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.

Welcome to my 1967 football card blog!

1967 was when I began collecting football cards. I started almost by accident, as the usual corner store where I bought baseball cards stopped selling them before the last series was issued. I went around the block to another corner store (which I had never been to before) seeking baseball cards. They didn't have any, but they did have the 1967 NFL cards.

So, what's a boy to do? I ended up with most of the cards that Fall. In the 1980s, I trimmed about a dozen cards off my want list at card shops, and now I have all but 2 (Don Meredith, Bart Starr) [as of 3/19/10] of the 198 cards in the set.

Anyway, I started this blog to post my football card collection, and to reminisce on certain teams and players. I also have all but a few of the '68, '71, and '72 cards, which will be the topics for other blogs.

Even though I began collecting football cards in 1967, I didn't actually follow pro football until near the end of the 1970 season. Super Bowl V was the first one I watched, but thanks to the magic of NFL Films and ESPN, I can probably now recite the starting lineups for the all the teams in Super Bowls I thru VI !

Aside from a few Eagles cards from the mid-to-late 1970s, I haven't collected any football cards after the 1973 set. These vintage cards do bring back some good memories, though.

Prior to 1973, only about 10 players per team were featured on football cards each year, usually at least one player from each position group: quarterback, running back, receiver, offensive line, defensive line, linebacker, defensive back, kicker. The cards were issued in 2 series of about 100 cards each.

From 1964 to 1967, the Philadelphia Gum Company issued the NFL cards, while Topps issued the AFL cards. After 1967, Topps regained the NFL license and issued a combined NFL/AFL set, as they had done prior to 1964. The Philadelphia cards were grouped alphabetically by team, meaning the card sequence was all the Atlanta cards, followed by all the Baltimore cards, then Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, etc.

I'm going to include all the cards for a team in one post, so it won't take forever to complete the series.

In 1967, the cards were arranged alphabetically by team. Within each team, there was a team photo card, followed by 10 players (alphabetically), and ending with a team logo card. I'm going to present the players not alphabetically, but by position (QB, HB, FB, WR, TE, C, G, T, K, DE, DT, MLB, LB, DB, P).

I'm also not going to scan the card backs, except for the team logo cards, which include some interesting information about each team. I'll include a sample back for a player card and a team photo card, in the first post only.


First up: Atlanta Falcons