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A Collector's Toughest Decision

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Collecting Dallas Cowboys Football Cards

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The Dallas Cowboys Uniform: Tracing It's Evolution Through Football Cards

Making the Grade: Sports Cards in the 21st Century

Top 10 Dallas Cowboy Football Cards from the 1960's

As a sports card collector of the Dallas Cowboys, or any team for that matter, many of us struggle with where to draw the line with what we include in our collections.  When is a card not worthy of being considered part of our coveted collections?  With all the time spent putting binders together and the expense of card holders and display cases, can we justify adding a card that has another team’s name on it?  Sure he’s in a Cowboys uniform, but can we really tolerate a Washington Redskins card mixed in with our beloved Cowboys?  This occurrence was more frequent in the vintage years of card manufacturing.  Card companies either didn’t have the resources to keep up with trades or didn’t bother with getting new photos taken often enough.  They often relied on using photos already on file.  More recently, we had Emmitt Smith finish his career as an Arizona Cardinal.  Several cards of the all-time NFL rushing king in 2003 featured him with his new team but still donning the Cowboy threads.

With the expense of some of the more valuable cards in our collections, what’s a few more bucks for that 1964 Philadelphia Gum Sam Baker.  Fresh from the trade to the Eagles, Sam is pictured in his Dallas Cowboys uniform.  We don’t hesitate if the player is pictured in another team’s uniform.  The entire 1960 Topps team set has every Cowboys player pictured in the uniform from the team they came from.  We can’t just leave that year empty in our binders and start with 1961.

The ‘play cards’ from the 1964 and ‘65 Philadelphia Gum sets have an entry or two worth mentioning.  The cards feature a play of significance from the previous year and mention the team the play was against.  The 1965 Eagles play card (seen below) is against Dallas .

Why would I have a 1966 Philadelphia Bruce Gossett in my collection?  He played for the Los Angles Rams at the time and was never pictured as a Dallas Cowboy.  The reason why is on the back.  Philadelphia Gum placed a ‘guess who quiz’ on the backs of all their cards in this set.  The question on this card is “Who is this coach?”  Pictured below the question is none other than Tom Landry.

  Super Bowl or championship game losses cards are another area of personal preference.  The 1978 Topps set has a card featuring Super Bowl XIII.  Dallas lost that game to the Pittsburgh Steelers but it is a significant piece of Cowboys history.  There are several examples of these through the years - Fleer Team Action sets in the ‘70’s for example - and some of the time you’ll find Cowboys players on the card fronts.

  There is also the rare and complicated occasion of a player pictured in a Cowboys uniform that never previously appeared on a Dallas Cowboy issue.  As is the case of the 1967 Philadelphia Obert Logan.  He was a RB for the Cowboys in 1965-66 and traded to the New Orleans Saints the following year.  Or, the case of a player having never been pictured on a major issue card in a Cowboys uniform until being traded to another team.  As is the case of the 1964 Topps Ed Husmann.  Ed was on the original 1960 Cowboys roster and did not appear in the Topps set in that inaugural season at all.  However he was included in the very first team issue set, 1960 Cowboys Team Sheets.  This example also highlights the laziness of card companies not getting updated photos.  Husmann was with the Oilers for four years when that card came out.  You can see both of those cards pictured below.

None of this should be surprising or new information to the vintage collector.  Chances are you’ve already made these choices for yourself.  Collectors that include everything have a lot more research to do if they are to find every traded player pictured in a Cowboys uniform, 1966 Philadelphia Gum ‘quiz back’ answer, ’64 play card, or the Super Bowl and championship game losses.  Perhaps now, after maybe seeing some of these cards for the first time, you’ll reconsider what should be included in your collection.

1969 Mike Clark in his Steelers uniform	1965 Eagles Play Card #140	1964 Topps Ed Husmann	1960 Cowboys Team Sheets Ed Husmann

  The Dallas Cowboys won their first Super Bowl in 1972.  Coming off a disappointing loss the previous year to the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl V, they had something to prove. The Cowboys dominated the entire game on both sides of the ball.  Setting the tone early was a first quarter sack of Miami Dolphins QB Bob Griese.  Not just your ordinary sack however, Bob Lilly chased down the scrambling QB and finally took him down for a record 29 yard loss.

  This play was captured on film and later produced what is now a very hard-to-find collectible.  The Chiquita Produce Company, new to the NFL as far as merchandise goes, produced a set of two-sided slides in 1972.  The set is comprised of 13 slides and featured color action shots of 26 NFL players, one from each team.  The yellow viewer and a set of slides could be obtained by sending 35-cents along with five team logo stickers from Chiquita bananas, and a receipt showing $15 worth of produce purchases.

  Chiquita only produced two types of collectibles for the NFL.  The 1970 Team Logo Stickers, and the 1972 NFL Slides.  The team logo stickers were labels found on bananas at your local produce store.  There was one sticker for each of the 26 teams in the NFL.  A complete booklet was available for 25-cents by mail-in offer.  A rather difficult item to find these days in the world of collectables, the complete set can be valued as high as $350, and individual stickers average between $12 and $20. The NFL Slides contained statistical and biographical information of the featured players.  The complete set of slides is valued at $300 while the individual slides vary greatly due to the players featured.  Here is a complete checklist for the 1972 NFL Slides (listed in pairs); 1 Joe Green & 2 Bob Lilly, 3 Bill Bergey & 4 Gary Collins, 5 Walt Sweeney & 6 Bubba Smith, 7 Larry Wilson & 8 Fred Carr, 9 Mac Percival & 10 John Brodie, 11 Lem Barney & 12 Ron Yary, 13 Curt Knight & 14 Alvin Haymond, 15 Floyd Little & 16 Gerry Philbin, 17 Jim Mitchell & 18 Paul Costa, 19 Jake Kupp & 20 Ben Hawkins, 21 Johnny Robinson & 22 George Webster, 23 Mercury Morris & 24 Willie Brown, 25 Ron Johnson & 26 Jon Morris.

  As rare as the slides are, I would imagine the viewers are even harder to come by.  That being the case, and the interest in displaying a key piece to my collection, I set out to get a clear image from the slide.  The slides are very small (1/2” x 7/16”) compared to a typical 35mm slide, adding to the difficulty of my project.  Using my scanner and a home-made device called a backlight box, I made my first scan.  Scanning at 1200dpi and with several adjustments to brightness and contrast I was able to get a decent image to start with.  Scanning with that high of a resolution was necessary to capture the tiny photo, but it also captured all the defects the slide accumulated over the years.  Now all that was needed was a little touch-up here and there and my job was done.

Brought to life 36 years later for all the Dallas Cowboys collectors that may not have this gem in their collection, or have it and can’t get a good look at the image…here it is.

  Card manufacturers were producing trading cards long before the Dallas Cowboys joined the NFL in 1960.  In the 1950’s Topps began packaging their signature product, bubblegum, with baseball and football cards.  From there, as football grew in popularity, players could find their likeness on items such as milk cartons, soft drink caps, cereal boxes and plastic cups.  The emergence of the AFL in 1960 allowed Topps competitors, beginning with Fleer, to make inroads in the business.  The 1961 Fleer set featured both leagues, and then they focused on the AFL alone.  Philadelphia Gum secured the NFL rights for 1964, forcing Topps to go for the AFL which left Fleer with no product in either baseball or football.  Philadelphia Gum produced football card sets featuring Cowboys from 1964 through 1967.  In 1982 Topps was licensed by NFL Properties for the first time.  Previously, team logos on helmets were removed by airbrush.  In the 70’s Fleer rejoined the ranks by producing sets of cards called Fleer Team Action and FTA Stickers.  They focused on NFL teams not individual players and were able to use team logos.  The “card explosion” started around 1989 with new companies joining the fold like Pro Set and Score.  By 1992 there were more than 30 brands of football cards.  It was a new era for the hobby.  You could all but forget about collecting all the cards of your favorite team, but now focus on a favorite player or two.  Just to put it all in perspective - with all the parallel, inserts, and variations - in 1995 there were over 250 different cards produced of Troy Aikman.

 The Cowboys were an expansion team in 1960.  Their first roster was created by choosing 36 players from the 12 existing franchises (three per team).  In the first set of cards featuring Dallas Cowboys players, 1960 Topps, all the players were pictured in the uniforms of the teams they departed.  The next year they took part in the NFL draft and acquired Bob Lilly with their first ever draft pick.  There have been many outstanding players through the years that have donned the blue star on their helmet, several of which are members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  Only one man held the position of head coach for the first 29 years of the organization - Tom Landry.  Coach Landry led the Cowboys to two Super Bowl titles, five NFC Championships, 13 NFC East titles, 18 trips to the playoffs and 20 winning seasons.

 There were no plastic holders or sleeves to keep your cards from harms way in the early years.  They were rubber banded together and tossed in shoe boxes and the stickers were stuck onto school notebooks or bike fenders.  Cards were flipped and traded with your buddies and even thumb tacked or taped on bulletin boards.  All these things lend to the value of the cards today.  If you were lucky enough to have kept very good care of your cards when you were younger, and your mother didn’t toss that shoebox in the attic out with the trash, you could already have a good start to your collection.  Now with all the top-loaders, sorting boxes, screw downs and nine-slot binder pages available to the collector, it’s much easier to take care of those gems.  That is why I consider 1960 – 1990 the vintage years.  Those older cards can sometimes be very difficult to find in great condition.   That is not to say that the cards manufactured after 1990 have no value or collectable appeal.  They just won’t be as scarce or hard to find in great condition twenty or even fifty years from now. I encourage you to collect beyond 1990 and on.  It’s a whole new hobby now with more resources to fill your checklists like the internet and card shows.

  The Dallas Cowboys wore their "throw-back" uniform on Monday night, September 19, 1994 against the Detroit Lions (notice they wore their current helmet colors, not white and blue?). So I thought it would be interesting to trace the evolution of the uniform. Cowboy fans may be surprised to learn that the uniform and team colors were not always the current silver and blue which are now so familiar. Changes in team colors and uniform designs are easily traced through a review of historical football cards.

  Topps' 1960 set is no help: it shows Cowboy players in the uniforms of their former teams. The place to start examining the Dallas uniform is the 1961 Topps and Fleer sets. Both show the Cowboys in their original uniforms: Fleer shows them in their white (road) jerseys with blue shoulders; Topps features the royal blue (home) jerseys with white shoulders. The shoulders included a star and number of contrasting color, the star being on top of the shoulder with the number on the sleeve. Note the long sleeves on both jerseys; the pants were white with twin blue stripes. The white helmet with blue star and stripes is pictured on only one card ('61 Topps #19), a team action photo of Eddie LeBaron handing off to L.G. Dupre. Pants and socks normally were not featured on older sets; an exception is '62 Post. It includes full-length action photos of players without their helmets, and gives good views of the white pants and socks. The blue hose retain the twin white stripes to this day.

  Close-up helmet shots in '63 Topps (#78 Cvercko and #82 Lilly) show that the blue star was borderless, unlike today's bordered blue star. Cards #76 (Marsh) and #77 (Howton) show clearly the white shoulders with blue stars that resembled the College All-Star uniforms of the time.

  The first major uniform change occurred in 1964 and is reflected in '65 Philadelphia. Most of the players are shown in their new uniforms: white jerseys and silver pants. The numbers are on top of the shoulders, with three blue stripes on the 3/4 sleeve. The white uniform has remained virtually unchanged to this day. However, the new uniforms did not impress coach Tom Landry, who supposedly liked the original one. He reportedly said, "New uniforms never won a football game". Of course, he was right -- the Cowboys struggled to a record of 5-8-1 in 1964.

  Traditionally, visiting teams wore white, and the home team wore its colored jerseys. It was about 1964 with the introduction of the new uniforms that the Cowboys began to wear white at home; the rationale was that, if the Cowboys wore blue at home, and visiting teams wore white, that's all the fans would ever see: blue vs. white. However, if the Cowboys wore white, fans would be treated to SF in red, GB in green, NY in blue, etc.; i.e., home whites would bring variety to the fans. Dallas still wears white at home.

  The (then) new royal blue jersey and silver helmet are first seen in '66 Philly. Like the white jersey, the new blue jersey features numbers on top of the shoulders and three white stripes on the sleeves. The silver helmet (#55 Clarke) includes a blue star with white trim. The helmet logo and trim have undergone only minor changes since that time.

  The '69 Topps set shows the number of stripes on the sleeves reduced from three to two -- the current design. For the second year in a row, Topps did a poor job of photo selection, mixing stock images of the obsolete uniform with photos of the current uniform.

  The next change was rather subtle, and probably resulted from the 1970 merger with the AFL. In trying to bring consistency to team uniforms across the league, I believe the league office mandated rules about the uniform and number placement; the numbers were placed on the outside of the shoulder, rather than on top. I think this was done to make the numbers more visible on TV. Only '71 Topps #65 (Thomas) and #190 (Hayes) show the new number placement; the others show the old placement on top of the shoulder. In addition, in 1970 player names were added to the back of the jersey for the first time in the NFL/NFC; the AFL had been showing names for some time. Of course, evidence of the names can only barely be seen on the cards; e.g., in 71T #190, Hayes' name can barely be seen as he leans forward in the photo.

  The first evidence of the two-stripe blue jersey is '72 Topps #253 (Pro Action), a shot of Duane Thomas in SB V. All shots of blue jerseys up to that time showed three stripes (e.g. '70 Topps #4, Neely), or (worse yet), the old "All-Star" type jersey (e.g. '69 Topps #75, Meredith and #97, Howley). The last helmet change to bring it to its current design was the addition of a blue outline to the star. I believe the change occurred in '67, and should have appeared in the '68 Topps set. That set (as well as the '69 set -- #210, Edwards) shows the white-bordered blue star, but because of Topps' irritating use of out-of-date stock photos, the lack of blue trim on the star cannot be considered conclusive.

  The '70 and '71 sets show no helmets at all. The '72 Topps set was the beginning of the "airbrush" era, in which helmet logos were painted out. Airbrushing continued for ten maddening years until the '82 Topps set (one glaring exception is '79 Topps #167, NFC Championship, which clearly shows the Rams' horns even though the Cowboys' star is gone!). Thus, Topps does not show the current helmet logo until 1982. Fleer Team Action '76 shows the current star design, as does '79 Stop-N-Go 3-D.

  At some point, the Cowboys decided to put the numbers back on top of the shoulders. Several players are shown that way in '75 Topps: e.g., #175 Lilly and #59 Waters. Other players are shown with numbers on the outside of the shoulders. The current design has numbers on top of the shoulders. An almost imperceptible helmet variation can be seen in '77 Topps: one stripe was made red, to provide a red, white, and blue effect for the Bicentennial year of 1976. I think the Cowboys modified their helmets in this way only for SB X in January, 1976. Card #102 Herrera, #516 Johnson and #45 Staubach show this red stripe.

  The last, and most recent major uniform change is reflected in '82 Topps: the Cowboys redesigned their road jerseys from royal blue to navy blue. Numbers and stripes were in very light blue, outlined in white. That combination was very difficult to see, and later, blue trim was added to the numbers. Also, silver pants were designed to be worn with the navy blue jerseys, rather than the metallic silver-blue pants worn with the home whites. It is said that the Cowboys felt jinxed when forced to wear their royal blue jerseys; the Cardinals routinely made the Cowboys wear them when they visited St. Louis, as is still the case today in Phoenix. Tex Schramm was apparently so paranoid about the royal blue uniform, that he personally redesigned it in navy blue, some say, hoping to break the jinx. However, he did not change the design of the home white uniform.

(Aside: as the home team, Green Bay wore green against KC in SB I; every odd-numbered SB since has traditionally featured the NFC team hosting in its colored jerseys, except Dallas! Under current NFL rules, the home team decides whether it will wear colored or white jerseys -- that's why the Cowboys wore blue in SB V but white in SB XIII. The rule was changed for SB XIII at their insistence!)

  The last few changes have been relatively minor. Two of them were temporary: adding the letter "C" on captains' jerseys, and adding numbers to the pants, and can be seen in the '84 Topps set. The third change was also temporary: the Silver Anniversary logo was added to player jerseys for the '84 season, which can be seen in '85 Topps (the Cowboys, like all other NFL clubs, also wore a 50-year NFL anniversary patch in 1969; however, '70 Topps does not show it since Topps did not use game-action photos that year; also, the Bicentennial patch worn in SB X is not seen in '76 Topps). Fourth: the blue numbers used on the white home jerseys were increased in width, as can be seen in '87 Topps (I believe the pant stripes were also widened at that time). Fifth: the numbers were removed from the pants, as can be seen in '90 Score. I'm not sure how long the captains' "C" lasted, but it is not found on the current uniform.

  Teamset collectors (like me) will find it interesting to trace the evolution of their favorite team's uniform through a review of football cards; older teams like the Giants and Packers have a long history in the league, and (unlike the Cowboys) should appear on older sets like '35 National Chicle and '48 Leaf and Bowman. In fact, helmet logos did not appear until 1948; thus, even fans of older teams (except, of course, the Browns) should find some evidence of helmet logo evolution in their cards. I think it's great that the NFL resurrected the old uniforms, even if only for a few games. If any season warrants research into old uniforms, the '94 season is the one -- happy hunting!

(This article originally appeared in the July/August 1994 issue of Bob Swick's Football Times, a football memorabilia collector's newsletter. Unfortunately, the newsletter is no longer available) © Fred Goodwin, January 30, 2007

  One the biggest phenomena's in the sports card market today is having your cards professionally graded or the slang term 'slabbed'. For those of us who have been in the hobby for more than 15 years this can be a hard concept to grasp. Professionally graded cards were unheard of less than 15 years ago. You could spend hours at a sports card show with more than 100 or so tables and not find 1 graded card, not one. Then all of a sudden, almost in an instant, a graded card appeared. 'Where did that come from? That wasn't here before.' Then another, then another, and all of the sudden you can't visit one table at a show without seeing half a dozen or more PSA, BGS, USA, SGC, ABC graded cards. There are more companies grading cards today than there are making cards. Does anybody else see a problem here? How much does it cost to have a company professionally grade a card? $10? $20? $30? That depends on how fast you want the card back in your hands. You can go to some card shows and the grading companies are onsite, grading cards while you wait. Imagine opening up a new wax pack at a card show and finding a Michael Vick Rookie card and then immediately going to one of the grading card booths and have them grade your card. It comes back a MINT 9! It should be MINT 9 it just came out of the pack! I don't need a professional grading company to tell me that, much less, I don't need to spend any more money on the card than I already have. MINT, GEM MINT, PRISTINE, what the heck is that?

  Doesn't the term MINT imply perfect? I didn't know that you could improve on perfect. Apparently you can because most of the grading companies have MINT listed 2 levels from the TOP of their grading scale. Things used to be so simple. MINT was perfect, Near MINT was almost perfect and anything less was usually left at the table. I can spot a MINT card a mile away. At least I thought I could. I don't need a microscope to see if the corners are sharp. I'm not that blind, yet. I don't need a ruler to tell if the card is centered. Does a fraction of an inch really make a card worth that much more? Not in my eyes. It is simply insane to spend hundreds of more dollars for a card simply because some 3rd party says the card is GEM MINT versus just MINT! If the corners are sharp, the centering is centered, the edges are clean, and the surface is clean, then the card is MINT. Spending and extra $10, $20, or $30 to have someone tell you that it is MINT is like throwing money away. 99% of the hobbyist who are having cards graded, do so in order to obtain a larger profit from the card. Buy a Rookie card for less than book, have it graded, sell it for more. The problem is if the price for grading a card is $10.00 or more then the selling price has to reap more than book price plus the grading/shipping price. That sometimes just doesn't happen especially if the card comes back with a less than desirable grade. Most newly released cards have to obtain a grade of GEM MINT or higher in order to obtain a premium.

  I'm not saying that professionally graded cards don't have a place in our hobby. I personally love vintage (pre-1970) graded cards. I would certainly pay more for a 1965 Philadelphia common Cowboy card graded PSA 7 than I would the same card ungraded. The graded card carries a premium and deservedly so. My biggest problem with the grading companies is there are too many, there are too many inconsistencies in the grades, and too many collectors think that a Gem Mint grade makes a common card valuable, but what do I know?