Tag Archives: Action packed 1991

CFL, NFL

Woods, Elbert “Ickey”

flr90 woodsap90 woods

ap91 woodspset89 woodsCards: Action Packed 1990, Action Packed 1991, Score Supplemental 1989, ProSet 1989, Fleer 1990.
Acquired: TTM 2012, C/o The Jovante Woods Foundation
Sent: 9/7      Received: 12/17      (102 days)*
*Donation required

So Ickey Woods was one of these indelible characters from the late 1980’s with a great personality, a good smile, and a wonderful post touchdown dance. Well you needed one back then if you were going to make a name for yourself during that era of the NFL right? Well the ‘Ickey Shuffle’ set the world on fire, and Woods became probably one of the league’s most popular players almost instantaneously with his almost bumbling bear dance.

Ickey played at UNLV, and was selected in the second round of the 1988 draft by the Cincinnati Bengals. His rookie season was nothing short of spectacular. He ran for 1066 yards on 203 carries, scored a whopping 15 touchdowns, and led the league with 5.3 yards per carry from the fullback position. Woods lost out to John Stephens of New England for Rookie of the Year Honors, probably because of the fact that the Bengals had a much better supporting cast  of Esiason, McGee, Holman, and Brown. It appeared that he was off to his same routine going into 1989, but during the second game of the season, Ickey critically blew out his left knee tearing his ACL.

sco89 woodsFor a bit there, it was thought that Ickey might never do the shuffle again. In those days, the surgery and the rehab time took a lot longer and was much riskier. Back then an ACL injury usually meant a certain ending to a player’s career. Ickey made a tremendous comeback however. He missed 14 games of the 1989 season but rebounded to return for 1990 and scored in his first game back against the Browns. The Bengals were content with using Ickey as a short yardage bam-back and he played 10 games that season, but the knee just kept flaming up. He returned for 1991 but by now the backfield was getting crowded with James Brooks and Harold Green back there. Still Woods managed to start 2 games. He’d retire in 1992 with new head coach David Shula taking the reins from Sam Wyche. Ickey’s Frankenstein zipper knees just kept him out of the lineup too much to allow him to keep playing and teams were staying away. He attempted to make a comeback with Jack Pardee and the Birmingham Barracudas of the CFL USA in 1995, but was unable to re-energize his career and finally retired.

Woods hit rock bottom for a while there, but found a home selling Pre-Paid Legal. Then he became a coach and owner of the Cincinnati Sizzle, a women’s professional football team. His son Javonte also tragically passed away a few years ago after a sudden asthma attack. In his honor Ickey set up a charity  for him that the proceeds of his autograph signings go to. Woods in the meantime remains an extremely popular alumni of the Cincinnati Bengals organization.

G/GP  37/20   Rush  332   Yds 1525   Avg 4.6      Td  27    Lg 56    |
 Rec 47    Yds 397   Avg 8.4   Td 0   Lg 25

The Ickey shuffle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f-m-Fmd1lY

 

NFL

Hampton, Rodney

Cards: Score Supplemental 1990, Action Packed Rookies 1990, Action Packed 1991, Proset 1990
Acquired: In Person, 6/11/2012 Houston Fan Fest III
Failure: TTM, C/o Home 2010

Now I was absolutely giddy to get Rodney Hampton at Fan Fest.  I had just found a new address for him and was ready to drop $20 to get a few autographs from him TTM, but while I was preparing cards to be sent out in May, I saw an update to Fan Fest that had him included on the guest list and decided to get him in person instead. Again, Hampton marks another member of the Action Packed 1990 Rookies set that I am trying to complete out as thoroughly as possible, but in general he just had some great cards to get autographed from his rookie season, and I beat that dead horse to death going back a second time for 2 more autographs. Talking to him and the Ruben Studdard clone that was sitting next to him, I recalled his rookie season and how I had used him in the stone ages of Fantasy Football to wallop a friend.  Hampton had an incredible preseason game his rookie year and dismantled the Bills, breaking off some monster runs. I picked him up for the regular season contest and he didn’t disappoint rushing for a bit over 100 yards against them. I really enjoyed meeting him, and also had been talking to him through Sotl.com until they changed the format of the site.

Hampton was a member of the much ballyhooed runningback class of 1990. Among the group was Blair Thomas, Emmitt Smith, Darrell Thompson, and Steve Broussard, – all taken in the first round before the Giants selected Rodney with the 24th pick,  who needed a set of fresh legs to spot aging Ottis Anderson.  (There would be over 40 runningbacks taken in the 1990 NFL Draft.)

Rodney followed in the footsteps of guys like Herschel Walker at Georgia, and finished with 2,661 yards over 31 games for the Bulldogs, good enough for 2nd All-Time in the school annuls.  In 1987, he set a Georgia record with a whalloping 7.06 yard per carry average.

Hampton’s rookie season showed flashes of potential as he electrified the crowd taking his first carry of the preseason 89 yards against the Bills for a touchdown. I remember it, and it was one of the most impressionable carries I ever saw. Behind Ottis, Hampton played sparingly in 1990, registering a modest 455 yards rushing, 32 receptions, and playing sparingly on special teams.  After the season the Giants won SuperBowl XXV against the Bills. 1991 started a string of 5 straight 1000+ yard seasons, while the team went through transitions at both quarterback and fullback. In 1992 and 1993, Rodney got his due with Pro Bowl nominations as the team’s workhorse back. A consistent and thorough runner, Rodney played for the Giants through 1997 when injury sidelined him for all of 14 games of the season. With the signing of Gary Brown, Hampton essentially passed the torch to the team’s new runningback star, Tiki Barker. He would be a free agent and both the Cowboys and Cardinals expressed interest in him, but Rodney opted to retire instead.  At the time of his retirement, Hampton was the team’s All-Time leading rusher, but has since been surpassed.

One has to wonder how the record books would be written today if the Cowboys had taken Hampton over Emmitt Smith, as after the smoke cleared, Hampton emerged as the only back to challenge Smith from the 1990 draft pool.  In 8 seasons for the Giants, Rodney rushed for 6,897 yards and 49 scores.

Hampton at this time is heavily involved in after school and summer athletic camps for kids which are run in Houston, Atlanta, and Newark. You can visit Hamp’s Camp Inc at: www.hampscamp.com. He is also partnered with Player Protect- a company that employs police officers as escorts for NFL players. As quite the entrepeneur, Hampton is also an endorser of fitness equipment, charity events, strength and conditioning, and orthopedic surgeons. Rodney also remains an ardent supporter of Big Blue as a Giants Ambassador.

 
Absolutely love these cards. I am not sure when he started the practice, but for two of these you can see that Hampton, who loved
running through defenders, double cluched the ball.  In a bit under 2000 touches (rushing/receiving) Hampton only fumbled 18 times- a reliable and remarkably low .9 %.  Rodney was a dynamo in Tecmo Super Bowl on the Nintendo. I loved eating up the clock when I played against Josh, and Hampton was a monster for that. In Tecmo Super Bowl MI, Rodney rushed 10 times for 116 yards and 2 touchdowns. He also had 2 receptions for 32 yards and a 3rd TD to stomp the hated Cowboys 32-26.

 

G/Gs 104/85      Rush 1824     Yds 6897      Avg  3.8     Td 49     Lg 63t |
Rec 174      Yds 1309       Avg 7.5    Td 2   lg 62

College Football HoF, Heisman Trophy Winner, NFL, usfl

Walker, Herschel

Cards: Action Packed 1991, Action Packed Rookies 1992, Pro Set 1991 Heisman Heroes, Score 1989, Score 1990 Ground Force
Acquired: In Person 1994, 1997, Philadelphia Eagles Training Camp, Dallas Cowboys Training Camp.  TTM, 2011. C/o Home
Sent: 1/13/11    Received: 7/5/11  (173 days)

Herschel Walker? In my estimates of some of the great runningbacks in football, I would say I was enthralled by Herschel Walker. I knew who Herschel was before I even watched football. A record breaking machine for the Georgia Bulldogs in college, Walker would be a 3 time All American and win the Heisman in 1982. Herschel was a shrewd businessman, and realized that with the advent of the upstart USFL he could effectively carve his own destiny and make more money off of endorsements. Plus without rules regarding underclassmen, Herschel could declare for the USFL draft as a Junior- something he couldn’t do in the NFL. With that being said, Walker would be drafted by the New Jersey Generals of the USFL in 1983.  He’d go on to crush opposing defenses winning the rushing title in both 1983 and 1985 before the league dissolved. In the meantime however, the Dallas Cowboys waited, dropping a 5th round choice on Walker suspecting it would just be a matter of time.

Herschel would join the Cowboys in 1987, and go onto etch his name into the Cowboys faithful minds for years to come not only for his incredible play of which he’d earn ProBowl berths in 1987 and 1988 – but for what would later come to be known as “The Trade”.

The Minnesota Vikings believed they needed one more piece in order to get to the SuperBowl, and in 1989 the Cowboys were looking to rebound from a 3-13 season. Jimmy Johnson and Jerry Jones found the offer from the Vikings too good to pass up. Without going into details the final totals were astounding. The Vikings would trade the Cowboys 5 players, and 8 draft choices – including 3 first round choices over the next 3 years. Minnesota in return got Walker, 2 3rd round choices, a 5 round choice and a 10th round choice. The implications were far reaching and would set the foundation for the Cowboys championship runs. Looking back in retrospect, it’s hard not to see that Herschel took the trade hard. In the end he was treated as a commodity and his Viking tenure was filled with pressure as being the hailed savior of the franchise.

Walker had just come off a 1500 + yard season rushing for the Cowboys and the Vikings were struggling on the ground.  Inexplicably the Vikings really couldn’t figure out the right way to use Herschel even though he was utilized on kick returns and also as a running back, – he became the butt of jokes in Minnesota. After a failed suicide attempt (by carbon monoxide poisoning) the writing was on the wall for the franchise, and by 1992 the Vikings cut Walker.

Immediately the Eagles came calling with fans hailing Walker as their savior. Walker would not disappoint rushing for over a 1000 yards for the Eagles and posting another 200 plus yards receiving in 1992- his best rushing effort since leaving Dallas. Walker would stay with Philadelphia another 2 years afterwards where I’d get his autograph in West Chester at Eagles training camp that year.

Walker would sign in 1995 with the Giants as a free agent and play one non-descrpit season there before returning home to the Cowboys in 1996. The Cowboys would put him to use as a fullback his final two seasons, where I’d get his autograph in 1997 at Berger stadium (next to Michael Irvin), before he retired.

One wonders how Herschel would have been remembered if he did not go to the USFL or if Michael Irvin was traded to the Los Angeles Raiders instead (as was originally rumored). Combining his numbers from his years in the USFL with his NFL numbers, Walker ranks 5th all time on the rushing list. Herschel also holds the all time record for rushing yards in a football season with 2411 yards. In 1999 he was inducted into the College Football HoF, is widely regarded as the best runningback in the history of college football, had his number retired at Georgia and wrote an autobiography. One of my favorite athletes, (-and easily my favorite Cowboy,) I even owned Herschel’s Starting Lineup figurine. If you played the original Tecmo Bowl, all you could do with the Cowboys is run with Herschel, and that gave you a leg up on the puny Colts. The 1991 offering of Tecmo Super Bowl endeared him to us as a member of the Minnesota Vikings. Despite his popularity Walker has remained a stalwart TTM signer, and I got his autographs on the Pro Set 1991 Heisman Heroes, Score 1990 Ground Force, and Score 1989 cards in 173 days.

Herschel at the time of his retirement minus his USFL numbers, was ranked 3rd in total yards from scrimmage with 18,168 combined yards rushing, receiving, and kick returning. Including his USFL numbers, Walker would hold the combined yards from scrimmage number with an additional 7,115 yards. He is also one of a select few players to have a touchdown rushing, receiving and kick returning, all of over 90 yards.

Walker is a through and through athlete. He remains in peak physical shape, and has over the years participated in the Winter Olympics, is a 5th degree blackbelt, and recently taken up mixed martial arts winning by TKO his first two matches.

NFL
G/Gs  187/138   Att 1954   Yds  8225    Avg 4.2   Td  61    Lg 91 |
Rec 512    Yds  4859     Avg  9.5    Td  21   Lg  93 |
Kr  215    Yds 5084     Avg  23.6    Td   2    Lg  94