Some 1975 Topps Football Customs

 As I mentioned before, I'm organizing and trying to complete some Topps football sets that I've had since I was a kid.  I am making binder covers for them so that they look nice on my shelf.  And of course, I decided that all of the cards featured on these binders would be "Cards That Never Were".  I've made literally thousands of cards for this blog in the decade plus that I've been sporadically posting.  However, football cards have been few and far between.  So now I am making a few cards simply for the sake of my binders, and here is the completed binder cover:

Most of these have been published on this blog.  Bartkowski and Brazile were both Rookies of the Year in 1975. Click Here. The Divisional Playoff cards were just published yesterday. Click Here.  I took the Vikings-Cardinals card for my binder. And Joe Namath on his potential WFL Chicago Winds card was posted a few weeks back. Click Here.

I am a "homer" and I readily admit it.  So you knew I needed to have a bears card.  The Rookie Stars card was a Topps baseball standard of the 60s and 70s, but not football. So here's what a 1975 Bears Rookie Stars card would look like with the classic backfield tandem of Walter Payton and Roland Harper.

The final two include a "normal" card of George Blanda and a 1974 "Highlights" card of Emerson Boozer.  In 1974 the NFL added a sudden death overtime to the rules, and the first player to score a walk-off touchdown was Enerson Boozer.  It was a short path from Joe Namath.

 In 1975 Blanda had 2 "special" cards.  Both close ups of his profile and different layout than the standard card. I really didn't care for either, so I had to make a "regular" card for him. 

Here are his actual 1975 cards:

1975 NFL Rookies of the Year

 In 1975 there were still 5 different organizations who awarded Rookie of the Year titles to NFL players. AP, UPI, NEA, Pro Football Weekly and The Sporting News.  That year there were 11 different awards split among 3 recipients.

The player all five organizations agreed upon was Oilers linebacker Robert Brazile. Houston drafted him with the 6th pick of the first round, just two picks behind his Jackson State teammate, Walter Payton.  Like sweetness, he would be enshrined in Canton, OH.  He played all 10 of his NFL Seasons with the Oilers and was selected to 7 Pro Bowls.  He is also on the Titans/Oilers "Ring of Honor".

Mike Thomas was named NFC Rookie of the Year by UPI.  He was Offensive ROY according to AP and shared the Pro Football Weekly Offensive ROY award with Steve Bartkowski.  Thomas was the lowest draft selection among the three ROYs.  He was picked in the 5th round by Washington from UNLV.  He ran for 919 yards in his rookie campaign. In 1976 he rushed for 1101 and was selected for the Pro Bowl. In his 6 year NFL career he had 6207 total yards from scrimmage for the Redskins and the Chargers.

The first pick of the 1975 NFL draft was Steve Bartkowski from the University of California, Berkley.  He was All American for the Cal Bears and led the nation in 1974 with 2580 passing yards. In addition to sharing the PFW Offensive ROY award with Mike Thomas, he earned NFC ROY honors from the NEA and The Sporting News.  In all he played 11 seasons with the Falcons and one with the Rams. He was a Pro Bowl selection twice.

1962 Topps George Blanda

Fifty eight years ago today, George Blanda tossed 6 TD passes.  The Oilers beat the NY Titans (later the Jets) 56-17.  The 1962 Topps Football set is definitely one of my favorite designs.  But in 1962 Topps made cards for the NFL and Fleer made AFL cards.  Fortunately, I don't have to follow those rules.

 

1968 Alt-Topps *Football Edition*

A Tribute to Bart Starr

First a tribute to Bart Starr who past away last week. He died the day before Bill Buckner, to whom I have already paid tribute. As much as it pains me (a lifelong Bears fan), I have to respect the man if not the uniform. A five Time NFL Champion including the first 2 Super Bowls. He was also MVP of those Super Bowls. The accolades go on for this first-ballot Hall of Famer, but I won't.

When looking for a suitable card to make, I decided to use one of the discarded Topps demo card designs. This was one of the football card mock-ups among the Topps baseball card prototypes I have been experimenting with.

Overall, it is a pretty cool design. But I'm not sure where to begin when stating what's not right with this mock-up.  Let's start with the obvious, that is a close-up of a basketball.  Not a football.  

Second, that is not Paul Warfield. It is Jimmy Warren.  That photo was taken from his 1968 Topps card.  But we're not done yet. That card has him on the Dolphins but the photo is obviously him in a Chargers uniform. He played for the Chargers in 1964 and 65. The Dolphins took him in 1966 durning the AFL's first expansion draft.

Color photos of football players in that era are pretty hard to find.  I tried unsuccessfully to find one of Warren in a Dolphins uniform. The search did turn up one interesting photo over and over.  Warren was infamously the last man to beat on Franco Harris's "Immaculate Reception". At this time he was wearings a Raiders uniform.

Here is a card that actually features Paul Warfield with a football in the background instead of a basketball. Warfield played for the Browns and Dolphins from 1964-1974. In 1975 he and Dolphins teammates Larry Csonka and Jim Kiick joined the WFL Memphis Grizzlies (AKA Southmen). He returned to the NFL and the Browns in 1976.

And here is a similar treatment for Jimmy Warren.  Alas, I had no luck in finding a color photo of him on the Dolphins so I re-used the same photo on the original prototype.

I also created a few more. First were the eventual MVPs of the 1968 season from their respective leagues.  Joe Namath for the AFL and Earl Morrall of the NFL.

After a pre-season injury to Unitas, Morrall led the Colts to a 13-1 record and ultimately Superbowl III.  After 3 interceptions he was pulled and Unitas was reinstated. But the damage had been done. The AFL Jets beat the heavily favored NFL Colts.

I felt the need to balance these offensive MVPs with defensive stars. So I chose the defensive MVPs from their respective all star games. Although these games were technically played in 1969, they were played by the 1968 season all star selections.

 

The MVP of the AFL All Star game was George Webster. He was the AFL rookie of the year in 1967 as selected by United Press International. He was an All Star selection in each of his first 3 seasons.

In the NFL, Merlin Olsen was co-MVP of the 1969 Pro Bowl along with Rams teammate Roman Gabriel. Olsen was a Pro Bowler 14 of his 15 NFL seasons and was a first ballot Hall of Famer.  

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Just a footnote here: football sets of this era were pretty small. The actual 1968 Topps set was only 219 cards which was actually the largest football set they had issued to date. It was also the first to contain both NFL and AFL players since 1961. These sets contained almost no cards that were not player cards. In 1956 and 1957-1964 Topps also had team cards. The 1961 set also included a handful of "Highlights" cards.  The team cards never really returned. In the late 70s they added team-leader cards. It wasn't until 1972 that Topps had anything other than basic player cards and checklists. In 1972 they went all out. Topps added All-Pro cards, post season cards, leader cards and "Pro Action" cards. That set contained 348 cards and moved football cards into a new era.

The point of this abbreviated history on Topps football cards?  It's my way of saying, "this is it."  I won't be making any additional subsets.  If I ever did choose to make football subsets, I think I would make them for the existing Topps (or Fleer or Philadelphia) football sets. If there is interest, I will make a couple requests. Just be aware of the scarcity of useable player photos from this era.  So I may not be able to cover your request, but I will try.

1967 NFL / AFL Rookies of the Year

In case you were wondering why my last post was a recap of cards I already posted, it is because the last post was two and a half years ago. Even I forgot where I left off. Plus I had a bunch more NFL/AFL rookie Cards That Never Were all set to post. I just needed to do a little research.

Since I need to clean up a few abandoned projects, this seems like a good place to start.

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Another year, another award. In 1967 the Associated Press (AP) started their own awards for offensive and defensive Rookies of the Year. So the Breakdown is this: AP offensive: Mel Farr, defensive: Lem Barney. NEA: Mel Farr. TSN AFL: Dickie Post. NFL: Mel Farr. UPI AFL: George Webster, NFL: Mel Farr.

1967 was the first year of  what was called "the common draft". Instead of 2 separate AFL and NFL drafts competing for players, the two leagues participated in a single draft. This was an early part of the eventual merger of the leagues. Webster and Farr were both first round picks. Barney went in the 2nd and Post in the 4th round.

In 1967 the NFL football cards were still being produced by Philadelphia. Topps was still producing the AFL cards. Neither set included any of the four Rookie of the Year award winners. In fact, none of these award winners would be put onto cardboard until the 1970 set. That's right nothing for the first 3 seasons for any of them. Wow.

Mel Farr was the clear winner. He won all 4 AP, NEA, TSN and UPI Rookie of the year awards. The halfback out of UCLA primarily played fullback his rookie season in Detroit. He had 1177 combined rushing and receiving yards and 6 touchdowns. He made the Pro Bowl his rookie year as well. He had knee injuries requiring surgeries in both 1968 and 1969. He played for the Lions until after the 1973 season. Detroit traded him to the Oilers and he announced his retirement 12 days later

The AP chose Farr's teammate and future Hall of Famer, Lem Barney, as the defensive Rookie of the Year. The 7-time Pro Bowler from Jackson State played for the Lions his entire career as well. He retired after the 1977 season.

The Sporting News chose Chargers halfback, Dickie Post AFL ROY. His best season was 1969 when he led the AFL with 873 yards rushing. The University of Houston alumni spent most of his career in San Diego. He played briefly for the Broncos before returning to Houston for the final 7 games in 1971.

UPI's choice for AFL ROY was Oilers linebacker George Webster. The Michigan State product was an AFL All-Star in each of his first three seasons. He played 10 seasons in the pros for the Oilers, Steelers and Patriots.