1960 Topps Football Cards as Baseball Cards

This is a two-for-one Cards That Never Were post.  Continuing on with my posts of baseball cards using the Topps football card designs, I found something unusual.  In 1960 there was no card of that year's eventual MVP.  Norm Van Brocklin was in the final year of his Hall of Fame career. He led the Eagle to an NFL Championship that year.  So that needed to be rectified first.

Next onto the baseball version.  I chose the 1960 AL MVP, Roger Maris for this card.  I needed to alter it a bit by using a colorful baseball image instead of the colored football image Topps used on the 1960 card.  Ultimately, it reminded me of the 1964 Topps Giant baseball cards except with a colored baseball,

1958 Topps Football Cards as Baseball Cards

 It's funny looking at the Topps football cards and seeing hints of what's in store for future Topps baseball cards.  These 1958 football cards hint at the 1959 baseball card design.  Here is the 1958 Topps rookie card of Eagles/Redskins Hall of Fame QB Sonny Jurgensen side by side with 1958 NL MVP "Mr. Cub", Ernie Banks.

1973 NFL Rookies of the Year

1973 still had 10 different Rookie of the Year awards. Associated Press and Pro Football Weekly had offensive and defensive awards. The Sporting News, United Press International and the Newspaper Enterprise Association all had awards for both AFC and NFC. These ten awards were distributed to 4 different rookies. As was the norm in that era, none of them had cards in the 1973 Topps set.

Chuck Foreman was the recipient of the 1973 AP award for offensive Rookie of the Year. The Vikings fullback was also a receiving threat. He had 1163 combined yards with 4 rushing TDs and 2 receiving TDs.  He was selected to the Pro Bowl his rookie year. He would make the Pro Bowl 5 times during his career.

Wally Chamber came into the NFL with a Pro Bowl afro.  A sack threat before sacks were an official stat, Chambers was a Pro Bowler his first year. He was given 2 defensive Rookie of the Year Awards from Pro Football Weekly and the Associated Press. An injury during the All Pro game in January of  1977 cut his career short. He missed most of the '77 season and was traded to Tampa Bay in 1978. He retired in 1979.

With three AFC Rookie of the Year Awards (Sporting News, UPI and NEA) the Bengals 12th round pick really paid off.  He was primarily an offensive lineman in college.  Due to injuries, he was put in the backfield and caught the eye of Paul Brown. He rushed for 988 yards and 8 TDs his rookie year.

Leading the pack with 4 different Rookie of the year honors was Charle Young.  Young's first name was often misspelled on his cards as Charles, Charlie or Charley.  In fact, Topps misspelled his name "Charlie" on the front of his 1984 card, and misspelled his name "Charley" on the back of the same card.  Young was the starting Pro Bowl tight end after his rookie season.  He played 13 season for the Eagles, Rams, 49ers and Seahawks.

1971 Topps Adrian Young - Error Card Corrected

In case you were wondering, Yes! I will do requests. 

Jim from Downingtown suggested that I create a card for Adrian Young that featured his actual photo. The original card featured a photo of Rick Duncan who was a punter on the 1968 team. 

Adrian Young was the captain of the 1967 national champion USC Trojans. He lived in Ireland until he was 10 and ironically had his defining game against the Fighting Irish in 1967 when he tied a conference record with 4 interceptions.

A quick search of the internet resulted in no color pictures of Adrian Young in an Eagles uniform, but Jim provided this great action shot. So I went horizontal on it. Jim also provided the research on who all the other players are pictured in this shot.

"Adrian Young is in the center of the photo, wearing a very un-linebacker-ish #35. He is fighting off a block from Giants' backup TE #87 Rich Kotite (who would later coach the Eagles after the Buddy Ryan years). The Giants' tackle is #77 Dick Hanson (his only season in the league). The running back appears to be wearing #34, which would be Junior Coffey. The other Eagles are #24 safety-turned-cornerback, Nate Ramsey and #83 defensive tackle Don Hultz."

Here is the original 1971 Topps card of featuring Rick Duncan: 

And here is a BONUS CTNW of Rick Duncan on a 1968 Topps card. 1968 was the only season Duncan actually saw action in an Eagles uniform.

Once again I want to thank Jim for his suggestion. I had fun and learned a little by making these cards. Keep 'em coming.

Jim from Downingtown has several card related blogs. His blogs specialize on a single set/year providing insight into the individual cards from that set. Those blogs include football cards from 1967, 1968, 1971 and 1972. and baseball cards from 1963, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969 and 1970. He also has a 1960s Baseball blog. Click on any of the hyperlinks to go to his corresponding blog page. Let's face it, if you've read this far down on this page, you are as big a card-geek as I am and you will enjoy his work.