Card: UT Upper Deck 2011
Acquired: 11/23/2012, Fiterman Autograph Event
See Also: Earl Campbell, Earl Campbell (3)

I could not pass up the Fiterman Autograph Event in 2012, which included Heisman winners Earl Campbell and Billy Cannon and a lot of Oilers I had TTM woes with. The price was expensive, but cheap when prorated out in bulk, averaging out to under 20.00 an autograph. Earl Campbell’s alone typically goes for $100.00 per item, making it all a worthwhile deal.  While there was hiccups in shipping due to overwhelming demand, I did indeed receive all the cards back that I had wanted signed, including this gem. I skipped over Earl at the 610 event back in August, because I anticipated the long lines. He also was signing items shorthanded, with ‘E Campbell’  and no inscriptions. This set off a lot of collectors who screamed murder about the shortened sig. I really didn’t care, but to get this one back with the full signature and his number certainly made my day.

The Tyler Rose was the 43rd winner of the Heisman Trophy, and part of the 1991 NFL HoF class. He’s become a prominent businessman around Austin, slowly building a meat products enterprise under his name. He also has a restaurant in the ABIA airport as well.

Exerpt from Bum Phillips, NFL HoF presentation speech: Thank you. If ya’ll were looking into this sun, you’d know why I’m wearing a hat. I’d like to thank the Hall of Fame for giving me the opportunity to come back up to this part of North Texas. [This isn’t Texas.] Oh, it’s not? There’s a whole lot of people that deserve congratulations — the Hall of Fame, the enshrinees — but I want to send a special congratulations to the people of Canton, Ohio and the state of Ohio for that parade this morning. That was — That was outstanding. That’s the best think I’ve ever seen.

I’ve had some tough jobs in my life, but believe me, this is one of the toughest: Introduce a guy that made almost 10,00 yards, a guy that’s been in every newspaper and on every TV camera for the last 30 days, a guy that’s the best running back that I’ve ever seen in my life — and they tell me to do it in less than four minutes. Some of his runs lasted that long.

Earl and I’ve been — Earl and I’ve been friends a long time. He came down — one thing I appreciate about him is his loyalty — he came down — he’s a great hunter, great outdoorsman, great sportsman — and he wanted to go quail hunting. So, I told him, “Okay, I’ll take you over to Orange and let you go on my grandpa’s place.” We get over there and drive up to the ranch house. There’s a whole bunch of dogs in the yard, and course they knew me and didn’t know Earl. So I said, “You’re gonna have to sit in the car.” So I went inside and talked to my grandpa and he told me where everything was. And I got out and got back. Just as I was getting ready to go out of the house, he said, “Bum,” he said, “would you do me a favor?” I said, “Yes, sir.” He said, “On your way in,” he said, “you saw that old white barn down there?” I said, “Yes, sir.” He said, “Well, that old gray mule standing out there is 29 years old.” And he said, “I’ve raised that thing since she was a baby.” And he said, “The vet told me to have to put her down, and she’s really in misery and I don’t have the heart to do it. Would you stop by there and put her out of her misery?” I said, “Yes, sir.” So I get back in the car and we go on down the road and Earl said, “What did he say?” I thought well I’ll just kind of mess with him a little bit. I said, oh so and so said we couldn’t hunt. Well, he swelled up. I mean he got mad and we’re going along there. We get about even with that mule. I said, “I’ll tell you what I’m going to do: I’m going to go shoot his mule.”

So I — I stop and I get out and I go over there and of course put the mule out of her misery and come back — no Earl Campbell. About that time I hear “Boom! Boom!” and I look and here come Earl running across the hill — said, “Bum, let’s get out of here; I got his horse and his dog.” And if that ain’t loyalty, I don’t know anything about loyalty.