1966 Topps Bobby Burnett

1966 AFL Rookie of the Year

With an exciting MLB postseason behind us, I can get back to where I left off. And that is making cards for all the NFL/AFL Rookies of the Year. I've posted cards from 1955-1965, but in 1966 it starts to get even more diverse with more and more ROY awards given out.

We'll start 1966 with Bobby Burnett, a player that both United Press International and The Sporting News agreed should be awarded the Rookie of the Year for the AFL. Burnett was drafted by both the Bills in the AFL and the Bears in the NFL. He chose not to share a backfield with 1965 Rookie of the Year, Gale Sayers. 

He had 1185 all-purpose yards and 8 touchdowns for the Bills and earned a spot on the All Star team. After winning the ROY, his 1967 season began with cracked ribs in training camp.  Burnett was used sparingly to protect his ribs. Then in a game against the Jets he took a hit to the knee that ended his career. The knee was dislocated, the tibia was broken. Cartilages and ligaments were torn. 

In 1968 he was picked up by the Bengals in the expansion draft but he was not healthy enough to play. In 1969 he signed with the Denver Broncos but played in just 3 games. He was given the ball a total of 5 time for just 9 net yards. He retired at the age of 26.

1966 Topps Football Checklist - Cards That Never Were - 25th Series

A bit of a tight squeeze getting all 25 cards into that small space. This series includes my Royals top-5, all 16 1980 Rookie of the Year candidates and the All Star Honorary Captains from 1978. 1979 and 1980. Unfortunately it also included 3 tributes: Don Zimmer, Chuck Noll, and Tony Gwynn. If you want to see all the cards from this series in one place click here.

#1 - How The Grinch Stole Christmas

My Top 5 Christmas Cartoons

Over the Christmas holiday I thought I would post my favorite Christmas Cartoons and/or Animated Specials.  In keeping with the theme of this blog, I made cards of them from their "rookie" season.  

My number 1 pick is The Grinch. Not the dreadful Ron Howard movie either. The original Boris Karloff narrated animated classic. It made it's TV debut in 1966. I decided to go with the Topps football card from that year. It just seemed more appropriate.

Merry Christmas to all. I will start posting again after the New Year. 

1966 Ron Santo

In 1966 Topps again "shared" its football card design with its hockey set from the same year. It also "borrowed" quite a bit from the 1955 Bowman design. Never-the-less it made for a nice looking card.

Again a bland design for Philadelphia football cards in 1966. Were they even trying? I could understand the lackluster design, if they were blowing us away with awesome photography. But Philadelphia football cards were mostly head and shoulder pictures. Once again I substituted the Cubs logo for NFL logo.