Vintage Sunday Afternoon Football
November 21st, 2010 by slangon
Before I get into todays card, I just want to point out something I’ve noticed in the short time I’ve been following football semi-seriously, which may be obvious to those of you that have always been big football fans, but to someone whose used to following the 162 game baseball season, it sort of weird. Before last week’s drubbing at the hand of the Cowboys, the Giants were being touted as one of the best teams in the NFC and it seemed that an all New York Super Bowl was all but a done deal. One loss (albeit a pretty bad one) later, and the Giants are on the brink of destruction, especially since they’re facing the Eagles and Michael Vick, who, in case you have heard, apparently was presented with the MVP trophy last week. I realize that in the course of a 16 game season, each game carries more importance that if you were playing 162 games, but it’s still a little strange to me that one single loss could turn the Giants entire season on it’s ear.
But enough about that. Let’s check out a perfectly mint vintage football card I snagged recently.
1959 Topps Football #64 Dave Hanner
The corners on this card are pretty sharp. The surface is in good condition. The colors are bright. Hell, even the trivia question on the back isn’t scratched off.
Yes sir. This card is in awesome, minty-fresh condition. Well, I guess if you don’t count the slight miscut that’s going on. I’ve seen where the image was crooked, but the card itself was still squared up, almost as if the card stock wasn’t sitting straight in either the printer or the cutting machine. I have never seen a card miscut like this one is. The top and bottom cuts are pretty straight, but then the sides are all out of whack. I’m not sure how exactly baseball cards end up getting cut once they’ve been printed, but I’d have to guess that they go though the cutter a first time where they’re cut side to side, and then a second pass where they’re cut top to bottom. It would seem that this particular card must’ve gotten knocked out of kilter some time between getting the first and second sets of cuts. Very weird, but just another different example of how a card can be messed up.
As a side note, although I take a certain strange pride in my collection of jacked up cards, this particular affliction is a little annoying because it throws off the way the card sits in any sort of holder and usually the top little bit of the corner ends up sticking out.
The player depicted on this piece of cardboard, Dave “Hawg” Hanner, is one of those guys that I really love, regardless of what sport they play. He spent his entire career in the NFL as a Green Bay Packer. I’m not just talking about his playing days, either. He also served in various coaching roles and as a scout until 1996 when he finally retired. He played from 1952-64, including 5 years (59-64) under legendary head coach Vince Lombardi, 3 of which were Championship years. He was also named to the Pro-Bowl team twice in 1953 and 1954. After retiring from playing in 1964, he was an assistant coach for 16 seasons, after which he served as a scout until 1996. In total, he spent 42 years working for the Packers. It always makes me happy to see guys with careers like that.
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