RIP - Gale Sayers

The Chicago Bears' great halfback Gale Sayers passed away on September 23, 2020 at age 77. 

Sayers was one of two first-round picks by the Bears in 1965. (Dick Butkus was the other.) Like Butkus, Sayers' career was cut short due to knee injuries.

Sayers was first team All-Pro in his first 5 seasons, and led the NFL in rushing yards in 1966 and 1969. He also scored 14 TDs as a rookie. 

After 5 great years, he only played 2 games each in 1970 and 1971. The unfortunate hit by the 49ers' Kermit Alexander caused his first knee injury in late-1968. Surprisingly, he came back in 1969 and led the league in rushing. 

A second knee injury in the 1970 pre-season put the brakes on his great career. 

Sayers was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1977, despite only having played in 68 games.  

Chicago Sun-Times obituary

10-year AFL Veterans

20 players were on an AFL roster every season the league operated.


These 3 players played in EVERY AFL game! (Gino Cappelletti and Jim Otto for 1 team.)

These 14 played every season. The first 7 did it for just one team.

These three missed a season due to injury, but were on the roster.

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