1963 Fleer Billy Joe

Like the 1963 NFL Rookie of the Year, Paul Flatley, Billy Joe was drafted both by the NFL and AFL, In the 9th round by the Redskins and in the 11th round by the Broncos. In his AFL Rookie of the Year season, Billy Joe rushed for 646 yards and 4 touchdowns. He had another TD receiving along with 90 yards for a total of 736 all-purpose yards. 

In 1965 he was traded to the Bills for Cookie Gilchrist. Billy Joe was selected to play in the AFL All Star Game and helped the Bills win their second consecutive AFL Championship. He played 7 years all in the AFL. In addition to the Broncos and Bills, he played for the Miami Dolphins and the New York Jets. 

After his playing days he became a successful college football coach. In his 33 years coaching he won 243 games, second only to Grambling's Eddie Robinson among historically black colleges.

1963 Fleer Football Checklist - Cards That Never Were - 28th Series

Another checklist and I am literally running out of decent checklists to poach. I may have to start repeating or maybe abandon the checklists altogether. This series spans from the World Series in October until February. Mainly due to the 2 month break I took. There is plenty of my obsession with Rookies in this series. There are Football Rookies of the Year, a R.O.Y. card for Dave Righetti, multi-player rookie cards from Fleer & Donruss, and my latest endeavor Rating the Rookies. As usual all the cards I made for this series along with the 27th series can be seen here. Or just click on the checklists in the right margin.

1963 Ron Santo

Here is a side by side comparison between the 1963 Topps football and baseball cards. In 1963 Topps produced football cards for the NFL while the AFL appeared on Fleer cards

Fleer also began making cards of current baseball players in 1963 only to be halted after only 66 cards. Ron Santo was one of the players to appear in that set. So we have the opportunity to view them side by side as well.