CARDS: Topps 1982, Topps 1983
ACQUIRED: TTM 2025, C/o Home
SENT: 5/27 RECEIVED: 7/5 (39 days)
FAILURE: TTM 2022, C/o Home

CAREER SNAPSHOT:

• Gifford Nielsen played QB at BYU from 1975-’77.
• In 1976 he finished 6th in Heisman Trophy voting, leading the WAC in nearly every statistical category.
• He completed 207 of 372 passes for 3192 yards with 29 TDs to 19 picks that year- which were considered titanic numbers for that era of football.
• 3rd round pick in 1978 of the Houston Oilers.
• Was backup quarterback nearly his entire career, first to Dan Pastorini, then to Ken Stabler, and then later shared QB duties with Oliver Luck and Archie Manning.
• After retirement, he worked as a color broadcaster for the Oilers radio network, and as the Sports Director of KHOU in Houston.

ACCOLADES:

• College Football Hall of Fame 1984

NOTES:

I had been oddly after Giff for a while. Back when I was a kid, I’d go to Oilers training camp here and there when the team practiced at San Marcos and later in San Antonio. Giff was a sports reporter for one of the Houston stations. He was very engaging with fans, but I didn’t make the connection the first time I went to camp he was a former player or that he had a card. (Remember this is the dark times- before the internet.) After being told he was a former Oiler, I tracked down a card, but never saw him again at camp close enough that I could flag him down for an autograph.

I held onto that Topps ’83 and tried him TTM back in 2022 but didn’t hear back. I reloaded and added the Topps 1982, waiting for another shot that finally came. He’s got a great autograph and signed these two cards from Utah in a bit over a month.