Cards From the Best Players of the 1960s
The 1960s not only combined the AFL and the NFL, which led to the league and Super Bowl we know today, but they also gave birth to NFL films, spawning the iconic orchestral pieces produced in-house by Samuel Lloyd Spence that were the soundtrack to every brutal slow-motion tackle we’d see for decades to come. As far as collectibles, a frankly ridiculous amount of legendary NFL Hall of Fame rookie cards came out of these 1960s sets, and due to short prints, some are exceedingly rare.
The sets through the ’60s continued the quaint back-of-card cartoons and oddly specific stats and bios that make these cards funky and worth collecting.
The Funkiest Cards Of The ’60s
1965 Topps #122 Joe Namath Rookie Card
Player info
• AFL MVP in 1968
• Won Super Bowl III
Set info
• Iconic “tall boy” cards in the set include the Joe Namath rookie card
• 176 total cards (132 are fascinatingly “short prints”
card back
• vitals and a recap of Joe’s college career at Alabama, where he led SEC in pass completion %.
• Includes a quaint cartoon of his orange bowl performance
1969 Topps Football #51 Gale Sayers
Player info
• His rookie record of 22 tds remains a record
• Inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1977 at the age of 34 (still the youngest inductee ever)
Card info
• 263 card set (largest ever at the time)
• last Topps football card release before the Afl and NFL merger
card back
• A look back at his injury-shortened 1968 season and a cartoon of his six-touchdown game against the 49ers (an NFL record tied by Alvin Kamara in 2020)
1963 Topps Football #44 Deacon Jones Rookie Card
Player info
• Coined the phrase “sacking the quarterback”
• 2x NFL defensive player of the year (’67 ’68)
Card info
• 170 card set
• includes team photos (five teams are short-printed: Browns, Cowboys, Giants, Steelers and Redskins)
card back
• Vitals and a short bio of the rookie, who was described as a basketball and track star, with a hologram trivia question
1963 Topps Football #96 Ray Nitschke Rookie Card
Player info
• inducted into pro football hall of fame in 1978
• The only linebacker to have made both the NFL’s 50th and 75th Anniversary Teams
Card info
• Set released in a single series, so cards have equal numbers
card back
• Stats for his college interceptions and interception return yards, as well as 1963’s iconic trivia question illuminated via red cellophane (3d) plastic
1968 Topps Football #1 Bart Starr
Player info
• only quarterback in NFL history to lead a team to three consecutive league championships (1965-67) *includes 1965 NFL championship and Super Bowl I and II
• inducted into the NFL hall of fame in 1977
Card info
• first set release since 1961 to include both AFL and NFL players
card back
• Vitals and his 1967 passing yard statistics, as well as a cartoon with starR hauling the 1966 NFL MVP trophy in a wheelbarrow
1969 Topps Football #139 Dick Butkus
Player info
• member of the NFL’s 1960s and 1970s all-decade team
• 1,020 tackles, 22 interceptions, and 27 fumble recoveries
Card info
• 263 card set
• set issued in two series, with first series (1-132) printed with no borders and second series (133-263) printed with white borders
card back
• vitals, interception total to that point, a short bio of his heroic interception of Fran Tarkenton in ’68, and a cartoon of Butkus being voted 1964 Player of the Year
