Arena, NFL

Jensen, Jim “Crash”

Card: Pro Set 1990
Acquired: Canton Acquisition 2012

Jim Jensen is an amazing football story. Picked in the 11th round of the NFL draft in 1981 by the Dolphins, nobody really gave the 6’4″, 215 quarterback from Boston University of the Yankee Conference a chance to make the squad. Jensen squeezed onto the roster as the team’s 3rd string quarterback, but saw little or no playing time. A few years passed, and with Miami snagging Dan Marino with their 1st round pick of the 1983 draft, Jensen knew he needed to do something, anything, to make the squad. There in Jim “Crash” Jensen was born. Jim was such a smart, well conditioned, and strong athlete, that he began to line up at any position on offense that they’d take him. Showing the heart to do what it took impressed Don Shula and his staff, his bread and butter soon became being a special teams maven. (It has been said his nickname was given to him by none other than Howard Cosell after watching the out of place QB burn down the field and make a face first tackle.) The team began to use him as an ace, lining him at WR, TE, RB, and even FB to try to expose mismatches in the opposing defenses. His role over the next few years at quarterback became only that in the role of an emergency one, but that was perfectly fine since he had found his knack doing basically everything else. On rare occasions the team did let him throw the ball and test defenses such as in trick plays, but his statistics were completely misleading since he only started 10 games over his career, if you considered his all-purpose role in the Dolphins offensive system. Statistically his 1988 and 1989 seasons were his best. Jim racked up 652 yards on 58 catches and 5 TDs in 1988, and followed that up with 61 for 557 and 6 TDs in 1989. His role slowly began to diminish from there until the end of his career with the Dolphins in 1992.  Jim decided he wasn’t finished yet with football, and jumped to the fledgling Arena Football league to play for the Miami Hooters in 1993. He’d play two seasons for the team as their #1 quarterback before retiring after the 1994 season.

I suspect that the person that I got these cards from got a good portion of autographs from the Sotl.com site. While at the time School of the Legends was a great resource for fans to get in touch with players, talk to them, and well- hit them up for autographs, – I don’t think that was the original intent of the site. (Sure, I also used the site to find players that I had been looking for, but some people just flat out abused it for autographs and didn’t really see the purpose in connecting with the players or utilizing the services that were offered.)   Jensen along with many others were active members of the site who talked to fans and kept things moving, but in the end Sotl.com went through a facelift, did away with fan and player profiles, and now there isn’t really a way to find players and talk to them anymore.

NFL    G/Gs  164/10    Att   7   Comp  4       Yds  102          Pct  57.1           Td 2        Int  0          Rat 141.4
Rush  26              Yds   142          Avg       5.5             Td   0            Lg   23
Rec    229            Yds   2171       Avg       9.5             Td 19             Lg  31

AFL   Seasons 2     Att  539    Comp  290      Yds  3256      Pct  53.8       Td   51       Int  18        Rat  81.8

 

NFL, University of Texas

Kirkendoll, James (2)

Acquired: In person 6/10/12, 610 Houston Fan Fest
See also: James Kirkendoll “JT Kirk” 

So James wanted a copy of his Upper Deck cards from me at the 2012 Ribfest, but I only had one of them. I could see how sad he was so I volunteered to send him a couple of them there at the Titans practice facility.  Seeing that the 610 Fan Fest was coming up and that he had volunteered to man a table, I detoured from the original plan to send them to him, and just decided to give them to him at Fan Fest in person.

I ran into other like minded fans at the event, but I was not being as aggressive as they were catching the players who were naive enough to wander around the event unescorted past the throngs waiting in line. With their help I was able to find Kirkendoll and Studdard before they even got to the floor, saving me precious time waiting for them later.

I introduced myself again to JT and gave him 4 or 5 copies of the cards. He was very thankful and told me he hadn’t found them anywhere. I told him he should check his facebook more often and he chuckled and said he’d friend me, but really to me it was nothing since he was considered an Austinnite to me. He nicely signed two photos of himself that I had pulled from the web.

NFL, Pro Football HoF

Tittle, Y.A. “Yat” (1926-2017)

Cards: Upper Deck Legends 1997, Topps Football Archives
Acquired: TTM 2012, C/o YA Tittle & Associates
Sent: 10/12   Received: 10/22  (10 days)

YA Tittle first played way, way, back in the days of the AAFC in 1948 and 1949 for the Baltimore Colts. Arguably the best things that came out of the All-American Football Conference were the Colts, Cleveland Browns.. and YA Tittle, who joined the NFL in 1950.  While with the AAFC, YA was 309/598  for 4731 yards, 30 TDs and 27 picks. He’d be named rookie of the year in 1948.

Pretty good stats for a kid from Marshall, Tx who ran out on the University of Texas, went to LSU, and had asthma.  Well the Colts- went on hiatus really, after the 1950 season, so YA signed with the San Fransisco 49ers and became a major building block for the team’s “Million Dollar Backfield”. Although he shared passing duties his first two seasons, it didn’t seem to discourage Tittle, as he threw for 20 touchdowns in 1953 in his first season as a full-time starter. He’d also play most of the 1954 season with a broken hand. Tittle was named to the ProBowl in 1953, 1954, 1957, and 1959. For his efforts in 1957 where he threw for 2157 yards, completed 63.1% of his passes, 13 touchdowns, and 220 yards rushing, YA won AP honors.  During this period Tittle would perfect one of the first specialized pass plays called, the “Alley Oop”- a jump pass he spontaneously worked on with receiver RC Owens during that season. The alley oop was the predecessor to the modern day lob pass and actually inspired the basketball play by the same name. After 10 seasons with the ‘9ers and the emergence of John Brodie, YA thought about retiring but was traded straight up for a rookie to the New York Giants in 1960.

It’d be there that Yat cemented his legacy as a legendary quarterback and Giant great. The Giants turned him loose and the renewed 35 year old Tittle took the league by storm with 3 of the best seasons of his career setting the passing touchdown record in 1962 with 33, and 1963 with 36. In a game during the 1962 season, Tittle threw an earth shattering 7 touchdown passes and 505 yards in one game. The touchdown number has never been surpassed, but tied by 4 other players including George Blanda and Sid Luckman. Tittle won the NFL MVP honor in 1963 for his 33 touchdown passes.

The amazing thing about the touchdown passing record, is that it stood for over 20 years, from an era where passing wasn’t the science it is today, and it was done in  less games.  (His passing record would be shattered by Dan Marino, and later Tom Brady.) From 61-63 Yat was named to the Pro Bowl and AP, before he had an injury plagued final season in 1964. Tittle was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971 and lives in California. He still runs his insurance agency YA Tittle and Associates, that he started when he was still playing football.

Att  4395     Comp  2427     Yds  33070    Pct 55.2%
Td  242     Int  248     Rat 74.3
Rush 372    Yds 1245    Avg      Td 39    Lg   45

UPDATE: 10/9/17- YA Tittle passed away today at the grand old age of 90.

Celebrating the game, the players, the cards, and the autographs for over 25 years.