Two for McAdoo!! That was the cry for fans of the old Buffalo Braves basketball team in the 1970s. McAdoo was NBA Rookie of the Year in 1973 and Most Valuable Player of the league in 1975. McAdoo was the premier player and leading scorer on a Braves’ team that made the playoffs in only its’ third season of existence in ’73.
From CheckOutMyCards.com, this card is of former Boston Bruins coach Don Cherry. He is now a studio analyst for Hockey Night In Canada on canadian NHL broadcasts, and is known for his “colorful” suits and ties (and high-collared shirts). Cherry is a proud canadian and often touts canadian-born players on his show, but at least he is non-partisan in talking about the games, unlike another former Bruin player on the HNIC broadcasts – Mike Milbury. In this year’s Buffalo/Boston opening round Stanley Cup playoff series, Milbury was such a Bruins cheerleader in the intermission reports that they should have just given him some black and gold pom poms to wave.
On the left is the 1958 Topps football card of R.C. Owens – oops – it’s actually Don Owens of the Pittsburgh Steelers. R.C. Owens’ 1959 card is on the right. Wow….somebody really wasn’t paying attention at the Topps company in 1958.
In 1962 Post cereal had a series of baseball cards on their cereal boxes that are scarce today and popular with collectors. New York Yankee fans would consider this card of pitching legend Whitey Ford as sacrilegious, since it erroneously lists Ford’s team as the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Bill Russell rookie card from 1957. He was probably the greatest defensive player in NBA history and one of the greatest players of all time. His Boston Celtics won 11 NBA titles in his 13 years with the team, and he was voted NBA Most Valuable Player 5 times. When you consider that prior to his NBA career that his University of San Francisco college team won 2 straight national championships and that he played on the USA gold medal winning team in the 1956 Olympics, Russell can be summed up in one word – WINNER.
This card will make people who live in the Niagara region of the country want to run out and grab a cup of coffee. Before his name became known for coffee, Tim Horton was a Hall of Fame NHL defenseman, mostly for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1960s. He finished his career as a Buffalo Sabre before being tragically killed in a car crash on the Queen Elizabeth Way in Canada. He had opened a regional chain of coffee shops to set himself up for his retirement, and those shops are highly successful to this day. So, you’re probably headed out to a Timmy’s right now. I’ll have a large double double and a box of Timbits please.
This is the 1962 rookie card of halfback Ernie Davis (courtesy CheckOutMyCards.com), who led Syracuse to the National Championship in 1959, and became the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy. The Cleveland Browns traded a great player, future hall of famer Bobby Mitchell, for the rights to sign Davis, but he never played in the NFL. He was diagnosed with leukemia in 1962 and passed away in 1963. His story is documented in the recent movie “The Express”.
So you work hard your whole life and you finally achieve one of your life-long dreams, having your very own bubble gum card! And what happens? They forget to put your name on the front of the card. This card is one of many “error” cards that are popular with collectors. The player on the card is Hank Allen of the old defunct Washington Senators, and actually they didn’t forget his name, the black ink just didn’t work when the card was printed. Allen had a brief, pretty much non-descript baseball career, but is on 2 baseball cards that are collector favorites, this one, and he also shares a “rookie stars” card with hall-of-famer Rod Carew.