AFL Introduction

From 1964-1967, the NFL cards were printed by the Philadelphia Gum Company. Topps only printed AFL cards during those 4 seasons. Beginning in 1968, the Topps set included NFL and AFL players, so this is the last AFL-only set.

Here are the 2 checklists. Unlike the baseball sets, the Topps (and Philly Gum) football sets were organized by team prior to 1968.

These are marked with all the cards I have, except that I have all of the Chiefs' cards (except Bert Coan). Last year I bought all the Chiefs cards (previously having only the the Curtis McClinton card) so that I would have all the 1966 AFL champion cards.  But Coan's card was double the price of any other Chief, so I passed.  I mean, who is Bert Coan?  I never heard of him.


I only bought one pack of AFL cards in 1967, which included these:

Each pack included an insert card, showing a pennant. At first glance it looks like a legitimate sports team, but the fine print says otherwise. The Air Force card came in my first pack.

I got this one years later, but it's my only other one, so here it is.

The AFL card backs look like this:

I have most of the Chiefs, Dolphins, and Chargers cards, but only a few of the others.

NFL set wrap-up

The cards for all 16 NFL teams in the 1967 Philadelphia Gum set have been posted, so now it's time to wrap-up the loose ends.

There were 2 checklist cards. I have all the cards in the set, but did not check off the last two (Don Meredith, Bart Starr) that I got after starting this blog.

Each team card (except the Saints) had a referee signal described on the back. Since there are more than 15 signals,  the next 2 cards picked up the excess.

In previous seasons, each team had a "play" card, but with the addition of the Saints in 1967, only 3 play cards were included, so that the 198-card set size could be maintained.

Well, that's it for the NFL cards. I will be posting some Topps AFL cards next. I have most of the Dolphins, Chiefs, and Chargers cards, but only a handful of the remaining cards in the set.

Hall of Famers

I just posted the Hall of Famers in the 1968 and 1971 Topps sets. Here are the Hall of Famers in the 1967 Philadelphia Gum set, which included only the 16 NFL teams (and not the AFL teams).

There are 34 Hall of Famers in the 160-player set, which is only 4 less that the 1968 set, while having 10 less teams to work with.

This set included 160 players (10 per team), plus team photo and logo cards, checklists, and a few other miscellaneous cards.

As expected, the Packers lead the way (even without a card for Jim Taylor).

Re-cap:
7 - Packers
4 - Redskins
3 - Bears, Browns, Colts, Cowboys, Rams
2 - Cardinals, Vikings
1 - Eagles, 49ers, Lions, Saints
0 - Falcons, Giants, Steelers

RIP - 2019

Players from the 1965-1975 era that passed away in 2019:

Also: baseball deaths in 2019
  

Washington Redskins

Wow, it's been 4 years since I've posted a team set on this blog (and there's only one left to go in the Philly Gum 1967 card set). 

I had scanned these Redskins' cards in December 2016 and actually composed this post shortly after that, but as I was nearing completion, Google Blogger had one of its hiccups, moving the cursor to "select all" the text, so as soon as I typed something, everything else was deleted, and it immediately did an autosave! 

That happened a few times before on my baseball blogs, so since November 2012 I have been composing all my baseball blog posts in Word documents before pasting the text into Blogger. (I haven't done the same for my football blogs though.) I was so ticked off that I've rarely posted to the football blogs since then. 

Anyway... 

The Washington Redskins finished with a 7-7 record in 1966, 5th among the 8 teams in the Eastern Conference. In 1967, they regressed to 5-6-3, finishing ahead of only the expansion New Orleans Saints in the 4-team Capitol Division.

Sonny Jurgensen quarterbacked the Redskins since coming over from the Eagles after the 1963 season. From 1971-74, he was the backup behind Billy Kilmer, who was acquired from the Saints.

Charley Taylor was the Redskins' #1 pick (3rd overall) in the 1964 draft. This card shows him as a halfback, but he switched to split end starting in 1966, and led the NFL in receptions in '66 and '67. He made 8 Pro Bowls during his 13-year Redskins' career, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1984.

After a few games with the Cowboys as a rookie in 1965, A.D. Whitfield was traded to the Redskins and was their starting halfback in 1966 and 1967. By 1969, the 'Skins were using rookie Larry Brown at halfback and Whitfield was out of the league.

Bobby Mitchell joined the Redskins (from the Browns) in 1962 and was their starting flanker. He led the NL with 72 catches and 1384 receiving yards in 1962. He also led the league with 1436 yards in 1963 and 10 TDs in 1964. After 6 seasons as the starting flanker, he finished his career as a backup in 1968.

Jerry Smith was drafted in the 9th round by by the Redskins in 1965, and played his entire 13-year career with Washington.  Smith was a starter from 1966-75, playing tight end every season except 1968 as a flanker. He was a 2-time Pro Bowler.

Len Hauss was the Redskins' 9th pick in the 1964 draft. He was the starting center for every one of his 14 seasons with Washington, starting every game except 2 during his rookie year. He made the Pro Bowl 5 times.

Charlie Gogolak was born in Hungary and went to Princeton. His brother Pete went to Cornell and kicked for the Bills and Giants. Together they were the first 2 soccer-style kickers in pro football. Charlie was the 'Skins' #1 pick in the 1966 draft, and kicked for Washington from 1966-68. He also kicked for the Patriots from 1970-72.

Chris Hanburger played his entire 14-year career (1965-78) with the Redskins. He was their starting right linebacker for 12 seasons. He made 9 Pro Bowls, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2011.

Jim Shorter played for the Browns in 1962 and 1963, then for the Redskins from 1964-67. He started 13 games at right cornerback in 1966 and also 1967. After missing the 1968 season, he was the Steelers' starting right cornerback in 1969.

Brig Owens was drafted by the Cowboys in the 7th round in 1965, but did not play for them. He was a starting safety for the Redskins every season from 1966 to 1974, collecting 35 interceptions during that time. He was a backup safety in his final 3 seasons for Washington (1975-77).

The Redskins joined the NFL in 1932, one year before the Eagles.


Also check out the 1968 and 1972 Redskins.
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