As color TV captivated the nation, 1966 Topps Football cards had a unique look and feel

One of the most pivotal periods in television and pro football unfolded in 1966.

That year ABC, CBS and NBC, the major U.S. television networks, completed their last big push in shifting their prime-time programming from black-and-white to color TV. Consequently, sales of color TV sets soared.

In addition, a surprise merger in June between the American Football League, which began in 1960, and the National Football League, which was born in the 1920s, launched the 1970 regular season as the official start of that full unification.

In early September, the AFL kicked off its season as the Oakland Raiders beat the Miami Dolphins in the Miami’s inaugural game. About a week later, the Green Bay Packers crushed the Baltimore Colts to christen the NFL’s regular season. Like the nation’s most popular TV shows, an increasing number of sports games and events were broadcast in color as well.

The two football leagues not only competed for TV ratings in 1966, but for the first time, played a championship game against each other at season’s end. The Packers dismantled the Kansas City Chiefs in the game that eventually became known as Super Bowl 1.

Soon after the football regular season hit its stride, some famous network TV shows made their first appearances: “Mission Impossible,” “Star Trek,” and “The Monkees” among them. In January 1966, the campy and colorful “Batman” began its TV run, showing up two nights a week. By September, the of beginning “Batman’s” second season, the program continued to capture the attention of many viewers and collectors of the numerous Topps card sets highlighting the Dynamic Duo.

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Around this time, Topps released its AFL-only card offering. The Philadelphia Chewing Gum Corporation, meanwhile, rolled out a cardboard set of exclusively NFL players.

Mike Kenyon, who owns the #6 Current Finest 1966 Topps Football collection on the PSA Set Registry, said the issue resonates with him on many frequencies.

“I like the old-school look of the set, a football picture inside of a TV,” he said. “That wood grain TV shows where we were with technology on cards, the technology on TV viewing, people watching sports, this set encompasses all of it.”

Kenyon tapped second-year Jets quarterback Joe Namath’s card #96 and the Funny Ring checklist #15 (more on that card below) as “cornerstones of the set” and among his favorites in the 132-card issue.

The longtime collector also placed Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson #67, Raiders QB George Blanda #48 (although he joined Oakland the next season) and teammate Fred Biletnikoff #104 high on his list.

“And the Otis Taylor rookie (#75), which is an important card, as well as the Wendell Hayes (#34), George Sauer (#101) and Jim Turner (#103) rookies” to round out his roster of most interesting cards in the set.

The two football card checklists from Topps 1966 (#61 and #132) also register for some collectors as highly desirable, especially if they can track them down in solid shape. Topps released the entire set at once, so there is no Series 1 or Series 2, but nevertheless, with two base card checklists they are commonly referred to by series.

FUNNY TWIST

Circling back to the “Funny Ring” topic, the checklist card displays images of each of the 24 cardboard wax pack insert designs, such as “Bloodshot Eye,” “Fish Eats Fish,” and “Mr. Fang.” Insert cards came with instructions to “push out” the offbeat ring from their cardboard housing—rings with no football affiliation.

Since this insert checklist within a sports card set was a one-off card, Kenyon labeled it both “fascinating” and “acceptable.”

Joe Mancino, another avid 1966 Topps Football collector, said the Funny Ring checklist should not be in the regular card set. “But to make sense of Topps’ decision- making process ... .”

As to the mid-60s football collection, Mancino approaches it from a different angle these days. For several years, he owned a complete high-grade PSA version of the “TV set” but eventually sold it. Then, he gravitated back to the offering, but in a more distant orbit.

“I decided to just re-collect the Hall of Famers,” he said. “Some are easy: [Billy] Shaw (#29), Blanda, Bobby Bell (#64), [Don] Maynard (#95), but [Lance] Alworth (#119) was tough.”

Alworth, the San Diego Chargers’ flanker, makes Mancino’s shortlist of favorites from this distinctive Topps product.

“The Johnny Robinson (#74) was near impossible,” he noted. “Namath wasn’t difficult, but has grown increasingly expensive, as has the Otis Taylor rookie card.”

Like many collectors, Mancino bases much of these vintage cardboard scouting reports on PSA population reports, player appeal and, of course, prices realized through various sales.

Addressing the wood grain set’s condition sensitivity, he noted, “they chip easily.”

Jason Levering, who owns the #7 Current Finest collection on PSA Set Registry, said with the border design “it’s hard to get [PSA] 9s and 10s.”

“Most of my set is PSA 8s with some 8.5s, a few 7s,” Levering said.

Upgrading his set over the last decade, however, has been as difficult as a “Batman” villain casually stumbling upon the entrance to the Batcave.

“For some of the common cards I need 8s for, the prices are astronomical,” said Levering, who credits much of the skyrocketing values to the “investment world.”

Kenyon recalled having a chance to buy the lone PSA 10 Namath card from the set about a dozen years ago for $15,000. He passed on that opportunity, but the collector added that the card changed hands for about $23,000 in 2016.

“Now I think that card would sell for around $250,000,” he said.

Only 33 total PSA 10 grades appear in the set’s Pop Report. Namath’s Jets’ teammate and fellow Hall of Famer Don Maynard—the card that comes right before Namath in the issue—is the lone example of a card with three PSA 10 grades.

And, it’s worth noting, a handful of 1966 Topps Football cards are part of the “Otto Club,” a reference to Raiders Hall of Fame center Jim Otto (#115), whose No. 00 jersey number represents the 1966 Topps cards that have neither a PSA 9 nor a 10 grade: Wray Carlton (#21), Claude Gibson (#110), Bob Mischak (#113), and the set-ending checklist (#132). Of course, all the cards in the issue are available in lower grades, to one degree or another, and in raw condition.

NEXT EPISODES

How will the 1966 Topps issue fare in coming years? Kenyon, like many, says the picture is crystal clear, like a big-screen TV delivering a 4K image.

“I see it growing in popularity,” he said. “It’s much safer and rarer if it’s a vintage set and it’s an important part of NFL history.”

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The veteran collector also noted that the unique TV set design gives the set added appeal. Plus, due to the condition sensitivity, “I like the challenge, the chase,” he said.

But is the chase for a complete set a “Mission Impossible?” Or, will it take collecting crusaders with considerable currency to climb the heights of high-grade cards and complete this compilation of classic cardboard and “boldly go” where few have gone before?

The adventure, for some, continues; for others, it has yet to launch. Either way, the challenging set is not one to just “Monkee” around with.