AFL, College Football HoF, NFL, Pro Football HoF

Alworth, Lance “Bambi”

Acquired: Austin Citywide Garage Sale 1996

So I was wandering around a citywide garage sale and saw that a bar was selling all of its close out merchandise at breakneck prices. For 20 bucks I got a nice lot of autographed memorabilia, so I didn’t think it’d be a bad deal to get- even if they were bad considering how much they’d cost in real life. I started a new binder where I kept photo and other types of autographs than cards.

Well, Lance Alworth is a class of 1978 Hall of Fame receiver that played his career for the San Diego Chargers and Dallas Cowboys.  Nicknamed “Bambi” by his teammates because of his almost effortless moves he was originally drafted by the Oakland Raiders,  who almost immediately traded to the Chargers where he played the majority of his career from 1962 to 1970, often playing quietly through injury including fractures to both of his hands in 1966. He was named an AFL All Star 7 times, and lead the AFL in yardage 3 seasons ( 1966, 1968, and 1969). After the 1970 season he was traded to the Cowboys where he scored the first touchdown in Superbowl VI and afterwards subsequently retired with both an AFL championship ring and a Superbowl ring.

Things have been slightly rough for Alworth. Players of that day and age weren’t paid like they are now, and he had a bad patch there. Since the mid seventies Alworth has opened a series of storage units across California. He’s been also inducted into the Chargers Hall of Fame (1977), San Diego Hall of Champions (1972), his number (19) was retired by the Chargers, named to the NFL’s 75th anniversary team, the College Football Hall of Fame (1984), the AFL All-Time Team, the Mississipi Sports Hall of Fame, and finally was named number 31 on the 100 Greatest Football Players of all time list from “The Sporting News”.

 

G 136   Rec 542   Yds 10266    Avg 18.9    Td 85   Lg 85

CFL

Ridgway, Dave “Robokicker”

Card: All-World 1991
Acquired: TTM 1994, C/o The CFL

Small note about the Canadian Football League. Unlike the NFL, kickers roles are actually enhanced in the CFL with the aid of the ‘rouge’. If a kicker launches the ball and it goes out of the back of the endzone, but does not score a field goal, his team still receives a single point.

Drafted in 1981 by the Montreal Alouettes, Dave Ridgway’s career would be off to a bad start as he’d be unable to make the squad that season. Contacted in 1982 by the Saskatchewan Roughriders, he’d go on to become one of the most storied kickers of the CFL’s history. Ridgway would kick the game winning field goal in Saskatchewan’s exciting Grey Cup victory in 1989, and is the most accurate kicker in league history, knocking down 59 field goals in 1987, and 8 field goals in a game which are both league records as well. He’d retire in 1994, virtually in control of nearly all league kicking records.

A 6 time CFL All Star, Dave rightfully so has received numerous accolades since his retirement. His number (36) was retired by the Roughriders and he was inducted into the team’s Plaza of Honor in 2000. In 2003, Ridgway was also named to the CFL HoF, and won the MVP honor for his clutch field goal in the 1989 Grey Cup.

Dave’s name is spelled ‘Ridgway’, and he was nicknamed ‘Robokicker’ by his teammates for his ability to automatically hit field goals and the coincidence that the movie “RoboCop” had been released that year. Below is a link to the 1989 Grey Cup field goal and his final limited statistics, since the CFL does a horrid job of keeping them.

fga N/a    fgm N/a   pct .780  pts 2374

NFL, WLAF

Gailey, Chan

Cards: ProSet 1991, ProSet WLAF 1991
Acquired: TTM 2010, C/o The Buffalo Bills
Sent: 3/12    Received: 3/19  (7 days)

Georgia born Chan Gailey, has been coaching at the college or pro level now for roughly 35 years, working at a variety of levels before being hired to coach with the Denver Broncos in 1985 and is considered a member of the Dan Reeves coaching tree. He’d spend the next 6 seasons there culminating in the offensive coordinator job, before he became the head coach of the Birmingham Fire in 1991. Making his mark with the team in nearby Alabama, Gailey’s team would make the playoffs both years of the WLAF’s existence. The teams’ were surprisingly known not for their offense, but rather a staunch defense that kept the team in most games. After the 1992 season and the WLAF folded, Chan briefly returned to the NCAA football level, but in 1994 he’d be hired by the Steelers where he’d stay through 1997. He’d serve as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys in 1998 and 1999, but could never shake the image as Jerry Jones’ puppet and that his teams were not tough enough. Even though his teams would make the playoffs both season and lose after the first round, (and Troy Aikman felt that Gailey was a prehistoric dinosaur) Chan would not be detained as the Cowboys head coach. He’d be hired almost immediately to be offensive coordinator of the Dolphins in 2000 staying there through 2001, before returning home to Georgia Tech in 2002. His name got consideration for the head coaching jobs in both Pittsburgh and Miami.  Gailey would coach Tech through 2007 and then be hired by the Chiefs in 2008 as offensive coordinator, but was demoted and not retained by the team. In a surprising move by the Buffalo Bills, in 2010 the team announced Chan Gailey as the team’s 15th head coach partially on a recommendation by former head coach Bill Cowher of the Steelers.

Gailey’s offensive philosophy is one that adapts itself to the players available on the team and along his stops, outside of his current one here in Buffalo, have been good at maximizing very average talent while more importantly hiding those players inefficiencies.  The charge against him in response to this is that his teams’ offenses have been charged with being too conservative.  I jump at the chance to get WLAF autographs and I got his autograph in a quick 7 days from the Bills office. I wish him all the luck but I honestly sent off so quickly for him because I haven’t given him much of a chance up there. The Bills have become a graveyard for good coaches. Below are his WLAF statistics.

W 12      L  7       T  1        Pct .600

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