Card: Ultimate 1992 World League Acquired: TTM 2020, C/o Home Sent: 9/11 Received: 9/22 (11 days)
Tom Whelihan played kicker and punter in college at Missou. While there he set numerous school records including the longest field goal in school history- at 62 yards. He finished 44/63 on field goals, while punting 159 times for 6570 yards.
He spent the next few seasons in camp with the Packers (1988), the Lions and Chargers (1989) and the Bears (1990). Tom was selected by the Frankfurt Galaxy of the World League in 1991 to play punter. Whelihan had 49 punts for 1846 yards while pinning 18 opponents inside their own 20 yard line.
In 1995 he emerged again stateside playing for the Arena Football League playing for the St Louis Stampede, and then in 1997 for the Albany Firebirds.
A great autograph from Tom, as he also reminded me that the Galaxy did beat the Riders in San Antonio in 1991 in a 10-3 yawner of a contest.
A 5th round pick of the Orlando Thunder during the WLAFs inaugural positional draft in 1991, Rob Sterling played college ball at Maine. After graduating in 1988, he’d be selected by the Eagles, but spent the entire year on IR. Acquired via plan B by the Jets the following season, he didn’t make the squad, but returned to the Eagles where he saw time on the team’s developmental squad.
Still hungry to play football, Rob signed up with the fledgling Arena Football League, and played for both the Albany Firebirds and the Washington Commandos in 1990. In limited action, Rob had 5 receptions for 50 yards and a TD, and 8 total tackles- playing both ways.
A rangy playmaker with good speed, Rob finished 3rd on the Thunder in Tackles with 43 stops and 9 pass deflections- after sitting out the final game with a knee injury. Rob’s biggest highlight came when he took a lateraled interception 33 yards for a TD against the Raleigh-Durham Skyhawks. He did not return to the league for the 1992 season.
I collaborate with fellow collector Mark (of Marks Signing Bonus) on a semi-regular basis through Sportscollectors.com. He and I send WLAF addresses back and forth of players we have gotten lucky on and while he claims that I am regularly on point, he comes up with some killer finds- including Rob Sterling. Rob originally hails from Jamaica, has got a pretty common name, and went to Maine (of all places), so I pretty much gave up on this one some time ago after doing a ton of research. Thankfully Mark passed this one along to me and Rob autographed this one in roughly 2 weeks.
G –WLAF
TAC
SAC
FUM
INT
YDS
AVG
TD
LG
9/10
43
0.0
1
0
33
33.0
1
33T
G- ARENA
TAC
SAC
FUM
INT
YDS
AVG
TD
LG
8
0.0
0
0
0
-.-
0
-.-
**UPDATE**- Upon retiring from football, Robert join the private sector working for Jackson & Tull Aerospace in Greenbelt, Maryland. In the late 1990’s he accepted a job with Ball Aerospace and relocated to Denver, Colorado. He received numerous awards and recognition program awards for his outstanding work in the aeronautics field. While working at Ball, he attended graduate school and obtained an MBA at the University of Denver in Technology Management. He also obtained a Certificate for Corporate Entrepreneurship. Robert also had a passion for coaching. During his time living in Denver he coached football for several youth teams at the Boy’s Club in Denver.
In 2010, he later moved to California to pursue his other passion, fitness. He started Sterling Fitness & Wellness 4U, where he trained clients to reach their optimum fitness and health goals. He found his new business to be very rewarding and was excited about changing people’s lives.
Due to health reasons he relocated back to Maryland to be closer to his family. On August 23rd, 2019 Rob passed away at the Lorine Rehabilitation Center in Columbia, Maryland.
Ben Bennett was a prolific quarterback for the Duke Blue Devils finishing as one of the top passers in NCAA history, throwing for 9614 yards on 820 completions (1375 attempts) and 55 TDs from 1980 to 1983.
Selected in the 6th round of the 1984 NFL draft by the Atlanta Falcons, but ended up playing in the USFL for the Jacksonville Bulls. Bennett then bounced around camps for the Falcons, Oilers, Cowboys, and Bears, eventually seeing a little action playing for the Bengals in ’87. He’d join the Arena Football league playing for the Chicago Bruisers in 1988 and 1989, leading the team to the championship in the latter season. After playing for the Dallas Texans in 1990, he was selected by the Sacramento Surge of the WLAF during the first round of the positional draft.
Ben was expected to be the starter for the Surge, but he’d be supplanted by former KC Chiefs 2nd round pick, Mike Elkins- who took all the snaps after the first game. Bennett returned to the Arena Football League later that year with the Orlando Predators. Ben at this point became a star for the young league. He’d play for Orlando through 1995, before taking one season pitstops with both the San Jose SabreCats and the Portland Forest Dragons. Ben is known in Arena lore for the ‘Miracle Minute’ in which he engineered a 16 point comeback in under 1 minute. Ben was inducted into the Arena Football Hall of Fame in 2000.
Outside of his impressive Arena Football resume, Ben has been involved as coach for the Milwaukee Mustangs (1998), Greensboro Prowlers (2000), Florida Bobcats (2001), Florida Firecats (2002-2004), Manchester Wolves (2005-2007), Austin Wranglers (2008), Orlando Fantasy LFL (2010), the New Orleans Voodoo (2011), and the Orlando Predators (2012).
I had previously tried to get Ben way back in 2011, but had no luck. Since then, I’ve seen no successes or addresses for him that I could use, so I went ahead and just picked this autograph up off of EBay after verifying its integrity.
NFL
ATT
CPD
YDS
PCT
TD
INT
RAT
0/1
5
2
25
33.3
0
1
7.6
RUSH
YDS
AVG
TD
LG
2
17
8.5
0
9
USFL
ATT
CPD
YDS
PCT
TD
INT
RAT
0/2
13
7
113
53.8
1
0
142.5
ARENA
ATT
CPD
YDS
PCT
TD
INT
RAT
1928
1069
14168
55.4
267
81
N/A
RUSH
YDS
AVG
TD
LG
113
67
.6
0
9
WLAF
ATT
CPD
YDS
PCT
TD
INT
RAT
1/0
26
9
60
34.6
0
2
39.6
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