Most obscure player to get a Topps card

[Todd Pence]

Can you think of a player who lasted only one or two seasons and only appeared in a few games but nonetheless got immortalized with his face on a Topps card.

[Jay Z]

Merritt Kersey, 1975. He was a punter for the Eagles.

At the time there were 528 cards in a set, and 26 teams. So minus special cards, each team would get about 19 cards of individual players. Enough for most of the starters. Also, the kicker and punter would usually get a card as well.

Kersey got a card. He was a punter for 1974 and part of 1975. Not a very good one, hence the short career.

[RichardBak]

When I was researching my Lions book---I did a whole chapter on bubble gum cards of the '50s---I was really surprised at who did and who didn't make the cut each year. In 1954, for example, when the Lions were 2-time defending champs, Topps released Detroit cards for 2 guys who never played a single down of pro ball---Dick Chapman (Rice tackle) and Jim Neal (Michigan State center). They were top draft picks so the gum company thought they would make the team (both decided to pursue other careers), but their inclusion came at the expense of guys like Joe Schmidt, who wouldn't get a card until 1956, his 4th NFL season (and even then he was misidentified as a halfback!).

Of the 135 Lions players who played at least one game between 1950 and 1959, only one-third ever got a card that decade from Topps or Bowman. Bobby Layne, Doak Walker, and Leon Hart were the only ones to get a card each year they played. Les Bingaman OTOH didn't get a card until his 6th and final season.

There were a bunch of reasons some players got a card and others didn't, and they applied to all teams: the card sets varied in size, not all players signed a contract with the gum companies, etc.

Bowman issued the first major national card sets of the post-World War II era in 1948. They skipped 1949, then came back every year until 1955, issuing 144 cards each year from 1950 thru 1952, and dropping to a low of just 96 in 1953. A couple years later Topps bought out Bowman's entire sports card business (FB and BB) and issued its initial pro football set in 1956. It had 120 cards---an average of 10 players per team. By 1959 Topps' NFL set had grown to 176 cards, but that still meant less than half the players were represented.

I think most collectors will agree that the BB and FB card sets of the early '50s are among the most beautiful ever created. Some sets are like miniature oil paintings.

I might add that Topps was very good about allowing the publisher to reproduce (at no charge) some Bowman & Topps cards from the '50s. It took a few months for Topps legal people to OK it, but we wound up including about 40 cards in full color in the book.

[RRMarshall]

In a similar vein Eddie Hare, a punter for the Patriots in 1979 (his only season in the NFL) received a card in the 1980 Topps set. If you watched him punt you would know whey he had such a short career!

[Citizen]

Not Topps, but the 1960 Fleer football set contained three players (Bob Fee, Sam McCord, Larry Cundiff) who never played in the AFL, let alone the NFL.

And obviously through no fault of his own, Ernie Davis had a 1962 Topps card even though he never played in the NFL.

[JohnTurney]

Not Topps, but the 1960 Fleer football set contained three players (Bob Fee, Sam McCord, Larry Cundiff) who never played in the AFL, let alone the NFL.
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Bill Shoemake, too

[Bryan]

[RichardBak]

I believe that's my Uncle Johnny from Youngstown. He changed his name and profession after that unfortunate incident with the waitress at Danny's Gin Mill back around '62 or so.

[Gary Najman]

Off the top of my head from the 1977 Mexican set I would choose another punter, the Cardinals Terry Joyce #87. He also was listed as a tight end in the card.

[JWL]

Panini, a competitor of Topps, made a Lou D'Agostino card in 1997.