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1963 Bears...A Championship Team Commemorated
The 1963 NFL season was dominated by the Chicago Bears and their stifling defense. One of the only defenses in history to lead the league in fewest rushing yards, fewest passing yards, and fewest total yards, as well as fewest points allowed. Offensively, they only averaged 3.4 yards per rush and Bill Wade's "wounded duck" passes continued the tradition of hapless quarterbacking for the franchise. Nonetheless, they deserve recognition for being one of the best teams ever. The team finished with an 11-1-2 record and defeated the favored New York Giants on a frigid December day 14-10. RetroCards presents this...
Spotlight On: Harthorne Wingo
In my 1970s basketball card collecting days, one player stood out because I thought he had the coolest name – Harthorne Wingo of the New York Knicks. Before making it with the Knicks, Harthorne played in the Harlem Rucker league then the Allentown Jets, a minor league team in the Eastern Professional Basketball League, which later to become the CBA. The Jets had an arrangement with the Knicks where they sent players to Allentown for playing time and won 2 championships during Wingo’s time there (1970 and 1973). At a pickup game in Greenwich Village, Wingo was discovered by a...
1975 Cowboys: Young Talent Pays Off
After a disappointing 1974 season, where the Cowboys missed the playoffs, rebuilding seemed to be in order. The 1975 rookie class saw 12 hopefuls make the team in what was billed the "dirty dozen." Bob Lilly, Bob Hayes, Walt Garrison, Craig Morton, Cornell Green, and Dave Manders were all gone and new players such as Ed "Too Tall" Jones, Randy White, Thomas Henderson, Pat Donovan arrived. Other key additions were Preston Pearson and Danny White, who battled Jim Zorn and Clint Longley for the back up quarterback position to Roger Staubach. The 1975 football card designs are the second year...
The Waltons: No Longer Playing “Hard To Get”
Looking back on the 1970s, it amazes me how many different TV shows and TV personalities had board games, record albums, lunch boxes, and bubblegum cards. Wasn’t our economy a bit shaky then? If so, you would never know it judging on the consumption of the aforementioned pop cultures artifacts. Charlie’s Angels, The Partridge Family, Welcome Back, Kotter, The Bionic Woman, Good Times and many other shows are well-represented on bubblegum cards but other shows didn’t get that privilege. One of the decade’s bigger TV drama hits was the Waltons, a depression-era and World War II family that lived in...
Kolchak: RetroCards Adds Series II
RetroCards revels in giving a little cardboard love to some of our most beloved sports stars and tv personalities. Kolchak: The Night Stalker, the obscure 1970s precursor to the X-Files, is one that we got several requests for and so RetroCards has obliged with a second series of 18 night stalking cards! Darrin McGavin stars as Carl Kolchak, reporter for the INS (Independent News Service of Chicago) who has the uncanny knack for discovering paranormal phenomenon that is wreaking havoc on Chicago. Though the show only lasted one season (1974-75) it left a lasting impression on fans and aspiring filmmakers,...
Spotlight On: Rocky Bleier
Few players have overcome the obstacles that Rocky Bleier did to make it in the NFL. Born in Appleton, Wisconsin, and a member of the 1966 University of Notre Dame Championship team, Rocky was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1968. After his rookie season, he was drafted by the U.S. Army. He volunteered for duty in South Vietnam and arrived in early 1969. Wounded by a bullet to the thigh and grenade shrapnel in his right leg (causing him to lose a part of his foot), he was told he would never play football again. While rehabbing in Tokyo...
Frank Clarke: Original Cowboy
The passing of NFL receiver Frank Clarke called to mind some of the old players who have graciously autographed RetroCards or have asked for a stack of RetroCards because no cards had never been made of them. One of the reasons RetroCards came to be is to create cards for some of the forgotten players or players that had fans but no cards for the fans to collect. Frank Clarke was in correspondence with RetroCards after we sent a few cards for him to sign. Any good autograph seeker always slips the athlete a few bucks if one is asking for...
1961 Fleer: AFL Series 3
RetroCards' special attention to the 1961 Fleer football set continues with another 24 cards, this time featuring AFL players. The set starts off with an 1960 AFL Championship card and continues with a few cards from each AFL team (with the exception of the Dallas Texans who have a RetroCards 18 card team set). Player in this set include: Houston Antwine, Charley Hennigan, Ernie Ladd, Wahoo McDaniel, Charley Powell, Dave Kokourec, Art Powell, Gino Cappelletti, Earl Faison, Harold Olson, Tal Niko, Dick Harris, Dick Guesman, Bob Talimani, John Harris, Richie McCabe, Claude King, Babe Parilli, Fred "the hammer" Williamson, Gene Mingo,...
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