This is the Los Angeles Chargers’ logo from their inaugural AFL season in 1960, before they moved to San Diego. There are rumblings that the Chargers could move back to L.A. if a new stadium is built there (the NFL wants a team in that large TV market for sure). If this happens maybe they’ll resurrect this logo.
The Philadelphia Flyers are in a bit of a hole in this year’s Stanley Cup Finals, but even if they don’t come back and win they should celebrate a terrific season. This 1980 Topps card of Flyers’ goalie Wayne Stephenson is from the era when goalie masks were still “Friday the 13th” scary.
The two most successful franchises in the NBA will meet, starting on Thursday, in a Finals series that should be a classic. The teams are meeting for the title for the 12th time, and history says that the Celtics should win, holding a 9-2 edge in championship series victories over the Lakers. That domination dates back as far as 1959, when the Lakers were still located in Minneapolis, and the Celts swept them. Boston, behind legends Bill Russell and Bob Cousy, dominated the Lakers again in the 1960s, winning all six meetings between the clubs. The Lakers had their only success against the Celts in the 1980s, when the Magic Johnson-led “Showtime” Lakers won 2 of 3 Finals meetings against Larry Bird’s Celtics. The Celtics won again in 2008, and with Kevin Garnett now back from injury should be the favorite to win this year also. Boston has shut down (or at least contained) their opponents’ star player in the last 2 series prior to the Finals, frustrating two of the game’s best players, LeBron James of Cleveland and Orlando’s Dwight Howard. Can they do the same to the game’s most dominant player, Kobe Bryant? For the Lakers, the key is whether they have the size up front to counter Boston’s physical front court. Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum were handled pretty easily by the Celtics in 2008, but the Lakers are hoping that the combination of those players maturing and the addition of physical “small” forward Ron Artest will help them when the games get physical, as they surely will.
The Boston Celtics are the most successful franchise in NBA history, and this logo of a cheering leprechaun wearing a crown was their primary logo during their long championship run in the 1960s. The Celtics will be playing for their record 18th title in this year’s NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers.
This is a 1961 AFL football “error” card of defensive back Austin “Goose” Gonsoulin. The player in the picture is actually Darryl Rogers, who didn’t have much of a playing career but went on to become a legendary college football coach. The card company can be excused for identification errors on the players in the early years of the AFL. I don’t think the coaches even knew who half the players on their team were back then.
This logo wasn’t a team logo, but rather a patch worn in the 1945 season by several major league players who had served in World War II to signify and honor their service.
Eddie Grant, shown in this 1911 baseball card, was the first major league player killed in action in World War I. He was Captain of the 77th Infantry Division, and was killed by an exploding shell on October15, 1918.
When flamboyant Oakland A’s baseball owner Charles O. Finley decided to expand his sports empire by purchasing the NHL’s Oakland Seals franchise, he immediately transformed the team into the California Golden Seals and outfitted them in uniforms that matched the colors of his highly successful baseball team, right down to white skates to match the A’s unusual white baseball spikes. Imagine the “figure skater” jokes these players had to endure from players on the opposing teams….and you know hockey players are especially brutal when they get a chance to question their opponents’ manhood.
The Oakland Seals were one of the 6 expansion franchises added to the NHL in 1967. They weren’t very successful, and the flamboyant owner of the Oakland A’s baseball team decided to buy them, and transform them into the California Golden Seals. This is their logo (complete with gold and green colors to match the baseball A’s).
The 1956 Topps baseball cards included both a profile picture of the player and an action shot on the front of the card. Unfortunately on this Henry Aaron card the player sliding into home plate in the action photo is actually Willie Mays.