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Archive for the ‘Classic Sports Card of the Day’ Category

Classic Sports Card of The Day

21 Dec

72toppsmontler

1972 Topps football card of former pro football offensive lineman Mike Montler, who played 10 seasons of pro football for 4 different teams. His most successful years as a player were the 4 he spent as the starting center for the Buffalo Bills from 1973 through 1976, anchoring the “Electric Company” offensive line that blocked for O.J. Simpson. That stint included Simpson’s record-breaking 2,003 yard season in 1973. A former Marine, Montler worked in the transportation business after retiring as a player.

 

Classic Sports Card of The Day

18 Dec

69toppscurtis

1969 Topps football card of former pro football middle linebacker Mike Curtis, who played 14 seasons in the NFL for 3 teams. He spent the first 10 of those seasons, his most successful, with the Baltimore Colts. He was a four-time Pro Bowler and helped the Colts win a Super Bowl title in 1971. Curtis was one of the most active linebackers of his era,  finishing his career with 22 sacks and 25 interceptions. He was named the AFC Defensive Player of the Year in 1970.

 

Classic Sports Card of The Day

14 Dec

82toppsbrammer

1982 Topps football card of former Buffalo Bills tight end Mark Brammer, who played five seasons for the team in the 1980s. He was known mostly as a blocker, but totaled 59 receptions and 6 touchdowns in his first 2 pro seasons. Brammer is currently a Western New York resident, and a member of the team’s Alumni Association.

 

 

Classic Sports Card of The Day

11 Dec

85toppsUSFLZendejas

1985 Topps USFL football card of former pro football placekicker Luis Zendejas, who played eight seasons of pro ball in four different leagues. The Mexican-born kicker started his career in the USFL with the Arizona Outlaws, then landed in the NFL, where he split three years playing for the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys. He was out of the game for two years before joining the Arena League for three years. His final season, in 1995, was split between the Arena League and the Canadian Football League’s Birmingham Barracudas.

 

Classic Sports Card of The Day

07 Dec

96toppschromemoulds

1996 Topps Chrome football card of former  wide receiver Eric Moulds, who played 12 seasons in the NFL, mostly with the Buffalo Bills. He was a three-time Pro Bowler and the first receiver in Bills’ history to record 100 receptions in a single season. Moulds also set an NFL record when he recorded 240 receiving yards in a playoff game against Miami.

 

Classic Sports Card of The Day

04 Dec

55bowmantomfears

1955 Bowman football card of Hall of Famer Tom Fears, a top split end for the Los Angeles Rams in the 1940s and ’50s. A Mexican-American, Fears was the first Latino to play in the NFL. He played a total of nine seasons, all with the Rams, breaking a number of receiving records along the way, and helping the Rams win the NFL championship in 1951. He was named to the All Decade team for the 1950s, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1970. After his playing days ended, Fears was a long-time coach in the NFL, including a four year run as head coach of the expansion New Orleans Saints from 1967 until 1970. Fears passed away in 2000.

 

Classic Sports Card of The Day

01 Dec

74toppsdobler

1974 Topps football card of former offensive lineman Conrad Dobler, who played 10 seasons in the NFL for 3 different teams. Most of his success came in his first 6 years with the St. Louis Cardinals, where he was voted to 3 Pro Bowls. He finished his playing days with a pair of 2 year stints in New Orleans and Buffalo, playing his final pro season with the Bills in 1981. Dobler was once named “Pro Football’s Dirtiest Player” by Sports Illustrated magazine. After retiring, he appeared in the Miller Lite “Tastes great, less filling” TV ads with other retired players such as Dick Butkus and Merlin Olsen.

 

Classic Sports Card of The Day

27 Nov

89scorebeebe

1989 Score football card of former pro football wide receiver Don Beebe, who played nine seasons in the NFL for three different teams. He is still considered one of the fastest players in league history. Beebe holds the distinction of having played in six Super Bowls, including the four consecutive title losses suffered with the Buffalo Bills. He finally won that elusive championship in his first year with the Green Bay Packers in 1996. After retiring in 1998, Beebe founded a company called House of Speed, LLC, that specializes in training athletes to improve their speed and achieve top performance. The company now has franchises located in 11 states.

 

Classic Sports Card of The Day

25 Nov

70toppsdarragh

1970 Topps football card of former Buffalo Bills’ quarterback Dan Darragh, who played three seasons with the team. In his rookie season of 1968, he was one of five different quarterbacks to play the position for the Bills, as injuries knocked out Jack Kemp, Tom Flores, Kay Stephenson and “disaster” QB Ed Rutkowski.  By the end of the 1970 season, Darragh was out of the game and on to law school. He is now a practicing attorney in Pittsburgh.

 

Classic Sports Card of The Day

20 Nov

66toppsbendavidson

1966 Topps football card of former defensive end Ben Davidson, who played eleven seasons of pro football for three different teams. His career started in 1961 with the NFL’s Green Bay Packers, where he was part of that Packer championship team. He was traded to Washington after that one season and spent 2 years with them before jumping to the American Football League’s Oakland Raiders, where he established himself as one of that league’s fiercest defensive players. An intimidating figure with his hulking physique and trademark handlebar mustache, Davidson epitomized the Raider mystique for the nine years he spent with them. After retiring as a player, he dabbled in acting, and appeared in the famous Miller Lite “tastes great, less filling” ads that also included John Madden and Rodney Dangerfield. Davidson died of prostate cancer in 2012 at the age of 72.