Tag Archives: dallas texans

Arena, NFL, usfl, WLAF

Bennett, Ben

Card: ProSet 1991 WLAF Insert
Acquired: 2018, EBay
Failure: TTM 2014, C/o Home 

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. 

NFLATTCPDYDSPCTTDINTRAT
0/1522533.3017.6
RUSHYDSAVGTDLG
2178.509
USFLATTCPDYDSPCTTDINTRAT
0/213711353.810142.5
ARENAATTCPDYDSPCTTDINTRAT
192810691416855.426781N/A
RUSHYDSAVGTDLG
11367.609
WLAFATTCPDYDSPCTTDINTRAT
1/02696034.60239.6
NFL

Lilly, Bob “Mr. Cowboy”

to71 lillypset90SB lillyCard: Pro Set 1990 Super Bowl Supermen, Pro Set 1990 SB VI, Topps 1971
Acquired: IP 4/16/2015, Sam’s Wholesale Lakeline Grand Opening.
TTM 2015, C/o Home
Sent: 10/19    Received: 10/24     (5 days)

I had not been very enthusiastic about Lilly’s signing at the Lakeline Grand Opening of Sams, as I had been pretty much caught with my pants down on this one. I had neither the Topps 1971 or the Upper Deck Legends 1997 issues that were part of my set obsessions, but Kudos to my friend Spoodog, for comping me this card of Lilly’s to get signed. I am a huge fan of the Topps 1971 set,  as it’s a timeless group of cards. It immediately made me excited for the Lilly signing as the only two other cards I had just an afterthought.

do09 lillyBesides his time playing football, Lilly is an avid photographer. He loves interacting with fans, and he gets high marks as a TTM responder for a very nominal fee. The Cowboys and the NFL HoF keep him very busy as he is one of the most requested NFL alumni for functions, speaking engagements, and signings. You can visit his website at www.boblilly.com.

A few months later after a lot of trouble, I sent out for Bob TTM and enclosed a small signing fee.  He responded in under a week and signed both the Upper Deck Legends card (I had such a hard time getting) and also a Donruss Threads card.

udlgd97 lillyLily was the first ever pick of the expansion Dallas Cowboys in 1961. (He was also drafted by the AFL Dallas Texans as well.) A giant, dependable, and durable (just missed one game during his career) defensive tackle, he manned the position for the Cowboys for 14 seasons. Over that time he demonstrated incredible reaction time, strength, and speed for the era as a key cog to the Cowboys defensive alignment. He became the franchise’s first Hall of Fame inductee in 1980.

G/GS 196/196     Tac    N/a       Sac     Fum
Int  1       Yds    17      Avg  17.0       Td    1      Lg     17t