San Francisco 49ers - Custom Extension Set

I recently bought the 1966 Giants and 1967 49ers sets made by RetroCards.net, and have updated the chart on my football blogs' sidebars. 

 

There are 1966 sets for every NFL team, but to date, they have only made 1967 sets for the Cowboys, Packers, Bears, Saints, 49ers, Chiefs, and Raiders. 

 

Here are the 49ers, to complement the original Philly Gum set.

(Could not fit Gary Lewis, George Donnelly, and Jim Jackson into Blogger's 200-character limit for labels.)

RIP - Matt Snell

 

Matt Snell, the Jets' fullback from 1964-72, passed away on March 10, 2026 at age 84.

Snell was the Jets' #1 pick (3rd overall) in the 1964 draft. He was their starting fullback for his first 6 years (although missing 7 games in 1967 due to injury). 

 

He was a 3-time Pro Bowler, and was named First Team All-Pro in 1969. Snell rushed for a career-high 948 yards in his rookie season. He also scored the Jets' only touchdown in their 16-7 victory in Super Bowl III. 

 

Snell was injured in each of his last 3 seasons, missing a total of 30 games in those years. 

 

He was inducted into the Jets Ring of Honor in 2015, along with his running mate Emerson Boozer. 

   

RIP - Sonny Jurgensen

Hall of Fame quarterback Sonny Jurgensen passed away on February 6, 2026 at age 91.

Jurgensen played for the Eagles from 1957 to 1963, and was their starting QB for his last 3 seasons there. 

 

He was traded to the Redskins, and was their starter from 1964 until George Allen arrived in 1971. (I always thought that Allen preferred the newly-acquired Bill Kilmer over Jurgy, but Sonny was injured early in 1971, thus losing the job to Kilmer.) Jurgensen started all but 3 games during his first 7 seasons with Washington. He stayed on as a backup for 4 more seasons, starting as many as 4 games in three of those years. 

 

He was a 5-time Pro-Bowler (4 with the Redskins) and led the NFL in passing yards 5 times and in pass completions 4 times. He also passed for more then 400 yards in a single game five times, and threw five touchdown passes in a game twice. 

 

Jurgensen retired after the 1974 season, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1983. 

 

After his playing career he became a broadcaster, first for CBS and then 38 seasons for the Redskins. 

 

Washington Redskins obituary  

 

New York Times obituary 

  

RIP - 2025

Players from the 1965-1975 era that passed away in 2025:

Tom Brown was also a 1st baseman for the Washington Senators.

 

 

Baseball deaths in 2025 

  

Chicago Bears - Custom Extension Set

Over a year ago I posted my set of Oakland Raiders custom cards issued by RetroCards.net. A few months ago I made another purchase from them - their 1967 Bears and 1966 Falcons sets. 

 

All the sets I've bought from them are listed on the sidebar. 

RetroCards.net makes "cards that never were" mostly for football, but some baseball and non-sports issues too. Among their football sets, they lean toward the Cowboys, Packers, and Bears, but other teams are occasionally represented, including all teams in the 1963 and 1966 sets. The sets for most teams include about 9 cards, but sets for their 3 favorite teams usually include 20 or more cards.

 

Here are the 1967 Bears, that complement the original set issued by Philadelphia Gum. The inclusion of 3 quarterbacks in this custom set makes for 4 quarterbacks overall (including Rudy Bukich from the original set.)

 

Within each grouping, I accidentally arranged the cards in the opposite position order from what I normally do. (right-to-left, rather than left-to-right) 

 

 

(Blogger limits the labels to 200 total characters, so I couldn't include everyone.)

RIP - 2024

Players from the 1965-1975 era that passed away in 2024:

Also: Carl Weathers, Golden Richards, Mike Kolen.  

 

Baseball deaths in 2024 

  

RIP - Jim Otto

Jim Otto, the Raiders' center from 1960 to 1974, passed away on May 19, 2024 at age 86.

Otto was selected by the AFL's Minneapolis franchise in 1960, but when they backed out of the league (after receiving an offer to join the NFL in 1961) the Oakland Raiders were quickly established as the 8th team. 

 

Otto started EVERY GAME at center for his entire 15-year career. He was named to the Pro Bowl (or AFL All-Star team) in all but his last 2 seasons. He was also named first-team All-Pro 10 times. 

 

He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1980, and was also named to the All-Time AFL team.

 

Otto is one of 3 players to have played in every one of his team's AFL games. 

 

Raiders.com obituary  

 

NFL.com obituary 

   

RIP - Roman Gabriel

Roman Gabriel, quarterback for the Rams and Eagles in the 1960s and 1970s, passed away today April 20, 2024 at age 83.

In 1962, he was the first overall pick in the AFL draft by the Raiders, and the 2nd overall pick in the NFL draft by the Rams. 

 

From 1962 to 1965 he was a part-time starter, making 9 starts in 1963. 

 

Gabriel played every game from 1966-72, starting all of them except for 2 games in 1972. He made the Pro Bowl every season from 1967-69, and in 1969 was named first-team All-Pro. as well as the league's MVP. 

 

He was traded to the Eagles after the 1972 season for wide receiver Harold Jackson. Gabe played for the Eagles for 5 seasons, starting every game in 1973 and adding another Pro Bowl appearance, while leading the NFL with 3219 passing yards and 32 touchdown passes. 

 

Gabriel played in 11 games in each of  '74 and '75, starting most of them. In 1976 he lost the starting job to Mike Boryla, but played in 4 games (all starts). 

 

He backed up the newly-acquired Ron Jaworski in 1977, his final season.

 

CBS Sports obituary  

 

ESPN obituary 

  

And now, for the perfect attendance awards...

Recently, I looked up who had cards in the 9-year period from 1964 to 1972, and how many cards each player had in that time span. I chose those years because they are my primary years of interest (well, not the AFL from 1964-66, but I included them anyway to get the complete picture). 

 

This research was an extension of my finding out who had a 1969 card but no other cards from 1966-72, as they will be the topics for my new 1969 card blog.

 

I counted base cards only, and not anyone’s appearance on team cards, “play” cards, or the in-action, All-Pro, and league leader subsets found in the 1972 set. Also, there are two 2-player cards in the 1966 NFL set, so I counted them twice.

 

A total of 997 players were found.  (As a side note, there were 2 Gene Washingtons (already knew that), a John and Johnny Baker, and a John and Johnny Robinson.)

 

12 players had a card in all 9 years. Predictably, most of them (8) were quarterbacks. Although only 8 to 10 players per team were featured in the sets prior to 1973, a team’s starting quarterback was almost guaranteed to appear every season, unless he missed the previous year due to injury (no Bills' QB in '69), or the incumbent was either traded (no Steelers' QB in '68, nor Eagles in '71) or retired. 

 

Another 15 players had 8 cards in those 9 years, usually because they were not active at the start or end of the period, but sometimes because Topps or Philly Gum rotated them out of the set. 

 

What surprised me the most was the difference in total players per year. In ’64 and ’65, there were 334 and 341 players respectively. That dropped to 295 and 290 for the next 2 years. The 1968 set is REALLY small – only 217 players. Topps did a bad job on their first set having both the NFL and AFL players. (Not really surprising, given how shoddy their 1968 baseball set was.) 

 

An enterprising custom card creator out there could add 45 or so players to bring the 1968 total up into the 260’s (the number of players in the 1969 to 1972 sets). Looking at the chart below, I found that many stars were missing 1968 cards, but had cards for most years before and after. Here’s 30 to get you started: 

 

Gerry Philbin, Jim Otto, Merlin Olsen, Dave Parks, Deacon Jones, Earl Morrall, Mick Tingelhoff, Willie Wood, Bruce Gossett, Charley Johnson, Dave Costa, Dick LeBeau, Houston Antwine, Johnny Robinson, Otis Taylor, Steve DeLong, Ben Davidson, Billy Shaw, Bob Brown, Bob Vogel, Chuck Allen, Chuck Howley, Dave Wilcox, Dick Schafrath, Fred Arbanas, Jim Marshall, Mike Clark, Larry Grantham, Mike Pyle, Pat Fischer.

 

 

Here's everyone with 5 or more cards in those 9 years:

Oakland Raiders - Custom Extension Set

Here are the 1967 Oakland Raiders cards made by RetroCards.net, the companion set to the original Topps cards. 

 

These look much better than the Chiefs' cards I posted last week. 

 

 

As usual, there's no room within Blogger's 200-character limit for labels to include everybody. 

 

Next? RetroCards also made a 1967 set for the Bears. If and when I buy that, I will post them here. That's the last of the 1967 cards.

Kansas City Chiefs - Custom Extension Set

This is the fourth of five 1967 team sets I bought from RetroCards.net. Previously, I posted the Cowboys, Packers, and Saints sets.  Those are all great-looking cards.  

I can't say the same for these Chiefs cards.  Almost every photo is too dark - some so dark as to either not be able to make out the player's face, or that the jersey is red.  It doesn't help that the borders are also black (Topps' original color for the Chiefs' cards). 

On the plus side, we have 18 more players for the defending AFL champions.  (Notable absences from the combined Topps/RetroCards set are G Ed Budde, K Jan Stenerud, MLB Willie Lanier, T Dave Hill, and DE Chuck Hurson.)

 

"65 Toss Power Trap!"

I also bought the Raiders' set at the same time.  Those cards have much better photo quality.

Next: Oakland Raiders

New Orleans Saints - Custom Extension Set

After the disaster that was the 1967 Philly Gum Saints cards, RetroCards could have done just about anything and it would have been an improvement over the originals. 

 

They responded with an 18-card set, featuring everyone in a new Saints jersey. Included in the set are Bill Kilmer, Jim Taylor, Dan Abramowicz, Doug Atkins, and a multi-player card featuring Paul Hornung and Jim Taylor, among others. 

 

Gary Cuozzo started most of the games in 1967.  Bill Kilmer was the regular QB from 1968-70, then was traded to the Redskins. (In 1971, 2nd-overall pick Archie Manning took over.)

7 receivers! (WRs Hall, Roberts, Abramowicz, Gilliam, Poage, and Simmons, plus TE Kramer.)

Steve Stonebreaker has a Jim Taylor haircut! 

 

In my recent post about the custom Cowboys cards, I showed a card back. While the backs of all the custom Cowboys cards have referee signals, the backs of the Packers and Saints cards have a montage of custom card photos. (Looks like they are working on a Rams set.)

 

 

Next: Kansas City Chiefs

Green Bay Packers - Custom Extension Set

Continuing with the "Cards That Never Were" sets from RetroCards.net, here are the 1967 Packers. 

 

The original set included mostly defensive players, so there are a lot of offensive players (17 of 20 cards) in this set. 

 

Lots of running backs! (Filling the void of the departed Paul Hornung and Jim Taylor.) 

 

Boyd Dowler and Carroll Dale are both noted as flankers here, but on the back of both cards it says "he could line up at split end too". How versatile of them! 

 

6 offensive linemen (augmenting the 2 starting tackles in the original set).

The original set included CB Herb Adderley and S Willie Wood. Bob Jeter was also a starting cornerback.  Between the two sets, I think the only regulars missing are DE Lionel Aldridge, DT Ron Kostelnik, and S Tom Brown. 

 

(Note: Blogger limits the combined length of all labels to 200 characters, so there was no room to include the backup players.)

 

 

Next: New Orleans Saints

Dallas Cowboys - Custom Extension Set

Back in 2017 I posted this about a company named RetroCards that made "Football Cards That Never Were" (and a few baseball cards too). 

At that time, I had purchased their sets for 1967 and 1971 Cowboys, and the 1967 and 1968 Packers. Since then, I have purchased many other sets, that you can find listed on this blog's sidebar under the RetroCards ad. 

Here are their additional Cowboys' cards to supplement the original set.

I wasn't going to post these cards, because it was noted by other bloggers that some scumbags were selling custom cards (one-off card fronts made by others in the card blogging community) on eBay for their own profit. 

But, I decided to post these now, to show you what they look like. I have added a watermark (similar to what the company does on their own website). I think this is a 1-man operation, so I don't want my postings to cut into his sales. Also, I had to pay for these cards, so....

 

The card backs are very similar to the originals.

 

I will also be posting their 1967 Packers, Saints, Chiefs, and Raiders sets.

Mount Rushmore (+5) of 1960s/1970s coaches

These 9 coaches led 26 of the 40 NFL/NFC and AFL/AFC champions from 1960 to 1979. 

Altogether, their teams made 66 post-season appearances in those 20 seasons. (Paul Brown made an additional 8 post-season appearances in the 1950s.)

How would you rank them?