COTW: Classic Quads OPEY

2009 Donruss Classics Football: Classic Quads: 10

Merlin Olsen, Alan Page, Carl Eller, Jack Youngblood

I made a post on my Curly W blog discussing ideas for my Senators Singles feature on that blog. It is my Senators/Nationals version of this "Card of the Whenever" feature. Just simply a snazzy way to show off one card posts. For that blog I have often considered posting single card posts more often similar to card blogs that specialize in showing off just one card daily posts. Hmm I have a set or two that I have thought about making a separate blog for but that is just in the thinking pre-planning stages, not an actual green light project. The same question of frequency pops up here for the COTW feature. Do I make these things more frequent? I want to but I know I will never have the motivation or stamina to make it a daily thing, not even a weekly thing which is more achievable than daily. The last time I did a CotW it was tacked to the end of another post.

OK so here is a card I had all but forgotten I had. OK I probably did forget about it. I'm sure there are parallels to it I could pursue but I bet they wouldn't have the cool reciprocal serial numbering of this one. Oops I gave away an ancient Chinese secret code to this blog.

I have often liked the Donruss (Original Donruss not the current Panini using the Donruss brand) Classics and the insert sets. Oh man I miss the original Donruss products. Here is one of the base Classic Quads card, at least I think it is the base. It gets confusing when everything is serial numbered. This is a mighty impressive quartet. Merlin Olsen and Jack Youngblood from the Rams with Alan Page and Carl Eller of the Vikings. Check out that serial number. CORRECTION UPDATE: It is the Silver Parallel, the BASE version is not serial numbered.

2009 Donruss Classics Football: Classic Quads: Silver: 10

Merlin Olsen Rams Alan Page Vikings Carl Eller Vikings Jack Youngblood Rams

052/250

I don't recall when or where I got this card from. It might have been either from Ebay or Sportlots. I know it wasn't from CheckOutMyCards because I have the records for my purchases from there and this card is not in the few orders I have made there. If it was from a group box break then it was a very fortunate hit. I did a quick and dirty search of my TCC blog since I started recording my mail days there starting around mid 2007, but saw no indication of this card. It could have come in a huge Team Traders Rams package that had too many cards to count.

Oops it isn't the base version it is the "Silver" parallel. I have updated to identify it as the Silver Parallel.

Updated: 02 May 2018 2;10pm

Fearsome Foursome Fan Faves

For collectors of vintage cards this design is an homage to the 1966 Topps Football design, which in turn is sort of an homage to the 1955 Bowman Baseball design. The most prominent feature is the wood grain look with the television screen image. In 2005 Topps produced an All-Time Fans Favorites Football set (although the TradingCardDataBase lists these as being 2004) The All-Time Fans Favorites set is similar to the Topps Archives type sets where they use older and vintage card designs for newer cards. Most of the designs from this set appear to be from the 1980s and late 1970s.

Here is a 4 card subset from that set the features the best players from my fave (and by fave I mean tied for number one) NFL team the Los Angeles Rams recently returned from being in St. Louis for 20 years (1995-2015). These four players individually had impressive careers primarily played for the Rams together they were known as the FEARSOME FOURSOME. OK one of a few defensive lines that went by that name, but the Rams were perhaps the most widely known. The Giants, Lions and Chargers have also had that nickname applied to their defensive line around the 1950s to 1970s era.

The Rams Fearsome Foursome were: Deacon Jones, Lamar Lundy, Merlin Olsen and Rosey Grier. In my book they are the FEARSOME FOURSOME of note.

2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites Football - 19 Deacon Jones

2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites Football - 58 Lamar Lundy

Dag-nab-it I thought I had straightened/rotated this back image

2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites Football - 68 Merlin Olsen

2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites Football - 78 Roosevelt "Rosey" Grier

For Reference:

 1955 Bowman Baseball

 1955 Bowman Baseball: 104 Bob Porterfield Washington Senators

1966 Topps Football

1966 Topps Football - 32 Cookie Gilchrist Denver Broncos

Card of the Whenever: Merlin Olsen

1971 Topps Football Game Insert: Merlin Olsen

Sadly this sort of last minute post on the very last day of the month has become a sort of standard thing for me lately. I hate that. Anyway for lack of any other enthusiastic energy to make an entertaining post. I present one of the cards from the 1971 Topps Football Game Inserts. I'm not sure if I have all of these. I think I finally finished it up. That or I still have about 5 or 6 cards to get. It has been way too long since I've updated my Zistle. ACK!

So here is card #27 From the 1971 Topps Football Game Insert Cards Merlin Olsen Los Angeles Rams

 1971 Topps Football Game Insert 27 Merlin Olsen Rams

(Front and Back)

EDIT: ACK! I was totally wrong I need a bunch of these: 1971 Topps Football Game Insert Cards
1971 Topps Game Inserts: 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 38, 40, 43, 44, 45, 48

Deacon Jones Passes On

DEACON JONES 1938-2013

As we grow older the icons of our youth die off. One of the icons of my childhood passed away on Monday 03 June 2013. Deacon Jones who played in the NFL from 1961 - 1974 Mostly for the Los Angeles Rams, he also spent a while with the San Diego Chargers and finished his football career with the Washington Redskins has joined fellow Fearsome Foursome teammates Merlin Olsen and Lamar Lundy on the immortal gridiron in the great beyond. I'm not good at writing these type of things so I'll just show some cards and pics.

 1970 Topps Super Football 7 Deacon Jones Rams

(Front and Back)

2007 Donruss Classics Football Classic Single 71 Deacon Jones Rams

#d/1000

Vintage Ramskins 3 Feb - Part 2 Philadelphia

OK so here is part 2 of my sportlots card onslaught for 03 February 2012. The Philadelphia Cards. I don't have much to say about these cards other than I like them and I don't want to go into the whole contract thing about Philadelphia Cards vs. Topps and the NFL vs. AFL and then the merge later on thing. Other blogs and card websites tell the story much better than I ever could. So just enjoy the cards.

First up is the only Redskin in this batch of four cards.EEK this card is as old as I am.

1965 Philadelphia 194 Vince Promuto - Redskins

 Next up a trio 1966 Philadelphia's. I like this particular year of Philly cards probably because the yellow banner at the top looks kind of like the vintage magazine covers from that era Like Sports Illustrated. OK so maybe not exactly, I'm not sure if any magazines from that era had a yellow (or some other color) banner at the top, but it looks like it should be on a magazine. One of my first cards from this set is Merlin Olsen's Card #102 (which I feature in my blog logo at top - or one of my blog logos if it currently is not featured)

 1966 Philadelphia 98 Marlin McKeever Rams

The odd and slightly annoying thing about these 1960s era Philadelphia cards is the "Guess Who?" questions on the back, the answers given are to a question on another card. I'm not sure how they determined which answer to put on which card they appear to be totally random. For instance this card's back (card 98) gives the answer for card number 42's question and the answer for this card's question is found on card number 154. A better way to do it is to put the answer on the next card, then that will leave one card without a question? Another way it has been done is to put the answer at the bottom of the card and upside down.

1966 Philadelphia 98 Marlin McKeever Rams (back)

So here is is QB from the 1965 Los Angeles Rams team. Bill Munson played on the Rams from 1964-67, his played on a few other teams until 1979. Tragically Bill died at age 58 found drown in his swimming pool on 10 July 2000.

1966 Philadelphia 101 Bill Munson - Rams

This next card is one of the Team Play cards which even though there are Rams in the picture, the card and the play is actually for the Minnesota Vikings. That year the card set was organized alphabetically by The Teams city, the card order was the Team card usually a team photo (1966 was the Atlanta Falcons first season so their team card featured the team logo), the featured players and an In Action Play card (again a team logo card for Atlanta). That is part of why I like many of the vintage years the cards were well organized. Now who knows what their reasons for the particular order they put the cards in is? The play on this card (from the game played 03 October 1965) gained a first down for Fullback Bill Brown despite Merlin Olsen's efforts spoiled by Larry Bowie.

1966 Philadelphia 117 Minnesota Vikings Team Play Card

1966 Philadelphia 117 Minnesota Vikings Team Play Card (back)

Vintage 60s Merlin Olsen Card

A fairly recently acquired card I got from one of my favorite players of one of my favorite teams when I was a kid. Merlin Olsen who played on the Los Angeles Rams from 1962 - 1976. His Rookie card is a 1964 Philadelphia card I don't have that one yet, but I did get this 1966 Philadelphia card recently. It has a little corner creasing action down in the lower left corner (the scan shows it a little). Just a few days before this one arrived I was waltzing through my cards and noticed I already had one. I thought it looked familiar.

1966 Philadelphia Football Merlin Olsen #102

Besides the fact that he was one of my favorite players on one of my fave teams growing up I like this card for a few other reasons; His fierce look posed as it may very well be, and the way the design of the card looks like a Sports Illustrated cover.

Merlin Olsen (1940 - 2010)

Merlin Jay Olsen (14 September 1940 - 11 March 2010)

Today is a sad day for Rams fans. HOFer Merlin Olsen (Age 69) passed away due to mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer often related to exposure to asbestos. He played with the Los Angeles Rams from 1962 - 1976 he was enshrined into the National Football League's Hall of Fame in 1982.


Olsen played left tackle in the Rams' legendary front four nicknamed "The Fearsome Foursome", with David "Deacon" Jones at left end, Roosevelt "Rosey" Grier at right tackle and Lamar Lundy at right end. Jones, who lined up to Mr. Olsen's left, coined the term "sack" to describe tackling the opposing quarterback behind the line of scrimmage. Olsen is the second member of the Fearsome Foursome to pass away, Lundy passed away on February 24 2007 at the age of 71.

Merlin Olsen, Lamar Lundry, Deacon Jones, (Glenn Ressler B'more Colts), Roger Brown (Misidentified as Rosey Grier from the source I got the pic from)

Merlin was also known for his acting in television roles for "Little House on The Prairie" and "Father Murphy" . Teammate Lundy also did some acting he portrayed the boulder-hurling cyclops in the (previously) unaired pilot of Lost in Space (this pilot was later made into episode 4 of the series, entitled "There Were Giants in the Earth").

Lamar Lundy as Cyclops in "Lost in Space".

*I posted this on my regular blog Merlin Olsen (1940-2010) with different pictures.