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2015 November -

  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...

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2015 October -

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...

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2015 October -

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...

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2015 October -

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...

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2015 September -

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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2015 September, Cowboys -

1971 is the year the Cowboys finally made it to the Super Bowl, following a 10-4 season in 1970.  It seems strange now to think that Cowboys were the NFL's most prolific losers, having lost the Championships in 1966 and 1967 to the Green Bay Packers, losing the Conference Playoff game against the Cleveland Browns in 1968 and 1968 and finally, losing Super Bowl V in 1970 to the Baltimore Colts, a game they had no business losing.  The 1971 cards reflect the 1970 season that led to that horrible last game called the Blunder Bowl, played on January 17,...

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2015 September -

The first player to enter Pro Basketball straight out of high school, Moses Malone was one of the great proto-typical centers in the NBA.  Having signed a letter of intent to attend the University of Maryland in 1974, he was drafted by the ABA's Utah Stars, who he signed a $1 million contract with.  The Stars folded the following year and Malone signed with the exciting Spirits Of St. Louis, where he played for one season as well.  At that point the ABA-NBA merger happened and Malone was placed in the dispersal draft despite his NBA rights being owned by...

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2015 September -

After toiling for seven year with no post-season appearances to date, the Raiders finally put together that championship team, by posting a 13-1 record.  1967 would be the year the Raiders would win the AFL Championship, and represent the league in Super Bowl II. The attractive 1967 AFL Raiders team set is one of the most popular in the hobby, and Retrocards now supplements that set with an 18-card set of its own. Superstars represented in this set include George Blanda and Willie Brown, in their first years as Raiders, and Eugene Upshaw, in his would-be rookie card. Other well-known...

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