Sorry, this was supposed to go live before I left last weekend, but I just didn’t get around to finishing it.
After the 1979 cello pack I opened last week, the second old school cello pack I opened was a 1983 Topps cello.
Unlike 1979 Topps, I do have some experience opening 1983 Topps–back in my very younger days, this was one of the earlier sets my brother and I collected, I think mostly from packs bought at our local corner market and the local Coast to Coast store. We didn’t have as many of the ’83 vintage as another set that’s upcoming, but I do remember ripping packs.
Here’s the results:
#44 Doug Crosbie
#142 Ron Jaworski (back before he became a talking head on ESPN)
#82 Mark Lee
#125 Earnest Gray
#336 Kenneth Sims
#8 John Riggins Record Breaker
#352 Abdul Salaam
#148 Ron Smith
#390 Keith Simpson
#68 Ed Murray (I always thought he went by Eddie–apparently early in his career, he didn’t want to be mistaken for the Orioles All-Star 1B…who was black…and not a kicker)
#272 Harold Bailey
#285 Jeff Gossett
#4 Sticker Insert – William Andrews
#58 Detroit Lions Team (Billy Sims)
#189 Vernon Dean
#168 Ronnie Lott (it can not be re-told often enough–the man had the top part of his pinky cut off to avoid missing time. I mean, it’s just a pinky…but it’s still a finger)
#314 Duriel Harris
#281 Carl Roaches
#229 Ben Williams
#157 Elois Grooms
#131 Tom Mullady
#39 Matt Suhey (based on the ugly green carpet, I think this may have been taken at the HHH Metrodome–I can just envision the photographer walking up behind him, camera at the ready, yelling “Hey Matt!” and snapping the shot before running off before Suhey pounded him into the ground)
#345 Johnny “Lam” Jones
#19 Alfred Jenkins
#371 Rolf Benirschke (little known fact–unknownst to me until last week–Rolf Benirschke hosted the day time version of Wheel of Fortune for like 6 months. Not enough to consider him a “TV Star,” though.
More to come…
[phpbay]1983 Topps Football, 5[/phpbay]
I would have been excited with this pack when it came out. First, it has a Cowboy (my favorite team) with Doug Cosbie. Next it has Jaworski & Riggins. As a Cowboy fan, I hated these guys, but I’d want their cards because I hated them. You also got a Billy Sims card who was my favorite player at the time.
I’d be a little less thrilled these days, but back then I would have loved it.