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Pete Gent: Author, Cynic, and All-Around Good Receiver
Pete Gent is rightly remembered for his hard-edge novel North Dallas Forty, a book about how pro football teams exploited their players, which is based on his experiences with the Cowboys. His colorful demeanor clashed with head coach Tom Landry's and GM Tex Schramm's old-school ways but he managed to be a productive member on the team from 1964-1968 in spite of that. Credit the Cowboys for asking Big Ten basketball coaches for players that might make it in the NFL. At the bottom of the list was Gent who Cowboy's scout Gil Brandt went to visit at Michigan State. ...
A "Bad" Year For The Packers In 1964
The 1963 Packer season was another outstanding display of football excellence but their two losses to the Champion Bears showed that the loss of Paul Hornung (suspended for gambling) was indeed crippling. The Packers 11-2-1 record didn't earn them a playoff berth but was a sign that there was plenty of talent for years to come. Surprisingly, the 1964 season proved to be a step backwards before the Packers got it together to win three championships in a row from 1965-1967. Their 8-5-1 record was only good for second place tie with the Minnesota Vikings in the NFL's Western Conference....
A Cookie Factory Welcomed the Braves In Style
The Johnston Cookie Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin treated baseball fans to more than delicious cookies in 1953. They debuted a 25-card baseball set in 1953, the Braves first year in Milwaukee after their move west from Boston. It was to be the first of three sets of Braves cards (the other two sets came out in 1954 & 1955) and fans ate them up. Spahn, Mathews, Burdette, Crandell, Logan, and Adcock were a few of the player cards that made up the original set. RetroCards adds a few more players as well as some some of the events involving Milwaukee...
The Dallas Texans, The AFL's Forgotten Team
The AFL got off to a surprisingly strong start in 1960. Several of the owners had been refused NFL expansion franchises or had minor ownership of NFL teams and saw the potential to expand pro football beyond the NFL’s meager 12 markets in 1959. The AFL started by signing 75% of the NFL’s first-round draft choices in 1960 and began a competitive run through the first few years of the new league’s existence. Though the AFL had ups and down, it only took six years before talks of a merger with the NFL became realistic. One of the leaders...
Love Them Cowboy Blues: 1979 Hockey Design
The 1978 Cowboys were a dominating team that had speed, strength, and finesse. Their final Super Bowl appearance of the decade ended in a loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, and 1979 would be Roger Staubach’s last season. That team was packed with big contributors, fan favorites, and characters who spent many years with the Cowboys. RetroCards has several sets honoring that mid-late 70s Cowboy team with NHL, MLB, and NBA card designs. This one, a great design from a 1979 Hockey set, showcases the Cowboys in their blue away jersey’s, which seldom happened with their cards during this era. Players...
The Milwaukee Brewers Only World Series Team Honored
Since 1970 the Milwaukee Brewers have entertained the baseball town of Milwaukee to various degrees, but none was more thrilling than 1982 when they won the American League pennant. It was strange year as the Brewers underachieved during the first half of the season which led to the firing of Manager Buck Rodgers in favor of long-time coach Harvey Kuenn. That lit a spark and the team finished strong to win their first A.L. Pennant. This RetroCards set contains: Don Sutton, Sal Bando, Pete Ladd, Doc Medich, Doug Jones, Kevin Bass, Mike Parrott, Bob Skube. High-energy In Action cards of...
Cowboy Underdog Shares Secret To Success
Former athletes often time become more successful after their playing days are over. They get into business, become motivational speakers, invest well, etc… Such is the case of long-shot wide receiver Robert Steele who elbowed his way onto arguably the most talented NFL roster in 1978, the Dallas Cowboys. His book, Steele Here: An Underdog’s Secret To Success (Brown Books Publisher Group, 2011) depicts his unlikely road to playing on a Super Bowl team as well as his success after football. His former receiver coach Mike Ditka said of him, “The best thing I remember about him is that he...
Herb White: Dunker Extraordinaire
One of the best sport magazines I ever read was Sports Illustrated's The Most Overrated And Underrated (August 27, 2001). This very entertaining feature approaches some sports figures and events from a different perspective and dispels some sports myths in the process, rating the most overrated and underrated quarterbacks, sports rivalries, baseball player, sports flake, heavyweight champion, quote, etc… One interesting category is for the Most Overrated / Underrated Dunker by Alexander Wolff. This of course refers to dunking a basketball which has become that sport's “homerun." The Overrated Dunker award was not a surprise. It was awarded to “the...
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