The Beckett Blog

With Wednesday being Veterans Day, we figured it to be no better time than now to revisit some sports cards from the past that have obvious military ties.

While there have been countless examples in recent years with the influx of non-sports additions to sports card sets, perhaps no cards drew more support than those of former Arizona Cardinals and Arizona State football player Pat Tillman, who volunteered for military duty and died in Afghanistan in 2003.

His story sparked massive interest in what little football memorabilia he had — he appeared on just five football cards in 2001 — but there are countless other cards noting other veterans’ service.

All of them have a story. Here are a few …

One 1990s football card talks about how war touched the life of a 5-year-old boy in Miami whose father, Robert Thomas, was an Air Force captain shot down while flying a mission over Vietnam.

“When he had been missing for eight years, they declared him legally dead,” said the boy, who later became a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. “That’s when I started wanting to know more about him. I learned more from newspaper stories than I knew myself. I found out that the mission he flew was called ‘Linebacker Two.’ They called it that because President Nixon was a big football fan.”

The boy became a legend on the football field — and a linebacker, too
. His name? Derrick Thomas, and this story can be found on the back of his 1992 Pro Line Profiles card (No. 363).

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Several baseball stars lost seasons to military service in World Wars I and II, including Hank Greenberg, Joe DiMaggio, Warren Spahn, Luke Appling, Stan Musial, Bob Feller and Enos Slaughter.

Ted Williams lost three years in the prime of his career to service in World War II and parts of two other seasons using his piloting skills in the Korean War.  His military experience is documented in seven cards that appear in a set produced by Fleer in 1959. It chronicles his life and career.

“Late in the summer of 1945, Ted finished his operational training at Jacksonville and was sent to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii,” says the back of card No. 25. “Ted was finally on his way to the war zone of the Pacific as a Marine combat fighter pilot. In 1945, Japan surrendered and the war was over. Ted was honorably discharged from the Marines, and he returned home in December 1945.”

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Sometimes it can be a memorable moment during a sporting event held during a time of war that comes to cardboard.
 Before Super Bowl XXV, Whitney Houston sang the national anthem and on the back of a 1991 Pro Set card (No. 350) is where the scene is set:

“War in Persian Gulf was under way, and game was being played in atmosphere or tension and anxiety about conflict … Anthem came just before kickoff, with color guard presenting 30-foot-long American flag and accompaniment by The Florida Orchestra. … Houston’s performance struck [a] chord with American public, which bought 750,000 copies of anthem record in nine days.”

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The aftermath and reactions of athletes after the terrorist attacks of 2001 were documented on several cards in several different sets and there are countless cards from past sets like Topps American Pie and recent ones like this year’s Topps American Heritage releases, which celebrate those with military ties, regardless of any sports involvement.

There are countless others that could be mentioned here. Do any of these cards hold a special place in your collection? Let us know…

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball and Beckett Graded Card Investor. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an e-mail to him at colds@beckett.com.