Jack Concannon

Boston columnist Bob Ryan eulogized the late Jack Concannon (born on February 25 1943 in Boston) as being “Flutie before Flutie” since both were larger-than-life local legends known for being thrilling, scrambling quarterbacks. However, Concannon was 6’3” not 5’9” and his most famous moment at Boston College wasn’t a 50-yard Hail Mary pass to beat Miami, but instead the 79-yard “Serpentine Run” for a spectacular touchdown in a loss to Ernie Davis’ Syracuse team in 1961. In 1963, the celebrated Concannon was even on the cover of the NCAA Guide.

Despite being the top pick of the hometown Patriots in 1964, the BC Eagle quarterback signed with the Philadelphia Eagles because they made a more lucrative offer. With Philadelphia, however, Jack fell into a three-quarterback competition with Norm Snead and King Hill and would attempt only 103 passes in three years, completing less than half of them for four touchdowns and eight interceptions. Jack’s first NFL start came in the final home game of his rookie year against the Cowboys. Joe Kuharich felt that the rookie’s scrambling would counter the Cowboy blitzes, and Concannon gained 99 yards on 8 carries with his scrambles and completed 10 passes for 134 yards and two scores in a win over Dallas. However, Concannon would not start again for Philadelphia until the end of the 1966 season when he led the Eagles to victories over the Steelers and Browns.

The following season, he was traded to the Bears for Mike Ditka and spent five mostly unsuccessful seasons in Chicago, although he did appear in both MASH and Brian’s Song during that time. He finished a lackluster career with two seasons as a backup in Green Bay and Detroit. Concannon averaged close to five yard per carry during his career and gained 1,026 yards on the ground, but was not a NFL passer. He had trouble finding secondary receivers, threw a lot of interceptions and averaged a puny 5.6 yards per pass. He was 20-24-1 as a starter (0-2 in Green Bay), and his passer rating of 54.8 was 17 percent below the league average for his time. He was often said to be a halfback playing quarterback and probably would have had a better career as a running back.

(Adapted from The Quarterback Abstract.)

Second custom card is colorized.

John Hadl in Context

John Hadl turned 82 on February 15. Packer fans understandably cringe at the mention of Hadl since what Dan Devine overpaid for was a washed-up shell of what he had once been. The 6’1” 215-pound Hadl was a triple-threat running quarterback who also played defensive back at Kansas while earning All American recognition twice. Detroit envisioned Hadl as their answer to the Packers’ Paul Hornung – a former quarterback transformed into a halfback adept at the option pass – when they drafted John in the first round in 1962. Instead, Hadl signed with San Diego because Coach Sid Gillman saw him as a quarterback.

Hadl had to improve his footwork, set-up speed and throwing mechanics, but no one knew how to teach quarterback fundamentals better than Gillman. When starter Jack Kemp was injured and later lost to Buffalo, Hadl was forced to start 10 games as a very green rookie. Gillman brought in veteran Tobin Rote in 1963, and Hadl learned from the bench as Rote led the Chargers to the AFL title that year. Hadl began to take over from the aging Rote in 1964 and was the full-fledged starter in 1965. Both seasons ended with Jack Kemp’s Bills beating San Diego in the AFL title game.

Hadl was big and durable with a quick release and a strong arm. With San Diego, he excelled in throwing the long ball to speedy receivers Lance Alworth and Gary Garrison in the Chargers’ explosive offense. John threw pretty, rainbow bombs that dropped softly into the receivers’ hands. Hadl’s weakness was reading defenses and throwing into coverage, which led to a lot of interceptions – 32 in 1968 and 26 in 1972 for instance. With Gillman gone, San Diego traded Hadl to the Rams in 1973, and he had a remarkable year, throwing 22 touchdowns to only 11 interceptions in leading the Rams to a 12-2 record.

Hadl’s production declined drastically the next season, and Los Angeles sent him to Green Bay at midseason in what Packer fans call the Lawrence Welk trade, “a one and a two and a three.” Actually, Green Bay gave up two number ones, two number twos and a third-round pick for the fading Hadl. John stuck around another year in Green Bay before being sent to the Oilers for Lynn Dickey. Hadl finished his career backing up Dan Pastorini for two years in Houston. He was an exciting player who threw 33,503 yards and 244 touchdowns but also 268 interceptions. His passer rating was just 67.4, but that was six percent better than the league average in his time, and he was 82-76-9 as a starter. He appeared in four postseason games, losing both his starts, and threw for one TD and six interceptions. He later coached in the USFL.

(Adapted from The Quarterback Abstract.)

Custom cards in Topps and Wonder Bread styles.

The Duane Thomas Affair

Last week, I mentioned that I received Cliff Christl’s four-volume team history for Christmas and devoured it with delight. In addition to the thorough and captivating text, the set is lavishly illustrated with photos, both black-and-white and color. One photo that I was excited to find was one that originally ran in the Green Bay Press-Gazette in 1978, but that I have never seen in non-grainy form. It’s a picture of troubled running back Duane Thomas working out in a Packer jersey and illustrates a dark episode from the Bart Starr coaching era.

Thomas was the Cowboys’ first round draft pick in 1970. He led Dallas in rushing in both 1970 and ’71, and the team went to the Super Bowl both years, winning the title in the latter season. However, Thomas then bounced to San Diego in 1972, Washington in 1973, the WFL in 1975, back to Dallas in 1976 and on to the CFL in 1977. The last time he actually played in a league game was in October 1975 with the Hawaiians.

Meanwhile, the Packers got off to a torrid 7-2 start in 1978 with rookie James Lofton leading the way. Starr decided to take a look at 31-year-old free agent Thomas the day after Green Bay lost its second game on October 22 to Minnesota. By league rule, teams could bring in a player for a 24-hour period to try out. They could not keep a player longer than that to prevent clubs from stashing players off their rosters. A week later on the Monday after a victory over Tampa, four reporters noticed Thomas walking through the locker room in Packer gear. When they confronted Starr about it, he first obfuscated and then requested the reporters not mention it to protect the team from penalty.

The reporters, including Christl, followed journalistic practice and reported the news. Starr tried to ban them from the premises, but the league would not allow that. Starr’s reputation took a beating, and the team dropped like a rock, finishing 1-5-1 and missing the postseason again.

In March 1979, Starr did sign Thomas, who reported to training camp, but cut him in August, ending Duane’s NFL career for good.

Two possible custom cards that feature the same colorized image.

1929-1930 Packer Jerseys

When I started making custom cards, I started with the Lambeau championship teams, not realizing how far I would go with this hobby. The team media guide at the time included a color illustration of the main jersey colors worn by the team over its history, so I went by that for guidance. The 1929-30 jerseys were depicted as blue with a gold circular patch on the chest featuring blue numerals. I had a copy of the 1930 team picture published in the Milwaukee Journal that featured gold jerseys, dark patches and gold numerals, but I figured that must have been a special alternate jersey.

Having read Cliff Christl’s magnificent four-volume team history, The Greatest Story in Sports, over Christmas break, I find that the original illustration was backwards and that the Journal team picture was the regular jersey. Cliff notes that in black-and-white photos the jersey appears darker than the patch, normally indicating that it would be blue not gold. However, Christl talked to a photo expert about this and reports that there were two types of film used at the time: orthochromatic and panchromatic. His expert determined the film used for Packer black-and-white team photos was likely orthochromatic in which yellow/gold would show up a darker gray than blue would.

So I have gone back and recolorized my card images from that period and present some samples below. I still like the blue better, but we must strive for accuracy.