Vintage Card Sets
Collecting Cowboys, Dolphins and star RBs in 1972
When SCD contributor Doug Koztoski pitched the idea for a story on the 1972 Topps Football set, I was all in.
Not only is it the 50th anniversary of the set, but also of the 1972 Miami Dolphins, the last NFL team to go undefeated throughout an entire season and finish it off with a Super Bowl victory.
I was 9 years old back then and a huge football fan. And I just happened to be a big fan of two of the most popular and dominant teams of the 1970s — the Dolphins and the Dallas Cowboys.
How, you say, can you be a fan of both teams? Simple. I was 9, and at that age, you are a fan of whatever is cool and trendy.
Growing up in the Carolinas, the closest NFL team was the Atlanta Falcons, but who pulled for the hapless Falcons in the 1970s? Heck, people in Atlanta didn’t even pull for the Falcons back then. They pulled for the Washington Redskins, just like nearly every other football fan in the South.
I bucked the trend and pulled for the rival Cowboys and Dolphins for reasons only kids my age could understand. First, they both had cool team names. As a kid, you dreamed of being either a football or baseball player, or a cowboy. You also watched “Flipper” on TV and sometimes fantasized about riding a dolphin. Besides, what the heck was a Steeler? Or a Packer? Or a Raider?
For me, the Cowboys and Dolphins were the good guys and heroes of the day.
Both squads also had cool team colors. The Dolphins had those beautiful, bright aqua and orange uniforms with white helmets featuring a dolphin leaping toward the sun. And how could you not love the Cowboys, with those silver helmets with the blue star on the side? (Adding to my cowboy fantasy, I was also partial to the Colts’ horseshoe.)
The Cowboys were led by quarterback Craig Morton in 1972, but would eventually feature my all-time favorite player. Roger Staubach was a real-life American hero. He won the Heisman Trophy, served in the U.S. Navy and fought in Vietnam before becoming an NFL star. I was proud to have an autographed photo of “Roger the Dodger” on my bedroom wall.
The game was different in those days. It was a running league instead of a passing league. Joe Namath, Archie Manning and Fran Tarkenton were the NFL’s top passers, throwing for about half the yards we see from today’s young gunslingers.
In the ’70s, running backs were the stars. Every team, it seemed, had a star rusher, led by famous police chase magnet and memorabilia dealer O.J. Simpson. The league was filled with great running backs and I loved the big, bruising fullbacks like Franco Harris, John Riggins and Marv Hubbard.
The Dolphins had the biggest bulldozer of them all in fullback Larry Csonka. He teamed with elusive tailback Mercury Morris and the aptly named Jim Kiick to give Miami one of the league’s offenses.
The Cowboys also had a tremendous backfield with Calvin Hill and real-life cowboy and rodeo star Walt Garrison.
Both teams were also good, appearing on TV almost every Sunday. The Cowboys won the 1971 Super Bowl (24-3 over the Dolphins) before the Dolphins put together the most dominant season in NFL history in 1972, beating the Redskins in the Super Bowl.
I was just getting into trading cards back then, picking up packs of baseball cards whenever I could. I was fascinated when I first discovered football cards and immediately began searching for my favorite players.
I ripped open pack after pack, looking for Staubach, Hill, Garrison or “Bullet Bob” Hayes. I remember trading Harris and Terry Bradshaw for Csonka, Morris or anyone from the Dolphins’ “No-Name” defense. I swapped the flamboyant Namath for mild-mannered Dolphins QB Bob Griese. I even collected Lions running back Steve Owens so I could tell friends he was a long-lost relative (he was not).
It was a great time to be a young football fan and the 1972 Topps set made it even more fun.
As Super Bowl LVII approaches, it’s fun to look back at past championship teams like the Cowboys and Dolphins and reminisce about the great players highlighted on our cardboard treasures.
— Jeff Owens is the editor of SCD and sportscollectorsdigest.com. You can reach him at jowens@aimmedia.com or on Twitter at @jeffowens_jeff.
Jeff Owens is the editor of SCD.
