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.