At the end of his time at Missou, James Wilder was the school’s all-time leading rusher with 2,357 yards.
A second round pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1982.
Slotted into the lineup as a FB.
Impressed coaches so much he took over starting duties at RB in 1984.
Set NFL single game record (since broken) rushing 42 times against Pittsburgh in 1984.
He carried the ball a whopping 407 times for 1577 yards and 13 TDs.
His 2229 total yards were only 19 yards off the combined rushing receiving single season record.
By the end of that season- his 4th- Wilder had passed Ricky Bell to become the franchise’s all-time leading rusher.
Wilder was ahead of his time, as not only was he a great runner, but he was an extremely talented receiver as well, catching 85 passes that year.
In 1985, Wilder had another solid season, posting 1300 yards rushing on 365 carries and 10 TDs.
James never eclipsed the 1,000 yard mark again over his career.
While this could’ve been attributed to injuries or a conversion back to FB is not known, as the backfield became quite crowded.
The Bucs traded James to Detroit in exchange for Eric WIliams in 1990.
At the time of his departure, Wilder owned nearly every rushing franchise record and even the team’s record for receptions.
He played the majority of the season with the Lions, before finishing his career on the roster of the Redskins that year.
ACCOLADES:
Pro Bowl 1984
NOTES:
Finally! I absolutely adore this card and have wanted to get it signed by James for some time. James embodied the creamsickle orange to me. The autograph is just as good! It’s strong, the color is superb, and the placement is perfect.
I love my RBs and Wilder had a very interesting NFL career to me. I considered also sending his Score Supplemental 1990 in his Lions uniform, or his Score 1989 card, but since I had failed on him 10 years ago, never restocked on his cards.
I saw a cheap signing for Mark that I had to get in on, so I plunked down the cash and went all in. The Pro Set 1991 card, was actually a special edition #800 for the Defensive Rookie of the Year. It was released as part of the Pro Set 1990 Update. I hadn’t ever seen the All Madden card before. I had probably gone through nearly an entire box at 7-11, but never gotten one. Great pickups.
Ultimate World League 1992, Montreal Machine Team Stats, #76
Fleer 1990, #204Wild Card World League 1992, #2
CARDS: Fleer 1990, Ultimate World League 1992, Ultimate World League 1992 W-O-R-L-D, Ultimate World League 1992 Team Stats, Wild Card World League 1992 ACQUIRED: Paid Signing, 2023 FAILURE: TTM 2010, C/o Home
Ultimate World League 1992, #90Ultimate World League 1992, Promo
NOTES:
At long last! Pete Mandley was one of the largest whales left that I still needed for my World League sets. I had spied out a private signing of his, and after being one of the many victims of his 0% signing rate TTM and hours of fruitless research online, I jumped at the chance to be in this signing, especially at such an affordable rate.
The promoter was more than accommodating with me, after I realized I sent my cards to them too late. So the promoter gave me their address to where they were going so that I could 2 day express more cards to them. I sweated it out a little bit, but it all worked out in the end. I got Pete’s autograph on all my remaining set needs.
The Ultimate World League set had 3 set needs. The base set card and the promo card are side by side above. The front of the cards vary very little as the promo uses a full helmet logo in the vertical marquee. On the back the promo spells out W-O-R-L-D. These cards were passed out during games as promotionals for the league, and although they had low volume, they also held very little demand in the secondary market, making them essentially worthless.
Celebrating the game, the players, the cards, and the autographs for over 25 years.
