1965 Eagles

Here are the 1965 Eagles' cards, the 2nd of 4 seasons where the NFL cards were made by the Philadelphia Gum Company. 

This is the 2nd year of the 5-year reign of incompetence by head coach/GM Joe Kuharich. (Some of the moves prior to his first season were to unload Sonny Jurgensen and Tommy McDonald (to division rivals Washington and Dallas, respectively) for lesser players, essentially exchanging quality for quantity. 

The Eagles finished with a 5-9 record in 1965, good for a 5th place tie with the Cardinals (out of 7 teams). 

The Birds had two first-team All-Pro players on the squad - tight end Pete Retzlaff and tackle Bob Brown.

 

Clarence Peaks played 1964 and 1965 with the Steelers, but is still shown in his Eagles' jersey.

The fire sale continued after the season, with Kuharich trading Maxie Baughan and Irv Cross, both Pro-Bowlers in 1965 and both in their mid-20s, to the Rams. In return, they got a big bag of beans: 

for Baughan: 

DT Frank Molden - missed '66 and '67 seasons, then a backup for 1 season 

LB Fred Brown - missed '66 season, then a backup for 3 seasons 

RB Harry Wilson (draft pick) - played in 6 games over 4 seasons 

 

for Cross: 

CB Aaron Martin - played 2 seasons, 1 as a starting CB 

FL Willie Brown - played 1 season (7 games, no starts) 

Meanwhile, Baughan, who was named to 5 Pro Bowls as an Eagle, played in 4 more as a Ram, and Cross was a 3-year starter for the Rams.

1970 Eagles

1970 was the first year I followed the NFL (and the Eagles in particular), but as I recall, not until midway through the season. 

Oddly enough, I collected football cards in 1967 and 1968, but not again until 1971. (My sports card collecting started with 1967 baseball and football, then the same 2 sports in 1968, but ended after the 1969 baseball season. Then I started up again with 1971 football, and both sports in 1972, before I stopped again until 1981.)

The Eagles finished with a 3-10-1 record in 1970, dead last in the newly-formed NFC East division. It was one game worse than their 4-9-1 finish in 1969. 

From 1968 to 1971, Topps only printed from 7 to 9 cards per team (which is handy when filling 9-pocket pages). 

Since I didn't collect cards in 1970, I only acquired these cards in the past few years, as I was completing my Eagles' team sets for 1964 to 1975.

1970 was the final year for Norm Snead as the Eagles' quarterback. Generally a disappointment since being acquired for Sonny Jurgensen after the 1963 season, he was kicked out of Philly in the spring of 1971.

Tom Woodeshick was the Eagles' starting fullback from 1967-1969, then rode the bench in favor of rookie Lee Bouggess in 1970.

Ben Hawkins was the Eagles' starting flanker from 1966 to 1973.  He may be best known for his dangling chinstrap.

Harold Jackson was acquired from the Rams in 1969, and was probably the Birds' best player in his 4 seasons with the team.  He led the NFL in receiving in '69 and '72.  Harold returned to the Rams after the 1972 season in exchange for QB Roman Gabriel.

Gary Ballman was the Eagles' starting split end in '67 and '68, then moved to tight end with the arrival of Jackson in 1969.

Tim Rossovich was the Eagles' #1 draft pick in 1968 and was the starting left end for his first 2 1/2 seasons.  Midway through 1970 he was moved to middle linebacker.

Dave Lloyd was the Eagles' long-time middle linebacker, but was finally replaced by Rossovich during the 1970 season.  He spent the remainder of his final season as a kicker (kicking off, but not for field goals or extra points).

Al Nelson played 9 seasons for the Eagles (1965-73) and was a starting cornerback every season except for missing all but 1 game in 1967.

Nate Ramsey was the Eagles' strong safety from 1963-70, then played right cornerback for his final 2 seasons with the Eagles.

Dave Lloyd - MLB

Dave Lloyd played for the Eagles from 1963 to 1970. (Earlier, he also played for the Browns and Lions.)

Lloyd was the Eagles' starting middle linebacker for the first 7 of his 8 seasons with the team. He played in 93 games over his first 7 seasons with the Birds, starting every one of them.

He also started the first 5 games in his 8th season, then was relegated to the bench in favor of Tim Rossovich, who was moved from defensive end to middle linebacker. To earn his keep, Lloyd played on special teams for the remainder of his final season - specifically, he was the kicker on the kickoff team (but not for field goals or extra points).

Lloyd made the Pro Bowl in 1969, his last as a full-time player.

Here are all of Dave's football cards ('65, '67, '68, '69, '70). In 1968 Topps resumed issuing NFL cards for the first time since 1963. All the NFL players in the first series are shown in old photographs (in Lloyd's case, with the Lions). AFL players, and NFL players in series 2 have more recent photos.

Where's Waldo Dave?

1969 Eagles

The 1969 Eagles had a new owner (Leonard Tose), a new GM (Pete Retzlaff), a new coach (Jerry Williams), and a new star wide receiver (Harold Jackson), but still finished in last place in their division. They did manage to improve their record from 2-12 to 4-9-1 though.

(By the way, the photo in this blog's header is the 1969 team.)

What they gained by adding Jackson to their receiving corps was offset by trading offensive tackle Bob Brown to the Rams. The Birds returned 12 starters from the 1968 lineup, and also got guard Jim Skaggs and DT Floyd Peters back from injuries. Still, they weren't going to be a good team for quite awhile.

The 1969 Topps set was issued in 2 series. Cards in the 2nd series (Woodeshick, Baker, Lloyd, Scarpati) had white borders. The first series is incorrectly referred to as "borderless", as I noticed the photos are cropped on the sides, essentially having a "border" of the same color as the background.

Like most quarterbacks, Norm Snead had a card in every year's set. That's where his similarities to  "most quarterbacks" ends.

Izzy Lang was the starting halfback in '67 and '68, but didn't play for the Eagles in 1969. He was sent to the Rams in the Harold Jackson trade, and replaced in the lineup by #1 draft pick Leroy Keyes (you remember... the guy they selected just before the Steelers picked Joe Greene!)  

Tom Woodeshick returns for his 3rd and final season as the starting fullback.

With the arrival of Harold Jackson, Gary Ballman moved from split end to tight end in 1969. He was with the Eagles for all of  '67 and '68, but Topps still showed him in his Steelers' jersey. 

Fred Hill was primarily a backup during his Eagles' career, but had replaced Mike Ditka as the primary tight end in 1968. In '69, he was back on special teams.  

Sam Baker was the Eagles' kicker and punter since 1964.  1969 was his last season with the team, and he gave up his punting duties to rookie Bill Bradley.

No Eagles' defensive linemen in the 1969 set, but here are 3 veterans:

Middle linebacker Dave Lloyd played for the Eagles from 1963-70, and was a starter until midway through his last season, He made the Pro Bowl in 1969.

Nate Ramsey was a starter from 1964 to 1972, all at strong safety until moving to cornerback for his last 2 seasons.

Joe Scarpati was the team's starting free safety from 1964-69. He also was the holder for placekicks. Traded to the Saints for 1970, he was the holder for Tom Dempsey's record 63-yard field goal.

Alvin Haymond was primarily a punt and kick returner throughout his career. His only year as a starting DB was in 1968, his only season with the Eagles. By the time this card was issued, he was with the Rams.
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1968 Eagles

1968 is a low point in Eagles' history. (Well, one of them anyway.) After going 9-5 in 1966 and 6-7-1 in 1967, the Birds plummeted to 2-12 in 1968. The team lost their first ELEVEN games, then foolishly won 2 of the final 3 games, thereby blowing their shot at the #1 draft pick (O.J. Simpson).

After that fiasco, not only did the team get a new head coach and new GM, but a new owner as well (Leonard Tose).

The Eagles ended up with the 3rd overall pick, and those knuckleheads chose Purdue running back Leroy Keyes, who was less than adequate in his 4-year Eagles' career. Not only was he no O.J. Simpson, he wasn't even a Tom Woodeshick!

By the way, after the Eagles picked Keyes at #3, THE STEELERS PICKED JOE GREENE AT #4, then the Bengals picked QB Greg Cook at #5.

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Here are the Eagles cards for 1968. After a 4-year hiatus, in 1968 the NFL cards were once again issued by Topps. (From 1964-67, NFL cards were produced by Philadelphia Gum Company, while the AFL cards were produced by Topps.)  Now Topps issued a combined NFL/AFL set beginning in 1968.

The downside for collectors is that while there were 12 cards per NFL team in 1967, now there were only 8 (and AFL teams only had 7 cards each).

The 1968 cards were split into 2 series. In Series 1, the NFL players appeared in the uniform of whatever team they were playing for in 1963, the last year Topps had taken NFL player photos.

Topps used new photos for most of the 2nd series cards:

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1967 Eagles

1967 is when I started collecting football cards (although I didn't start watching the games until 1970).

After finishing in 2nd place in the 8-team East Division with a 9-5 record in 1966, the Eagles slid back to 6-7-1 in 1967, still in 2nd place, but in a 4-team Capitol Division (NFL realigned to 4 divisions).

There weren't too many highlights in '67. Their 2 biggest wins came against the expansion Saints (48-21) and 2nd-year Falcons (38-7), but the Eagles got roughed up pretty good by the Cardinals (48-14), Giants (44-7), and Colts (38-6).

2nd-year split end Ben Hawkins caught 59 passes for 1265 yards, but their leading rusher (Tom Woodeshick) only had 391 yards. Pete Retzlaff retired before the season, and Timmy Brown missed half the season with injuries.  The Eagles acquired 2 good receivers before the season - Mike Ditka (for 3rd-string QB Jack Concannon) and Gary Ballman (for FB Earl Gros).


Here are all the 1967 Eagles' cards. From 1964-67, Philadelphia Gum (not Topps) made the NFL cards. (Each team had 10 player cards, plus a team card and logo card.) I accumulated all these cards in 1967 except Timmy Brown, Earl Gros, and Gary Ballman.

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The Linebackers

Here are most of the Eagles' starting linebackers from 1966 to 1975.


Dave Lloyd was the Birds' starting middle linebacker from 1963 until 5 games into the 1970 season, when he was replaced by Tim Rossovich.

Mike Morgan was the Eagles' starting left linebacker from 1964-67.

Harold Wells (no card) was the starting right linebacker from 1965-68.

Adrian Young was the Eagles' #3 draft pick in 1968, and played left linebacker from 1968-71, although missing most of 1971 due to injury.  By the way, that's not Young's picture on his card.  It's Eagles' 1968 punter Rick Duncan.

  
Ron Porter was acquired from the Colts in 1969, and was the starting right linebacker for 3 years, and the left-side starter during his 4th and last season with the Birds.

Tim Rossovich was the Eagles' #1 pick in 1968.  After 2+ seasons as the starting left end, he moved to MLB after 5 games in 1970, and remained there through the 1971 season.

Steve Zabel was drafted as a tight end in 1970. He moved to linebacker in his 2nd season, and was a starter for his last 4 seasons in Philly - mostly on the left side but occasionally filling in at MLB.

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After Rossovich didn't pan out following 1971, the Eagles brought in a host of middle linebackers in 1972.  Ex-Charger and Steeler Chuck Allen started 8 games in '72, while Zabel started the other 6 games. (MLBs Dick Absher and Bill Cody worked on special teams.)

In 1973, Allen, Absher, and Cody were out, and ex-tight end Marlin McKeever and Dick Cunningham were in. McKeever made 11 starts in the middle, while Cunningham started 2 games. (I can't find my 1973 Dick Cunningham card, so my new Fred Whittingham 1966 custom card is filling in nicely!)

The Eagles finally put an end to their 4-year middle linebacker carousel by trading for Bill Bergey prior to the 1974 season.  Bill solidified the middle for many seasons to come.

Frank Lemaster and John Bunting played on the wings, giving the Birds a nice linebacking corps, something they were missing since Maxie Baughan was traded after 1965.


(When Dick Vermeil arrived in 1976 he went to a 3-4 defense, with LeMaster moving inside next to Bergey.)

1969 Linebackers:

Middle: 52 - Dave Lloyd, 51 - Ike Kelley
Outside: 50 - Ron Porter, 35 - Adrian Young, 61 - Tony Guillory, 56 - Bill Hobbs, 48 - Jay Johnson

The Kickers and Punters

This is the 2nd post in a series where I will review the 1966-75 Eagles by position. Normally I won't be listing every player during this time span, but there aren't that many kickers, so here they are.


KICKERS:

#38 Sam Baker - Baker joined the Eagles (from the Cowboys!) in 1964, and was their placekicker for the rest of the 1960s. He was also the punter through the 1968 season.

#3 Mark Moseley - The "Last of the Straight-on Kickers" was a 14th-round pick in 1970. He kicked only one year for the Eagles, partly because after the punter was lost for the season with injuries, Mark doubled up on the punting as well, and it messed him up. Regrettably, the Eagles lost patience after just 1 season, and Moseley was sent packing. He later went on to a long career with the Redskins from 1974-86.

#52 Dave Lloyd - I recall that after long-time middle linebacker Dave Lloyd lost his job to converted defensive end Tim Rossovich midway through the 1970 season, Lloyd kept himself busy for the rest of the year by kicking off (no FG or XP), thus lightening Moseley's load (after Mark was called upon to be the replacement punter).

#1 Happy Feller - The Eagles burned a 4th-round draft pick on Happy Feller in 1971. His stay was shorter than Moseley's. By mid-season the Eagles signed Tom Dempsey, and activated him for the final 5 games, replacing Feller. (I have his 1973 card as shown in the link, but can't find my 1973 binder right now.)

#19 Tom Dempsey - Dempsey previously kicked for the Saints, including a record 63-yard field goal in 1970. In a classic "What have you done for me lately?" move, the Saints cut him before the following season. The Birds picked him up during 1971, and he played the final 5 games in 1971 and every game through the end of 1974.

#16 Horst Muhlmann - The former Bengals kicker played for the Eagles for 2 1/2 seasons, beginning in 1975.


PUNTERS:

#10 King Hill - Hill joined the Eagles in 1961, and in addition to being the #2 QB through 1968, he was also the team's punter through the 1963 season. With the arrival of Sam Baker in 1964, they shared the punting chores for 3 seasons, roughly 65/35 in favor of Baker.

#38 Sam Baker - Baker shared the punting chores with Hill from 1964-66, and was the only punter from 1967-68. He relinquished the punting to rookie Bill Bradley in 1969.

#32 Rick Duncan - Duncan (pictured here on Adrian Young's 1971 card) punted in 1 game in 1968. He was also in Eagles' camp in 1971, but did not make the team.

#28 Bill Bradley - "Super Bill" was the team's free safety and punt returner from 1969-75. He was also the punter in '69, '70, '72, and for 4 games in '73.

#36, #12 Tom McNeill - McNeill was the team's punter in '71 and '73, and for 2 games in 1972. (In summary, Bradley and/or McNeill handled the punting from 1969-73, with some punting by Moseley late in 1970.)

#37 Merritt Kersey - Kersey assumed the punting job for 1974 and 2 games in 1975. It was his only NFL experience.

#6 Spike Jones - Jones took over the punting in game #3 in 1975, and stuck around through the 1977 season.


1969 Kickers:

38 - Sam Baker (K), 28 - Bill Bradley (S/P)

Jersey and Helmet Styles

Here are the various styles of jerseys and helmets used by the Eagles during this blog's time period.

 Jerseys:

For most of the 1960s, the Eagles wore a plain green jersey, with small numbers on the sleeves.


At some point prior to 1966, narrow and wide stripes were added to the sleeves.


From 1966 to 1969, the jerseys had double striping around the shoulders. Topps showed this jersey as late as 1973 on some cards.


In 1970 the team went back to the early-1960s look. Just solid green, with no striping.

In 1972 they added a black outline to the numbers.

A major change occurred in 1974, adding lots of stripes to the sleeves and moving the numbers up on top of the shoulders. As time went on, these jerseys became see-through.


 Helmets: The Eagles wore green helmets with silver wings prior to the 1969 season.

For 1969 home games, and all games in 1970 to 1973, they wore white helmets with green wings. The colors were reversed for away games in 1969 - green helmets with white wings.

They went back to green helmets in 1974, this time with two-tone wings.