1965 & 66 Philadelphia Football Card Backs

[CowboysGuide]

I recently completed a project on card backs from the 1965 & 66 Philadelphia football sets. If you are not already aware, those card backs contain photos of NFL players.

The 1966 set feature a “Guess Who” quiz that shows a photo of a player with the team and position, and a line where you can write the answer. The number of the card that displays the answer is also given. The interesting thing about these photos is, in some cases, the player shown has no card in any set, making this the only football card for that player, indirectly. In the case of the Dallas Cowboys, there are three players that never had there own card; Warren Livingston, Joe Bob Isbell, and Jerry Rhome. Obert Logan was never featured on a card as a Dallas Cowboys but also appears on the back. Three Cowboys players are shown that pre-date their RC’s; Ralph Neely, Lee Roy Jordan, and Craig Morton. Neely’s photo pre-dates his RC by four years, Jordan by one, and Morton by two.

I recently had the opportunity to have Joe Bob Isbell sign the back of his 1966 Philadelphia Quiz Back.

A complete list of cards that have Cowboys players on the backs can be found here…
1966 Philly

Philadelphia Gum was a little more secretive with the design of their card backs on the 1965 set. The photos were hidden, and required the rubbing of a coin to reveal the photos. Most collectors wouldn’t dare the risk the possibility of ruining their cards with the destructive nature required to see who was on the back, but I did. I was looking for Cowboys, so I bought lots of mid-avg condition cards for this venture. I found that over time, some photos began to reveal themselves as a very faint white outline that is seen when tilted. Other cards, from years of being handled, had lost the image altogether. If rubbed properly, there was little to no damage done to the card, and the image would be visible as a very light gray photo. Unlike the 1966 set, the player photos matched the card fronts this time, and there were no players included that wasn’t already part of this set. The team cards featured head coaches on the backs.

To make it even harder to find specific players, the answer to the right of the photo is not the player shown, but a player on another card that is listed in red ink. During this process, I found an error with one of the cards. Two different cards say the answer is on the same card. It's complicated, but I've found the correct card for that specific player, and notified Beckett of this error.

I didn’t complete the set, but I do have a list of players for approximately 70% of the set. I stopped rubbing card backs when I found the last Cowboys player.

The complete list of cards that have Cowboys players on the backs can be found here…
1965 Philly

If you’re a team collector and are interested in knowing what cards you can find your players on, just let me know and I’ll be glad to share the list of what I have.

[GoldenAge50s]

Very informative study Steve--Thanks for sharing!