More Fun With Broadway Joe
In an earlier post, RetroCards featured the “lost Joe Namath cards.” From 1974-1978 there were no Joe Namath cards, presumably due to a lack of an agreement with the NFL Players Association (a similar predicament both Lynn Swann and Earl Campbell had). So RetroCards filled in those missing years by doing what we do best: making custom sports cards. But why stop there?
Namath was such a popular player that RetroCards created another cache of cards that feature Namath cards in all four Philadelphia Gum card designs. Although Joe’s first season was in 1965, the NFL and AFL drafts were held in November 1964 so RetroCards took the creative license and designed two 1964 cards: one in the Topps design, and a Philadelphia Gum Card design as a St. Louis Cardinal, the NFL team that drafted him.
The other oddball card is a 1968 Philadelphia Action card, which is a RetroCards original design, creating what may have been the fifth Philadelphia Gum card design had there been one in 1968. This original design is unique in that it focuses on “action” or “sideline” shots in a time when only posed player shots were used. RetroCards will be elaborating on this design with some sets in the coming months.
RetroCards followers know that few subjects are off limits so Joe Namath gets a special card with Bobby Brady of the Brady Bunch TV show (I don’t think I have to explain the episode where Broadway Joe appears). Look for more 70s TV cards as well as your favorite sports heroes here on this blog.