Card: 1971 Topps Football Card #113

Team/Position: Houston Oilers, Washington Redskins / Safety, DB.

Cost: $2.00

Ken Houston doesn’t get much love outside of Washington, it seems.  I actually ended up with a couple of his rookie cards; If you’d like a free one, leave a comment with your email address and I’ll get it out to you.

Houston was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1986, a tough achievement for a defensive back.  With the enshrinement of Rod Woodson, there are now 20 defensive backs in the Hall of Fame.  Modern linebackers trail behind with only 18 enshrined, but only two linebackers regularly played until the mid-50′s.

Considering that defensive backs were generally the best athletes on the field, it’s blasphemy that more aren’t recognized for their efforts.

Houston was born in Lufkin, Texas: A city of 32,000 people as of 2000.  Lufkin’s a city that knows how to churn out pro-football players, though.  A kid by the name of Dez Bryant called Lufkin home and was widely considered the best receiver in NCAA football (before the Dieon Sanders incident).  A total of thirteen other NFL players once played their high-school football in the city of Lufkin.

The Oilers drafted Houston in the ninth round of the 1967 AFL Draft out of Prarie State College — Guh? — where Houston was a football and track and field star.

After winning the starting gig just games into his rookie season, Houston’s skills were put on full display.  In 1971, Ken Houston set a then-record with 5 return touchdowns (4 INT, 1 FUM).

Houston’s athletic ability could probably still stand up to this day:  At 6’3″ and 197lbs, Houston was fast and rangy but could deliver punishing hits.

After six years with the Oilers, Houston was shipped off to the Washington Redskins for five veteran players.  Houston kept up his All-World play and was eventually named one of the 70 greatest Redskins of all time.

When all was said and done, Houston  intercepted 49 passes and scored 9 touchdowns which lead to 12 CONSECUTIVE PROBOWLS.

If you’re unfamiliar with Houston, just think of a player in the mold of Ed Reed, Troy Polamalu or Adrian Wilson.

Card: 1959 Topps Football Card #140

Team/Position: Halfback, Flanker / Washington Redskins, Cleveland Browns

Cost: $9.00

Bobby Mitchell was yet another incredible athlete from the prestigious Big-10 conference.  This time, rather than ranting and raving about Ohio State, we’re taking a trek westward to visit Champaign, Illinois, and their Fightin’ Illini.   Mitchell was a half-back for the Illini, but didn’t start until late in his sophomore season.  Mitchell finished up the season with a bang, but lost the majority of his junior year due to knee injuries.  His senior season was successful, but he failed to match his First Team All-American performance of just two years previous.

Mitchell’s athleticism landed him an offer from the St. Louis Cardinals to play baseball before even attending the University of Illinois.  Mitchell obviously declined and subsequently starred on the track and field team where his Olympic aspirations were born.

After the Browns drafted Mitchell in the 7th round of the 1958 Draft, Paul Brown had to contend with Mitchell’s Olympic dreams.  Brown’s offer of a $7000 salary was enough to change Mitchell’s mind and set the stage for arguably the best one-two combination that the game’s ever seen: Bobby Mitchell and Jim Brown.

Mitchell had track speed and unbelievable “make-ya-miss” potential.  Brown had the “make-yah-wish-yah-missed” skill that made him arguably the best player ever to have put on a helmet.

The combination was broken up in 1962 when the Washington Redskins underwent a drastic transformation.  The ‘Skins were under tremendous pressure to integrate the team by the local media and even congress, which lead to the eventual acquisition of Bobby Mitchell.  The ‘Skins had drafted Heisman winner, Ernie Davis, with the number one pick but traded him to the Browns for Mitchell and Leroy Jackson.

In one of the saddest stories ever told by the NFL (and eventually the silver screen,) Davis was the first African American to win the Heisman; However, Davis  succumbed to leukemia before ever playing a down of football in the National Football League.

The Redskins and Bill McPeak saw Mitchell as better suited for the outside and switched him to Flanker.  In Mitchell’s first year, he went off for — check this — 72 receptions, 1384 yards, and 11 touchdowns.

Mitchell was absolutely Dyn-o-mite.

Throughout the remainder of his career with the Redskins, Mitchell would never catch fewer than 58 passes in a year, despite being returned to his original half-back position in 1967 by new head-coach, Otto Graham.  When Mitchell retired after the 1968 season, his 14,078 combined yards was the second highest total in NFL history.

Mitchell was truly special in every aspect of the game. As a returner, Mitchell would end up returning almost 5% of kickoffs for touchdowns, which ranks fourth in NFL history.  As a runner, Mitchell was blessed with the break-away potential that few runningbacks, let alone defenders, could ever match.  As a receiver, Mitchell managed almost 8000 yards receiving despite spending a large portion of his career in the backfield.

Mitchell was inducted into the HOF in 1983 after being on the ballot for 10 years.

Seriously, 10 years.