1954 Bowman Football (Mostly Rams)

I got a few 1954 Bowman Football Cards from the Bay (Ebay) for $5.00/each on average. The lowest was $3.00 and $5.00 was the high. The Los Angeles Rams cards I got from the same dealer so I saved on shipping.

I think part of the appeal to me on these cards is the early color photos. They seem to be hand colored from black & white photos, maybe early machine colored. I'm not a photo expert so I don't know exactly and don't really care other than I enjoy them. I also like them for the team logos.

8 Norm Van Brocklin Rams

 

20 Tom Fears Rams

32 Elroy Hirsch Rams

127 Joe Koch Bears

The dealer that I got the Joe Koch from also sent me a couple of  "bonus" cards. He at least was keeping with a theme as the cards he sent were Chicago Bears, although more modern ones. Some dealers send bonus cards that make no sense other than the fact that they are sometimes the same sport (I'll get into that with another post soon hopefully). The "Bonus Bears" I got were a 1990 Fleer Neal Anderson #288 (a player I collect since he has a similar name to my brother but spelled different) and a 1991 Pro Set Brad Muster #105. I'm not sure if I'm going to try to collect the rest of the 1991 Pro Set. Back in the day I had collected quite a few, but over the last few years of being a member of various trading card forums I have traded a few away. As for the 1990 Fleer. A few months back I bought a full set of them along with the All-Pros Sub-Set. So I have at least one dupe of this Neal Anderson card.

1990 Fleer 288 Neal Anderson Bears

1974 Fleer NFL Hall Of Fame

1974 Fleer Hall of Fame 

"The Immortal Roll" cards

 

In 1974 Fleer produced a Hall of Fame "The Immortal Roll" set of 50 NFL cards similar to the Baseball "Pioneers of Baseball" 28 card set. These cards were packaged I think 4 to a pack with a team logo sticker or cloth sticker. This set and the baseball one were my first "retro" cards of hard to find old-timers or Hall of Famers from any sport. At the time I was not really into reprints, still not, or retro cards, but these sets just reached out to me. I've liked them ever since. This set was so successful that in 1975 Fleer produced an 84 card set that is very similar and sometimes gets confused with this one. The main difference is the '75 set has brown borders instead of the white, and they are numbered. This '74 set is not numbered and often any numbers assigned are from their alphabetical ordered position. I think for the '75 set they just used the same photos, which adds to the confusion. The backs have a drawing of the Hall of Fame building in Canton, OH an a descriptive paragraph of the player featured.

 

Legendary Redskin Quarterback "Slingin' Sammy Baugh

No NFL Hall of Fame set could be complete without Legend Jim Thorpe

 Some Classic players from one of my fave teams The Los Angeles Rams

 I really dig the old leather helmets and the early metal ones.

 Check out the poses. 3 Point stand w/out helmet?

 Don't forget the "tough guy" and the "pretty boy". (OK I got a little carried away there.)

 

I only have the 17 different cards featured in this post a few of them I have duplicates. I plan on getting the rest of this set and the 1975 set.