In 1968, Topps re-acquired the license to print NFL football cards that they had prior to 1964, but had lost to the Philadelphia Gum Company. (From 1964 to 1967, Topps only printed AFL cards.)
Prior to 1972 less than a dozen players from each team were featured on football cards, and the cards were issued in 2 series.
The 1968 card set consisted of 217 player cards and 2 checklists. Unlike the Philadelphia Gum sets from 1964-67, there were no team cards or other "special" cards. Also unlike the Philly sets, the players were not grouped by team, but were distributed randomly across the set, like Topps baseball cards always were. There are 8 or 9 player cards per team.
This is the first year for Cincinnati Bengals cards. Since they were an expansion team, their players are all wearing their previous team's uniforms. Also, since this is Topps' first crack at NFL players in 5 years, many of the cards in the 1st series use photos that are several years old, showing players in uniforms they hadn't worn for some time.
Each post will include all the players for one team. I will not be scanning the card backs, but in this introductory post, I am including a sample 1st series back (green printing), and a 2nd series back (blue printing). Some cards have a football highlight on the back, and some have a coin-rub quiz. Both of these types are found in each of the 2 series.
Also, 20 of the cards have backs that are parts of a picture puzzle (10 for Bart Starr, 10 for Len Dawson).
First up: The Green Bay Packers, fresh off their Super Bowl II victory over the Raiders!
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