1951 Bowman Football

[BigDaddyBowman]

Being an old center and an offensive line coach I have always loved this card.

[BigDaddyBowman]

Since being a Cleveland Browns fan all I have is the past....here are the cards of the greatest team ever...the 40/50 Browns!

[DBesse27]

That Bulldog Turner is siiiiick! Love the Otto and Groza too. I was sort of collecting Groza for a while. Believe I have most of his cards except his rookie.

[vintagebaseballcardguy]

You guys are quite the influence. I bought a nice looking EX/EX+ common from this set this morning. Like Jay, I really enjoy the look of the paintings of the early 50s Bowmans---baseball and football. This is especially true of '51 Bowman baseball, but Mantle and Mays especially make that not very likely for me in the near future. However, the early 50s Bowman football sets look doable for me in the near future, with the possible exception of '52 Bowman Large. I especially like '51 because of the colorful team logos. Those really do it for me! I might try for a nice crease/wrinkle free mid grade set. I would like to have it raw in a binder, with the possible exception of maybe Van Brocklin and Landry.

Speaking of raw in a binder, you guys who have your small Bowmans stored this way, do you use standard size pocket pages or something smaller for Bowman?

[jefferyepayne]

Originally Posted by vintagebaseballcardguy

Speaking of raw in a binder, you guys who have your small Bowmans stored this way, do you use standard size pocket pages or something smaller for Bowman?

I store mine in standard size pocket pages (9) and it works great!

jeff

[vintagebaseballcardguy]

Originally Posted by jefferyepayne

I store mine in standard size pocket pages (9) and it works great!

jeff

Thanks, Jeff. I might go that route, or I might use 4-pocket 3-1/2" x 5" pages with the cards in Card Saver Is inside of these binders: http://www.unikeep.com/binders-and-a...h-overlay.html. I really like these, and they are stackable.

[Beansballcardblog]

I tried the four-pocket/semi-rigid method with my 1960 Parkhurst Indianapois Speedway Winners set myself and loved it so much that I use it for all my vintage racing, including pre-war.

As I get further along in the vintage football sets I've started, I will put them in the four pockets as well.

Good luck and have fun on your journey with the set!

Originally Posted by vintagebaseballcardguy

Thanks, Jeff. I might go that route, or I might use 4-pocket 3-1/2" x 5" pages with the cards in Card Saver Is inside of these binders: http://www.unikeep.com/binders-and-a...h-overlay.html. I really like these, and they are stackable.

[S_GERACE]

I store my ungraded cards as singles in Ultra Pro holders.

I too am drawn to the artwork. Another cool thing about the 1951 Bowman Football set is that it wasn't just a re-cropped, re-issue of the previous years art the way that the Baseball set seems to have been. I would estimate that at least half of the artwork in the 1950 Baseball set was reissued the following year (Ted Williams, Warren Spahn, Casey Stengel, etc...).

The lead artist for the Gum Inc & Bowman sets (Baseball, Football, Non-sports) was a guy named Charles Steinbacher. Below is a link the the philly.com website about his family discovering some of the artwork that he produced for the George Moll Advertising Agency. Sorry it deals with mostly the Non-sports cards (I found it interesting though).

http://articles.philly.com/1993-09-2...l-war-war-news

[vintagebaseballcardguy]

Originally Posted by S_GERACE

I store my ungraded cards as singles in Ultra Pro holders.

I too am drawn to the artwork. Another cool thing about the 1951 Bowman Football set is that it wasn't just a re-cropped, re-issue of the previous years art the way that the Baseball set seems to have been. I would estimate that at least half of the artwork in the 1950 Baseball set was reissued the following year (Ted Williams, Warren Spahn, Casey Stengel, etc...).

The lead artist for the Gum Inc & Bowman sets (Baseball, Football, Non-sports) was a guy named Charles Steinbacher. Below is a link the the philly.com website about his family discovering some of the artwork that he produced for the George Moll Advertising Agency. Sorry it deals with mostly the Non-sports cards (I found it interesting though).

http://articles.philly.com/1993-09-2...l-war-war-news

Scott, I have traditionally stored my cards as singles, but this time I am thinking of trying something a little different.

For a long time I couldn't quite decide which type of card drew me in the most. I do like photographic aspects of some cards (though usually not simple black and white), but I find the drawings/paintings of card issues the most compelling...when they are done well. Many folks I am surrounded by are exclusively Topps people, but I have increasingly become a Bowman guy. There is just something about '50, '51, and '52 Bowman baseball and football. I like the latter two the best. '50 sometimes looks a bit barren with the absence of the team logos, though I can appreciate what some might see as the uncluttered simplicity of the '50s.

You make a great point about the relative originality of the '51 football set's art. The repetition of '50 and '51 Bowman baseball has always bugged me. For example, Ted Williams has the same card in back to back years with the exception of the black box included with the '51s. Topps was even more guilty of this tactic throughout the 1950s. Budgets and bottom lines I guess.

Thanks for the link to the Steinbacher article...interesting read.