AFL / NFL Rookies of the Year

Catching up on old Ideas

Just a heads up this can get a bit confusing. You see there were (and still are) several outlets that award the Rookies of the Year in pro football. But they all started in 1955 with The Sporting News (TSN) and United Press International (UPI). 

1955

In 1955 TSN and UPI both agree on Alan Ameche of the Colts. As it turns out, Bowman made a card of Ameche, so nothing for me to do but post it:

1956

In '56 UPI gave the award to another Colt Lenny Moore and Topps had a card of him in the 1956 set. TSN gave it to J.C. Caroline of the Bears. Below is my custom:

1957

TSN and UPI agreed again in 1957 on Jim Brown but Toppps left him out of their set. Another custom from me:

1958

TSN and UPI split again in 1958. TSN gave the ROY to another Browns back, Bobby Mitchell. UPI gave it to Steelers receiver Jimmy Orr. Neither had cards in the 1958 Topps set so here are my customs:

1959

Again TSN went with a back, Nick Pietrosante of the Lions while UPI went with an end, Boyd Dowler of the Packers. And again no Topps cards so here are my customs:

1960

With the creation of the AFL in 1960 things get a bit more complex. Both gave the New AFL award to the Dallas Texanns' Abner Haynes. They also agreed on Gail Cogdill of the Lions for the NFL ROY. Fleer made a card of Haynes but Cogdill was left out of the Topps set. So I made a custom for him:

1961

They were in sync again in 1961 with Charger DE Earl Faison in the AFL and "Da Coach" Mike Ditka in the NFL. This time neither Fleer nor Topps had them included in their sets. Two more customs:

1962

Ditto for 1962. Both TSN and UPI had Curtis McClinton of the Texans and Bears running back Ronnie Bull in their respective leagues. Fleer missed out on McClinton so here's the custom. Topps did have Bull in their 1962 set which is still one of their best looking football sets.

1963

Again in agreement but now neither Topps nor Fleer included the rookies. Here are my customs of Broncos fullback Billy Joe and Vikings receiver Paul Flatley:

1964

In 1964 there was a new award added. The Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) began handing out ROY awards to strictly NFL players. NEA, TSN and UPI all agreed on Charley Taylor. TSN and UPI agreed on Matt Snell.

The trading card game also changed. In 1964 Philadelphia licensed NFL cards and Topps got the license for AFL cards. Topps made a card for Snell of the Jets. They had him listed as FB-LB-DE but he was primarily a fullback as a pro. Philadelphia left Washington receiver Taylor out so here's my custom:

1965

Again in 1965 NEA, TSN and UPI were in agreement and again Topps was on it in the AFL but Philadelphia missed out. Both future Hall of Famers, here is Topps' "Broadway Joe" and a custom Philadelphia card of "The Kansas Comet":

1966

In 1966 things changed. UPI and TSN agreed on Bills running back Bobby Burnett in the AFL. But they split in the NFL with TSN and NEA giving the ROY to Falcons linebacker Tommy Nobis and UPI going with Cardinals halfback Johnny Roland. This time Topps and Philadelphia came up empty.

Ok. You are all caught up. These have all been posted on this sight between 2014 and 2016. I still have a lot to cover. Stay tuned.

1956 Topps J.C. Caroline

It's week 3 of the NFL season and I am just getting around to some more Cards That Never Were for the Rookies of the Year. One of the reasons is that there were several Rookie of the Year Awards. The one that I had been using for reference was the UPI award. The UPI was a press award given out from 1955-1996. 

Although there was much overlap, The Sporting News also handed out annual awards vote upon by NFL players, coaches and executives. The Sporting News began awards in 1955 as well and are still doing it now. 

But it only gets muddier from there. The Newspaper Enterprise Association got into the act in 1964. They continued issuing awards through 1996 and from 1971-1976 they issued two awards. one oa AFC one for NFC, except for the 1974 season. OK got that? Because we're not done yet.

In 1967 the Associated Press got into the game. They issued separate awards for the offensive and defensive Rookies of the Year. They are still issuing that award. In 1969 Pro Football Weekly played the same game, awarding offensive and defensive ROY trophies. The latest ROY is awarded by Pepsi. This began in 2002 and is voted online only by fans at NFL.com. 

I started making these cards quite a while back, in April of 2014, I made a 1957 Rookie Card That Never Was for the great Jim Brown. 

 I noted that the 1955 and 1956 Rookie of the Year winners were given cards by Bowman in 1955 and Topps in 1956, their rookie seasons. However that is not strictly the case. In 1955 Alan Ameche of the Baltimore Colts was the winner of both the UPI and TSN award and he had a card in the 1955 Bowman set.

In 1956 the UPI award was given to another Colts player, Lenny Moore.  Moore had a card in Topps 1956 set.  But The Sporting News awarded the Rookie of the Year did not have a card in 1956. The Bears defensive back / offensive halfback, J.C. Caroline was primarily a defensive back but was used by the Bears as a halfback and kick returner as well through the 1958 season. After that he was used exclusively on defense. 

J.C. Caroline played 2 years at the University of Illinois breaking Red Grange's rushing record before being ruled academically ineligible. He the played in the CFL for the Toronto Argonauts but was placed on waivers the picked up by the Montreal Alouettes. J.C. and the Alouettes beat his former team in the semi finals to advance to the Grey Cup. Montreal lost to the Edmonton Eskimos. The following year J.C. got a degree in Phys Ed from Florida A&M and was drafted by the Bears. In his rookie year with the Bears he picked off 6 passes and ran 2 back for touchdowns. He was the Sporting News Rookie of the Year which meant that the honor was bestowed by his fellow players and coaches.

1957 Topps Jim Brown

In 1957 Jim Brown was named the NFL Rookie of the Year by the United Press as well as the Most Valuable Player by the Associated Press and The Sporting News (Y.A. Tittle was the UPI MVP). The Cleveland Browns 1st pick (6th overall) led the league in rushing his rookie year. He would go on to be the league leading rusher in 8 of his 9 years in the NFL.

I think Topps missed an opportunity when making their 1994 Football Archives set. They could have included cards like this one and cards of the other key players and rookies missing from the original set similar to the Baseball Archives sets.

In 1955 United Press International began recognizing the top rookie in the NFL. Since then there have been several incarnations of the NFL Rookie of the Year award. Many of them were overlapping. But NFL cards have lagged badly. Oddly the very first ROYs were included in the 1955 Bowman and 1956 Topps sets.

But from 1957 until 1988 there was exactly 4 ROYs included in all the sets from Topps, Fleer and Philadelphia. 1 NFL and 2 AFL ROYs from Topps and 1 AFL ROY from Fleer.

 It wasn't until 1989 when rookies began to appear.  In 1989 Topps added a "Traded" series. That series was in response to the new competition from Score and Pro Set who included several rookie players in their sets.