll scan a variety of cards within each set to give a good idea of the set's 'flavor'.

Most of the emphasis will be on the major card issues, i.e. Topps, Fleer, Bowman and Philly Gum but I will also post cards from other sets, Kelloggs for example and try to show the various inserts that came with the base cards. Most of those inserts are Topps products in the 1970s.

The Colts can trace their history back quite a way. The franchise was part of the All American Football Conference which formed in 1946. But due to not being able to find a stadium deal they folded up their tent before playing a game, 'moved' to Miami and played there as the Seahawks. That Miami club lasted one rocky season and relocated back to Baltimore as the 'Colts' and played in the AAFL through 1949.

1950 Bowman

The AAFC merged three teams (Colts, Browns, 49ers) into the NFL for 1950 and thus began the life of the team I grew up worshiping. The 1950 Colts are represented in the only major football set of that season, the gorgeous Bowman effort.

 1950 Bowman #77 Bob Kelly

The Colts were still wearing green and white back then and the cards are the 'standard Bowman size' and feature painted photos. There is a fairly even mix of horizontal and vertical orientation among the cards. The backs were printed in blue, red and black with basic player info and a paragraph of text. The back is dominated, at least visually, by the Bowman 'Five Star Football Series' logo.

I lack two of the 11 cards in the 1950 Colts set including the Y.A. Tittle card which is considered his rookie card. It's the most expensive card out there among the 50s decade of Colts' cards other than the '57 Unitas rookie. It's going to take patience to find a reasonably priced Tittle in decent shape.

The Colts finished the 1950 season with a 1-11 mark and they were disbanded by the NFL. Two seasons of no football in Baltimore followed before the Colts re-entered the carrying the shell of the Dallas Texans franchise. 1953 is considered the first year of the long-time Colts franchise. Bowman once again produced an NFL set. That year the cards were larger, the 'standard' size matched the baseball sets of the day.

1953 Bowman

The '53 Colts inherited the colors (blue and white) and some of the players of the defunct Dallas Texans franchise.

 1953 Bowman #19 George Taliaferro

 1953 Bowman #30 Buddy Young

There are only six Colts in the 96 card Bowman set of 1953. Like the 1950 set there is an assortment of horizontal and vertical cards. The big white football with name and team dominates each card. The backs, printed in red and black feature name, card # and vitals across the top. Below that you'll find two of  three elements depending on the players position. Backs and ends have 'Records for last season' and an 'Officials Signals' cartoon. Lineman have the Officials Signals and a Football Quiz.

1954 Bowman Colts

 1954 Bowman #14 Fred Enke

I see the '54 set as a step up from the previous season if for no other reason than the pennant which replaced the football. I'm a sucker for the old 'Colt over the crossbar' logo and it makes it's first card appearance with the '54 set.

 1954 Bowman #  Tom Keane 

Most of the 11 Colts in the set are shown in posed action shots. One notable exception is Buddy Young whose portrait will be reused in the '55 set.

1954 Bowman #38 Buddy Young

The red and black backs of the cards are very similar to the '53 cards. The elements are nearly identical but they have been rearranged. 

1955 Bowman Colts

1955 Bowman #118 Royce Womble

In the final year of Bowman football (they were bought out by Topps for 1956) they departed from the two previous issues. There are ten Colts in the set and they are shown with a 'halo effect' on a background that can only be described as red/pink/orange.

1955 Bowman #20 Bert Rechichar

Most of the cards are posed action shots but again Buddy Young had the close-up portrait. The background on Young's card isn't as vibrant as the others and his photo is 'washed out' a bit. I thought it was just my copy but it's the same on every one I find to some extent.

 1955 Bowman #65 Buddy Young 

In their last set Bowman changes the orientation of the card backs to horizontal. But other than that the backs are very similar. Colors and elements are about the same as the previous three years. 

Topps took over production of the NFL licensed cards in 1956 and their first set is very reminiscent of Bowman's last one. That Topps '56 set will kick off the next post in this little series.

Baltimore Colts' Card History Pt. 10...1982 & 1983 The Final Chapter

1982 Topps

The 1982 Topps set marks the beginning of the end of the once-proud franchise that was part of my very soul up to that point. With Frank Kush at the helm and a moronic drunk as owner the team stumbled to an 0-8-1 in a strike year that could have wiped out the whole season as far as I was concerned. They were coming off a 2-14 campaign that, as I recall, caused even my very religious aunt to take the Lord's name in vain.

Topps was celebrating their new-found ability to use NFL Logos and put the teams' helmet right there on the front of the card. In a set that numbered 528 cards the Colts got ten players and a team leader card. They were not given an In Action card for any of the included players nor did they have any All Pros. Like I said, it was a lousy time in Colts history.

The purple and yellow pennant containing the player name and position is at least a different color combo than what the Colts had been getting. Sideline and pregame shots dominated. The Bert Jones card is one of my favorites if I don't think too hard about the era it represents.

The card backs were fairly easy to read with the blue and gold motif. The players got stats, a fact blurb, and vital info. Some cards also had a team stat or record depending on whether or not the player stats allowed for the space.

The team leader card didn't have a checklist in the back this time. They listed the team's 1981 game-by-game results. Not pleasant reading for Colts' fans. On a positive note the Colts beat the Pats to open and close the season! The checklists were now back to being the traditional kind with the entire set listed on four cards which were the finals numbers in the set.

There was only one more year of Baltimore Colts' cards coming. Colt fans were beginning to hear rumblings of a possible move. Me? I was hoping the drunk jerk in charge would drive off a bridge.

1982 Fleer

Another year, another set of Fleer. By now everyone knows the drill....two cards showcasing the team, one for each of the Super Bowls they played in.

Fleer Stickers

There were a couple of different sticker inserts in the Fleer packs. I have a huge stack of Colts stickers but other than these with schedule backs it's hard to figure out which year they were distributed in. 

Topps Stickers

Topps produced another sticker set in '82. this one had yellow borders. Nothing out of the ordinary here.

Kelloggs' Poster

This is my favorite '82 Colts item. I wasn't aware of these until I began this project. The players are 'generic' but the artwork is pretty good. The poster unfolds to about 8x10 inches.

I've scanned and posted the back of the poster even though it's hard to read. There is a Super Bowl 'Sweepstakes' that takes up most of it. These posters were issued for all the NFL teams (I assume) and can be found for less than $10. Mine was very cheap because it has a stain. But from the front you really don't even notice it as it appears to be part of the artwork.

1983 Topps

The last set of Baltimore Colts as issued by Topps were simple and, at least to my eye, attractive. No more pennants or banners. Just the team name that didn't overwhelm the photo and a name/position box. Red and yellow returned as the Colts' accent color. There were just eleven Colts cards including the leaders card. Topps had cut the set back to less than 400 cards. No Colts were featured on league leaders or season highlights cards. The checklists were once again at the end of the set and were not team specific.

The backs were done in red/pink combo and all the text/stats were sumperimposed on a team helmet silhouette. The usual info was enhanced with a 'personal data' blurb that listed such things as hobbies, marital status, etc.

The team leader card took on a slightly different appearance in '83. One player was featured and the other category leaders were listed to the right. The backs again listed the previous season's scores.

1983 Fleer

Fleer issued the usual suspects, a pair of team cards and the Super Bowl cards. I think that as a kid I'd have gotten really tired of the same old thing year after year.

Fleer Stickers

Nothing new with their stickers either. Except the updated schedule. 

Topps Stickers

Standard stickers from Topps. No color borders or special stickers, at least as far as the Colts were concerned.

The End of the Line

The spring of 1983 had brought the John Elway draft fiasco to Colt fans and it cast a pall over the season. But Colt fans hadn't seen the worst of it. Not by a long shot. Fulfilling the rumors that had swirled through Baltimore for years, in the early morning of March 29, 1984 the Colts snuck off to Indianapolis in Mayflower vans packed by members of U of Maryland's Sigma Chi fraternity. The amazing story of that move is chronicled here. And thus ended the life of my revered Baltimore Colts. I was working nights at the now defunct Houston Post in those days. I'll always remember my wife waking me up to watch the story as it was being reported on the Today Show.

This Baltimore Colts' card history project was conceived as a two post 'epic'. I was going to show one card from each year's set and be done with it. But after picking up so many interesting cards, particularly from the 50s and 60s, I knew that I wanted to do more. And along the way I kept coming up with inserts and oddball issues that grabbed my attention. I included them even if no one else had much interest.

I'm not done quite yet. I have added quite a few additional items to my Baltimore Colts binder and I'll post them in the future.