Are You Ready for Some Wild Sunday Football?
December 19th, 2010 by slangon

We’re getting ready for some tense nail biting football here at SlangKo Corporate Headquarters. The Jets game will be pretty tense since it’s going to be a disaster it they lose another game, but I’m more focused on the Giants / Eagles game. After weeks of trading wins to remained tied for 1st in the NLC East, somebody is finally going to get bounced to 2nd. I’m either going to be downing beer after beer in frustration or downing beer after beer in jubilation. Either way, I’m going to be downing beer after beer.

Anyway, here’s a card.

1955 Bowman Football #31 Dave Leggett

Just like the 1955 Bowman baseball set, the 1955 Bowman football set was the last one produced by Bowman thanks to being bought out by Topps. Interestingly, it’s a little reminiscent of the football set that Topps put out the following year, what with the player striking a pose on a solid colored background. There are some differences of course. The ’56 Topps set has a solid outline around the player whereas the Bowman card has that ghostly aura looking thing. Also the graphic elements that display the team name and logo and player name and position are different. I’m just saying, it’s a little curious that Topps buys out Bowman in 1955 and then in 1956 puts out a set of cards that looks a little bit like the Bowman football set from the year before. Maybe the design team was part of the sale.

One little design element that Bowman used in this set (which Topps also appropriated for the 1956 set) is that each team has the same colored background. All the Chicago Cardinals cards have this light blue background. All the Giants are green. All the Lions are red. I’m personally a fan of this as I think it makes the cards look so much nicer when put together in a page, although I’m not so sure how much I would like it if I collected the Redskins and their lilac backgrounds.

Another little design feature I kind of like is that they specify that this happens to be Dave Leggetts rookie card. I’ve complained about Topps “Rookie Card” logo a few times in the past (although I must admit that the 2010 version is much better) but I do like having the rookie card called out. I think the way they did it on this Bowman set is much simpler and nicer. You don’t need some fancy logo, just put the word “Rookie” in parenthesis under the guys name. Simple.

I like the back quite a bit. It contains a good amount of information but in no way looks crowded. I sort of question why they have a picture of a kicker in the upper right hand corner on a quarterbacks card, but whatever. I’m also normally a huge fan of comics on the back of cards, but I kind of dig the play diagram. It’s a nice change of pace. My one complaint is that I have no idea why they put the “Double Reverse” Play back here. Was that a play that Dave was known for? Do they just put random plays on the backs? I think it would be cool if it was a play that had something to do with the player, but otherwise I think it’s pretty cool.

Dave Leggett did not have a very distinguished NFL career. He only played 1 season with the Cardinals, and only got into 4 games at that, none of which were starts. He only made 1 pass attempt, which he did not complete. He did however have a pretty sweet college career. As you can read on the back of the card, he led Ohio State to the Rose Bowl in 1954 (they were also undefeated that year, 10-0), as well as winning the Rose Bowl MVP.

Leggett was probably most famous for a game against Michigan in that 1954 season. It was the game right before the Rose Bowl and Ohio was 8-0. Their undefeated season was on the line, with the score tied 7–7 in the fourth quarter. Michigan was on the Ohio State one yard line with a fourth down and went for it. Michigan pitched the ball to the right and on defense Leggett was playing safety and it was only him and the Michigan ball carrier at the end zone and as the Michigan back leaped for the end zone Leggett went for his legs and flipped the Michigan man over to stop him short of the end zone. With the ball on Ohio State’s own one-yard-line, Leggett led the Buckeyes on a drive for the eventual game-winning touchdown.

Classic. That’s when men were men, and quarterbacks also played defense.

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