Hockey card of goaltender Darren Puppa, whose NHL career began in 1985 and lasted until 2000. He played mostly with the Buffalo Sabres and had short stints with Tampa Bay and Toronto. He shut out the high-flying Edmonton Oilers in his first NHL start in 1985.
This 1964 AFL football card of Buffalo Bills defensive back Ray Abruzzese is yet another example of mistaken identity. The player on the card is Ed Rutkowski, a rookie that season out of Notre Dame who was never really a regular but made a name for himself with the Bills on special teams and just being an all-around utility man. He even served as the team’s “disaster” QB at one point of his career. Rutkowski followed teammate Jack Kemp into politics after his football career ended, serving as the Erie County Executive for a long period of time. I don’t know what ever happened to Ray Abruzzese though.
A 1986 Fleer card of the greatest basketball player ever, Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls. Having led the Bulls to 6 NBA titles, he is now the measuring stick by which all other “great” players are measured.
From PuckJunk.com, an old hockey card of defenseman Al Arbour, when he played for the Chicago Black Hawks, who recently won their first Stanley Cup in 49 years. Arbour went on to greater fame as the coach of the New York Islanders when they won multiple Cups. Sporting the glasses on this card, he already had the look of a scholarly head coach.
Football card of Chicago Bears running back Brian Piccolo, whose battle with cancer and friendship with teammate Gale Sayers was documented in the movie “Brian’s Song”. A biography of the young back whose career ended far too soon, “Brian Piccolo: A Short Season” was written by Jeannie Morris, wife of another Bears teammate Johnny Morris. Piccolo lost his fight with the disease in 1969. Here is an excerpt from Sayers’ speech from May 1970, when he accepted the NFL’s Most Courageous Player award: “I love Brian Piccolo, and I’d like all of you to love him. When you hit your knees to pray tonight, please ask God to love him, too.” He also told the crowd they had selected the wrong person for the honor, and would accept it only on Piccolo’s behalf.
There have been error cards printed over the years, and there have been MAJOR ERROR cards. On the left is the 1966 Topps card of Chicago Cubs pitcher Dick Ellsworth. However, pictured on the card is Ken Hubbs, a young Cubs infielder who had died tragically in a plane crash two years earlier, just prior to the 1964 season. Hubbs’ 1964 “In Memoriam” card is on the right. Hubbs’ short-lived career in baseball was promising – he won a Gold Glove and was Rookie of the Year in 1962.
1961 Fleer card of Boston Celtics’ Hall of Famer Bob Cousy. He and Bill Russell were the 2 main cogs in Boston’s total domination of the NBA in the 1960s, Cousy quarterbacking the attack from the backcourt and Russell intimidating opposing teams’ offenses with his tremendous defensive, shot-blocking and rebounding skills.
The Chicago Black Hawks are one win away from claiming this season’s Stanley Cup, and they’ve gotten this far with a relatively unknown goaltender in Annti Niemi. There was a time when the Hawks had one of the best goalies ever in Tony Esposito, whose card is pictured above. Esposito, despite his long, storied career in Chicago, never was able to win a Cup there. He did win the season after he left Chicago, however, in 1970 as a backup with the Montreal Canadians.
An early ’70s football card of Broadway Joe Namath, whose “guarantee” of a victory in Super Bowl III over the Colts put the American Football League on the map. Namath’s performance in that game pretty much got him elected to the Hall of Fame, since his career statistics are not that impressive (he was plagued by knee injuries for most of the time he played). He actually did not quarterback his team to a win over any opponent with a winning record for the rest of his career after that Super Bowl win. Still, just for his sheer impact on the future of the sport he deserves his spot in the Hall.
