1962 Topps Football Cards

After one year of featuring players from both of the professional football leagues, Topps returned to the practice of just featuring NFL players in 1962. The company also reverted to a card design that was slightly evocative of the horizontal design of its 1957 set.

There are three parts of each card front. There are two smaller elements to the left and one on the right. The largest is the photo on the right, which is either a head shot or a posed but helmetless action photo. On the left, the player is shown in a black-and-white game-action picture. A bright-colored box below that contains the player's name, team and position. The elements are all surrounded by a black border, which is perhaps the most distinctive part of the set's design. The backs are vertically oriented and also divided into three parts. The upper left contains the card number and the words Topps and National Pro. The box in the upper right contains the player's name, team and position. The main box begins with two lines of vital stats and then a short biography. Some players also have a box of year and lifetime statistics. The bottom half of the card features a cartoon trivia question.

Each team is also represented with a team card. The team picture is superimposed over a solid-colored background, with the black border surrounding the entire card. Once again, the cards were numbered by team (and then alphabetically by team city), with the quarterback and running backs among the first players featured. The final player was usually a rookie prospect. The team card is the final card before the next team's run begins.

The set contained 176 cards over two printing sheets. To make room on the sheets, a number of the cards were short-printed throughout the set. Ernie Davis, Fran Tarkenton and Mike Ditka are the key rookies, but Roman Gabriel, Norm Snead, and Billy Kilmer also appear for the fist time.

Key 1962 Topps Football Cards:

• Fran Tarkenton RC #90
• Mike Ditka RC #17
• Ernie Davis RC #36
• Jim Brown #28
• Johnny Unitas #1

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1962 TOPPS #115 SONNY JURGENSEN EX *555624 $12.00

1962 TOPPS #64 PAUL HORNUNG EX *555626 $34.00

1962 TOPPS PITTSBURGH STEELERS TEAM SET BOBBY LAYNE $150.00

2000 TOPPS CHROME JOHNNY UNITAS REFRACTOR #R6 1962 REPRINT POP 4 PSA 10 F1336669 $24.99

TOPPS CFL 1962 OTTAWA ROUGH RIDERS PANEL Tom Jones #101 Ron Lancaster #102 MT! $100.00

1962 TOPPS #58 ALEX "MONGO" KARRAS LIONS $7.00

1962 TOPPS #49 DALLAS COWBOYS TEAM CARD PSA EX-MT 6 $25.00

1962 TOPPS #64 PAUL HORNUNG SP HOF GREEN BAY PACKERS PSA NM 7 $100.00