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1972 Topps hockey card of former Montreal Canadien Guy Lafleur. In the 1970s the Canadiens, under coach Scott Bowman, enjoyed a return to their “Flying Frenchmen” glory years and won multiple Stanley Cups, and Lafleur was their poster boy. He was one of the last players to play without a helmet, and the sight of him flying down the ice with his long hair flowing behind him was a common one. He played on 5 Cup winners in Montreal, won the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP twice, 3 Art Ross Trophies as the league’s leading scorer, and the 1977 Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. “The Flower” was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1988.

From www.CheckOutMyCards.com , a 1955 Bowman football card of Hall of Fame two-time Super Bowl-winning coach Tom Landry. The card, obviously, is from his playing days as a defensive back with the New York Giants. Landry was a player-coach in his final 2 seasons, and became the chief defensive coach for the Giants after retiring. He introduced the now common 4-3 alignment during these years, and later during his 29 year career as Dallas Cowboys’ head coach, used the innovative “flex” defense, a variation of the 4-3 that gave the defensive players more freedom to track down ballcarriers. Landry was a war hero in World War II, completing 30 missions as a bomber co-pilot, including surviving a crash in Belgium when the plane ran out of fuel. His trademark as a coach was the fedora he wore on the sidelines and the many innovations, both on offense and defense, that he brought to the game. His playing career is often overlooked, but he was an all-pro in 1954 and finished with 32 interceptions in only 80 career games.

1976 Topps basketball card, from www.CheckOutMyCards.com , of a player who never met a shot he wouldn’t take, and didn’t include the word “defense” in his vocabulary, former Buffalo Braves’ guard William “Bird” Averitt. The picture on the card may look like a mug shot, but Averitt apparently enjoyed his basketball career, as he had some success in the old American Basketball Association with the Kentucky Colonels, helping them win the ABA title in 1974-75. When the 2 pro leagues merged, Colonels owner John Y. Brown received a cash payment to fold the Kentucky franchise, and used the money to purchase controlling interest in the NBA Braves. He then proceeded to help stock the team roster with some of his old Colonel players, including Averitt.

Another classic from www.CheckOutMyCards.com , a 1962 Topps baseball card of Hall of Fame outfielder Lou Brock. This ’62 card is Brock’s rookie card, which makes it more valuable among collectors. Brock started his career with the Chicago Cubs, but in 1964 was acquired in a trade by the St. Louis Cardinals, who were looking for a replacement left fielder for retiring legend Stan Musial. Brock was acquired, along with a couple other players, for pitcher Ernie Broglio (and also a couple others) in what at the time was described as a one-sided trade for the Cubs. Over time, however, Brock developed into the ultimate symbol of speed in the game and any trade in baseball that seemed favorable to one team was automatically tagged a “Brock-for-Broglio” deal. Brock held every major stolen base record in baseball in his time, until Rickey Henderson came along, and was the engine that drove the Cardinals to World Series titles in 1964 and 1967. Today, the player who leads the National League in stolen bases each season is presented with the Lou Brock Award, in his honor.

1970 Opeechee hockey card of former Philadelphia Flyer captain Bobby Clarke. Clarke was the emotional leader of the old “Broad Street Bullies” teams that intimidated their way to consecutive Stanley Cup championships in 1974 and ’75. He was awarded the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP 3 times in his career. Clarke played 15 years for the Flyers and became the team’s general manager upon his retirement in 1984. He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1987, and still serves in the Flyers’ front office today as a senior vice president.

Two cards featured today since these two former NFL players spent a lot of time together. On the left is a 1955 Bowman football card of former Chicago Cardinals’ and New York Giants’ end and placekicker Pat Summerall. The card on the right is a 1960 Topps card of former Philadelphia Eagles’ defensive back Tom Brookshier. Summerall is probably better known for his career as a play-by-play man on CBS and Fox broadcasts with long-time partner John Madden, but Summerall was teamed with Brookshier as a broadcast team for CBS for most of the 1970s, before the Summerall/Madden combination. They also served as co-hosts of a weekly highlight show, This Week In Pro Football, in the ’70s. Both also had distinguished playing careers in the NFL, with Summerall mostly known for his placekicking accomplishments.  Brookshier played for the Eagles from 1953 until 1961, but missed both the ’54 and ’55 seasons while serving in the Air Force. He was a starting safety on Philadelphia’s 1960 championship team, and his jersey number 40 is retired by the team.

From www.CheckOutMyCards.com , a 1986 Fleer basketball card of Los Angeles Lakers’ forward James Worthy. Worthy was an unsung but very important piece of the puzzle on the Lakers’ “Showtime” teams of the 1980s that featured Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He was a 7 time NBA All Star, MVP of the 1988 NBA Finals, played on 3 NBA championship teams and was voted one of the top 50 players of all time. In college at North Carolina, “Big Game James” played on an NCAA championship team with a young freshman named Michael Jordan.

In 1962 the Topps card company put out, along with the usual baseball player trading cards, a series of  special cards featuring select players. From www.CheckOutMyCards.com , this is one of the favorites of those cards, titled “Manager’s Dream” and featuring two of the greatest players active at that time and of all time – Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays.  Mays’ team, the Giants, had already moved out from New York  to San Francisco by ’62, but in New York in the 1950s, fans in the city had the chance to watch 3 of the finest centerfielders to ever play the game in Mays, Mantle of the New York Yankees and Duke Snider of the Brooklyn Dodgers. This card is a favorite of collectors because of the 2 great players on it, (their individual cards are highly valued also) and has sold for as high as $250.

1970 Topps hockey card of Pat Quinn, who had a nine year career as an NHL defenseman, followed by a long stretch as a head coach. Quinn was drafted twice in NHL expansion drafts, first by the Vancouver Canucks when they entered the league in 1970, and then again by the Atlanta Flames in 1972. He served as the Flames’ team captain. As a coach, he reached the Stanley Cup finals 3 times, twice with Philadelphia and most recently with the Canucks in 1994, but never won the Cup. Quinn is also a member of the induction committee for the NHL’s Hall of Fame.

With Monday Night Football opening its’ season tonight, here is the 1967 football card of Homer Jones, who made a huge play in the first Monday Night Football game ever played in 1970. Playing for the Cleveland Browns, Jones returned the second half kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown to spark his team’s 31-21 win over Joe Namath’s Jets in that game. Jones played the first 6 years of his NFL career with the New York Giants as a split end and was a favorite target of Fran Tarkenton in those years, but was traded to Cleveland prior to the 1970 season. Knee injuries forced him to retire at age 29 after that lone season in Cleveland, but he left one lasting impression on the game. He was the first player to “spike” the ball in the end zone after scoring a touchdown. Jones is a cousin of another great wide receiver of the same era, Hall of Famer Charley Taylor.