Card: 1964 Topps Football #92

Team/Position: Kansas City Chiefs / Defensive Tackle

Cost: $6.00

There’s so much history wrapped up in this card I’m just not sure where to start.  Rather than digging into the history of Topps, the AFL, or Buck Buchanan right off the bat; I’ll just discuss the overall appearance of the card.  While ’64 can’t compare to the downright gold that is the 1965 Topps set; I love the bold colours and star-spangled border.

When you compare the ’64 Topps to it’s NFL-counterpart, the ’64 Philadelphia, it’s really a matter of taste.  The AFL cards are flashy and filled with bright colours, while the NFL cards are beautiful in more of a historical kinda way.

Topps was limited to only producing AFL cards from ’64 to ’67 and this was their real first effort.  You can see the beginnings of the ’65 set in the bright colours and great poses of the ’64 set.

Now onto Junious “Buck” Buchanan:

Buck Buchanan made history after the Kansas City Chiefs made him the first African-American to be selected first overall in an entry draft*.

Buchanan came from the traditionally African-American school, Grambling University, where he learned under one of the greatest college coaches of all time in Eddie Robinson.

The NFL largely ignored these hotbeds of talent, as shown by the New York Giants selecting Buchanan in the 19th round compared to the first-overall selection.

Buchanan would go on to be selected to six All-AFL teams and win two AFL Championships with the Kansas City Chiefs.  Buchanan was part of a dominant front four that’d go on to win the Superbowl in ’69 after falling short against the Green Bay Packers in the very first Superbowl in ’66.

Buchanan had the speed and strength required to be one of the best defensive players of all time.  Weighing in at 275lbs was no small feet during the ’60s and being able to run 10.2 in the 100 at that size was just unbelievable.

In 1990, Buchanan was finally elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  Buchanan was also selected as the 67th best overall football player by the Sporting News.  It’s quite fitting that I’ve done Merlin Olsen and Buck Buchanan back-to-back, as they’re probably both in the top-five defensive tackles of all-time and both played during the same era, but in different leagues.  Bob Lilly, arguably the greatest defensive tackle of all time, also played the majority of his career in the 1960′s — If you were into skilled defensive tackles, the ’60′s was for you.

*Ernie Davis, who inspired the movie “The Express” was selected first overall by the Washington Redskins and traded to the Cleveland Browns two years previous, but never played a single down of football unfortunately.

Card: 1985 Topps Football Card #251

Team/Position: Houston Oilers / Quarterback

Cost: $4.00

Topps 1985 football endeavor was a masterpiece, at least in my books. I love the dark black borders and horizontal layout: the cards are quite sharp.  It’s not in the same league as the Godfather of black bordered cards, 1962 Topps, but it’s still a damn good card.

Unfortunately, 1985 was one of the absolute worst years for Football Rookie Cards.  Baseball was fine; it had Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Kirby Puckett and Brett Saberhagen.  Football, on the other hand, got the shaft.  Contrast the  ’83 Draft spitting out 6 Hall of Famers (Dickerson, Elway, Kelly, Marino, Green, and Matthews,) with the ’84 Draft and you’ve got a 6-to-0 shutout.

Other than Moon, 1985 gives us three men that knew Dan Marino intimately:  Irving Fryar, Mark Clayton and Bills’ LB, Darryl Talley.  Jim Jeffcoat also came out of the ’85 set, but I’m just mentioning him to plug the 8-and-1 Houston Cougars, for whom he’s a defensive line coach.  Houston snuck by Tulsa 46-45 yesterday and I doubt they’ll improve on their #13 Ranking — We’ll see though.

The Canadian Football League’s regular season wraps up today, so there’s no better time to discuss Warren Moon.  Moon had all of the tools to be a HOF NFL Quarterback, but the colour of his skin made his journey harder than it ever should’ve been.

After posting great numbers in High School, Moon’s desire to remain a quarterback initially cost him a scholarship from a big-time program.  After playing a season in Junior College, only the Washington Huskies believed enough in Moon as a quarterback to offer him.  The Huskies were eventually rewarded with one of the biggest wins in school history, a Rose Bowl victory over the Michigan Wolverines.

After College, the cycle once again repeated itself:  Moon conveyed a strong desire to play QB, but NFL Scouts saw him as a Tight End.  Moon refused to budge which set the stage for one of the greatest professional football careers ever.  Warren Moon was off to the CFL’s Edmonton Eskimos, where he proceeded to win five consecutive Grey Cups from 1978 to 1982.  In just six years, Moon threw for over twenty-one thousand yards and 144 TDs with the Eskimos.

When Moon announced he heading South for greener, less snow-covered pastures, a bidding war ensued.  Houston ended up with Warren Moon, who eventually found his way with the Run-and-Shoot Offense. Rather than talk about the passing records that Moon set, or the big-fat juicy contract extension that made him the highest paid player, I’ll talk about something much more important:

TECMO BOWL!

There’s a great thread over at VirtualSportsNetwork, which I’ll borrow some images from.

Houston Oilers Run And Shoot Playbook

There’s all sorts of great screen captures from Tecmo Bowl, and I’d recommend giving them a look-see (I can only assume that you cannot copyright a screen-capture).

History

Warren Moon was the first and to this day, the only, black Quarterback inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame.  It was a pleasure to watch Moon prove the entire NFL wrong after dominating the CFL as a quarterback.  I’m not going to say that Moon opened the door for black quarterbacks, but he definitely reinforced that skin color has very little to do with the ability to play quarterback.