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.

RIP - Norm Snead

Since the patsies in the Philadelphia Eagles' PR organization were able to cover the death of their former ticket office chief in less than 24 hours, but still have not recognized the passing of 7-year starting quarterback Norm Snead 4 days after his death, I'll do it here. 

 

Norm Snead, the Eagles' starting quarterback from 1964 to 1970, passed away on January 14, 2024 at age 84.

Snead was acquired from the Washington Redskins before the 1964 season for Sonny Jurgensen, and started 81 of 98 games during his 7-year stay in Philadelphia. (He also played in 4 other games.) 

 

He had 20 or more interceptions in 4 of his 7 seasons with the Eagles, leading the NFL in interceptions twice. 

 

After the 1970 season, he was traded to the Minnesota Vikings for offensive tackle Steve Smith and 3 draft choices. He later played for the Giants (traded for Fran Tarkenton) and 49ers.

New York Times obituary 

 

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.

1966 Eagles

Previously, I posted the Eagles cards for 1967, 1968, and 1969. I didn't start with the 1966 set because last year I only had a few of them, but I recently completed my Eagles' sets for 1964-66.

I didn't collect any kind of sports cards in 1966 - that all began in 1967. Prior to that, I was collecting Batman, Beatles, Combat, World War II, McHale's Navy, and Green Berets cards. A few Munsters, Superman, and Monkees cards may have also made their way onto my radar. My brother and I also made our own cards - cutting pictures of monsters out of magazines and comic books, and gluing them onto small pieces of cardboard to make "Castle of Frankenstein" cards! 

The Eagles finished in 2nd place in the 8-team East Division with a 9-5 record in 1966. It would be their last winning season until 1978. Meanwhile, they were winning 2 games in '68 and '72, and 3 games in 1970.

The Birds had ONE All-Pro player on the 1966 team - tackle Bob Brown. In addition to Brown, DT Floyd Peters also made the Pro Bowl.

Tight end Pete Retzlaff played the final season of his 11-year career, and Timmy Brown was on the last of his 5 productive seasons as the team's top running back, a string that included 3 Pro Bowl appearances.

What could also be considered a highlight is that QB Norm Snead threw an Eagles-career low 11 interceptions. That number would spike up to the 20-24 range for his last 4 seasons as an Eagle. On second thought, it's probably because he only played 10 games. 2nd-string QB King Hill and 3rd-stringer Jack Concannon each started 2 games.

After the season, the Eagles acquired All-Pro tight end Mike Ditka from the Bears. They offered Chicago their choice of either of their 3 quarterbacks, and the Bears chose 3rd-string Concannon!


Here are all the 1966 Eagles' cards. From 1964-67, Philadelphia Gum (not Topps) made the NFL cards. (Each team had 11 player cards, plus a team photo card and a play card.)

Split end Ray Poage missed the entire season with injuries, and was replaced in the starting lineup by Fred Hill. Poage was traded to the expansion Saints after the season.

Maxie Baughan and cornerback Irv Cross were both traded to the Rams in separate deals prior to the 1966 season.

Earl Gros is tackled before crossing the goal line.

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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Norm Snead - QB

This is the first post reviewing a specific player, and what better place to start than with the quarterback?

Norm Snead was acquired from the Redskins before the 1964 season for quarterback Sonny Jurgensen (ouch!)

While Jurgensen passed his way in to the "all-time greats" category (at least in the pre-1970s era), Snead plodded along with the Eagles for 7 years, before he was run out of town on a rail just before the 1971 season.

Here are all my Norm Snead cards (1964-72). Although the first 2 are prior to this blog's scope, I included them to get full picture of Snead's Eagles career.

1964 - The first of 4 years where the NFL football cards were issued by Philadelphia Gum (instead of Topps). Norm is still in his Redskins' jersey. (I think Jurgensen's '64 card shows him in Eagle green.)

1965 - Snead's first card in an Eagles' jersey.

1966 - I don't have Snead's 1966 Philly Gum card, but this "Team Leaders" card from the RetroCards company features Norm (either about to hand-off or about to fumble).

1967 - The last of the Philly Gum sets, this was the first football card set I collected (in 1967). I like how the nameplate color matches the Eagles' Kelly Green (that wasn't so for all the teams).

1968 - Topps is back in the NFL card business, issuing combined NFL/AFL sets beginning this year. After a 4-year layoff, they had a hard time getting current photos for the NFL players, so many of the 1st series cards show veterans with their pre-1964 teams.

1969 - I always thought the 1969 cards looked weird - no borders in the first series, and the players are (sometimes poorly) superimposed on a colored background.

1970 - This is Snead's final card as an Eagle. I didn't collect 1970 cards that year, and only acquired the Eagles (and a few others) in recent years.

1971 - Snead was traded to the Vikings late in the off-season, too late for Topps to include a quarterback for the Eagles, but the Vikings got 2 QB cards - Snead and Gary Cuozzo.

1972 - Ok, we're out of the Eagles' scope here, but it's my last Snead card, and I needed a 9th card for my Hollywood Squares presentation.


Where's Waldo Norm?

The Quarterbacks

This is the first post in a series where I will review the 1966-75 Eagles by position. I'm starting off with the quarterbacks, because (as Warren Beatty says in the movie "Heaven Can Wait"), "Well, I AM the quarterback". Normally I won't be listing every player during this time span, but I am for the QBs because there are so few of them.

#16 Norm Snead – After the 1963 season, the Eagles traded popular QB Sonny Jurgensen to the Redskins for Norm Snead. Even to this day the trade makes no sense. Sonny made the Pro Bowl in 1961 (his 4th season, but 1st as a full-time starter), and led the NFL in passing yardage in ’61 and ’62. Sonny made 4 more Pro Bowls during his time with the Redskins, and led the NFL in completions and passing yards 3 times. He played for Washington through the 1974 season.

Meanwhile, Snead (a 2-time Pro-Bowler in his 3 seasons with the ‘Skins) made 1 Pro Bowl with the Eagles, but threw 20+ interceptions 4 times, leading the NFL in that category twice. He also became the focus of the fans’ dissatisfaction, and as I recall, was run out of town on a rail after the 1970 season.


#10 King Hill – As kids, we thought “King Hill” was a funny name for someone. After 3 seasons with the Cardinals, this #1 overall pick in the 1958 draft was acquired by the Eagles, and was their backup QB from 1961 until he was traded midway through the 1968 season. Hill only started more than 4 games once (6 in 1963), and was used primarily as the punter for his first 3 seasons in Philly.


#3 Jack Concannon – Jack was the #1 overall pick in the 1964 AFL draft, but he chose to sign with the Eagles, who drafted him in the 2nd round. He played sparingly in his 3 seasons with the Eagles, and was traded to the Bears before the 1967 season for veteran tight end Mike Ditka.


#4 Benjy Dial – Dial attempted 3 passes in 1 game in 1967 as the #3 QB. It was his only NFL experience.


#7 John Huarte – Huarte was the Birds’ #3 quarterback in 1968, and played in 2 games (starting 1) in his only season with the Eagles.


#10 George Mira – With Hill and Huarte both gone by 1969, the Eagles acquired ex-49ers backup George Mira to back up Snead. George started 1 game, and his 32% completion percentage showed why he was a backup.


#11 Rick Arrington – Rick was a free-agent rookie in 1970, and was with the Eagles for 3 seasons. He started 1 game in ’70 and 4 games in ’71. He made no starts in ’72, having dropped to #3 on the depth chart behind Pete Liske and rookie John Reaves. I recall there was some talk in 1972 of converting him to a tight end, but that never materialized.


#14 Pete Liske – After Snead was sent packing, the Eagles thought they had their next starting QB in Lions’ taxi-squadder Greg Barton. Barton’s NFL resume up to that time (and to this day!) was 1 attempt and 0 completions in a game in 1969. Way to set the bar high, Eagles! No matter, after the Eagles had traded for his rights, Barton shunned the idea of starting for the Eagles and went off to play in the CFL.

Plan B was a hastily-arranged trade with the Broncos to get Pete Liske. Pete had started 9 games for Denver in the previous season, but the Broncos were going with ex-Packer Don Horn and draft pick Steve Ramsey. Liske played 2 seasons in Philly – starting 10 games in ’71 and 7 games in ’72. He then returned to the Canadian League, where he had played from 1965-68.


#6, 7 John Reaves – The Eagles made Reaves their #1 pick in 1972, and he started half the games for them, all losses. He hung on for 2 more seasons as Roman Gabriel’s backup.


#5 Roman Gabriel – Enough of the Pete Liske/John Reaves show!!! In June 1973 the Eagles made a bold move and traded All-Pro wide receiver Harold Jackson, running back Tony Baker, two #1 picks, and a #3 pick to the Rams for 11-year veteran and 3-time Pro-Bowler Roman Gabriel.

Gabe brought competence to the team’s QB department, something they lacked since 1963. Roman made the Pro-Bowl team again, and sparked the Eagles’ improvement from 2-11-1 to 5-8-1. He started every game, and led the NFL in passing yards (3219) and TDs (23). Gabriel rained 6 TD passes down on rookie TE Charlie Young, and 9 to WR Harold Carmichael, who had replaced Jackson in the starting lineup. Roman was the starter for three seasons, and the #2 man for another two.


#10 Mike Boryla – Rookie Mike Boryla was the team’s #2 QB in 1974 (with Reaves at #3) and also in 1975. He started 3 and 5 games in his first two seasons. In 1976 (Dick Vermeil’s 1st season) Boryla started the first 10 games, with Gabriel starting the final 4 games. In 1977 the Eagles acquired Ron Jaworski and Boryla was let go.

1969 Quarterbacks:

16 - Norm Snead, 10 - George Mira