Tag Archives: Houston Oilers

College Football HoF, NFL

Steinkuhler, Dean

Card: ProSet 1990
Acquired: In Person 1991, Houston Oilers Training Camp
See also: http://n8d.flywheelsites.com/2011/steinkuhler-dean-2/

One of the most dominant and decorated linemen to come out of the University of Nebraska- Dean Steinkuhler won the Outland and Lombardi Trophies in 1983 playing at guard. His most notable moment for the Huskers was picking up a ‘fumblerooskie’ and rumbling in for a touchdown in the Orange Bowl.

The Houston Oilers made him the second overall choice of the 1984 draft where the team would kick Dean out to play right tackle, and along with Mike Munchak and Bruce Matthews, the trio would form the nucleus of a very good offensive line.  The Oilers started Steinkuhler immediately and he’d play 10 games before a knee injury ended his rookie season and scrub all of 1985.  Dean would make a triumphant return to the lineup by 1986, starting the whole season and 11 games into 1987 before he was shelved for the rest of the season. In 88 and 89 he’d start the full slate of games, but once again bad knees crept back up in 1990 limiting his production to 7 games.  The porous Astrodome turf had taken its toll on Dean, exposing a chink in the Oilers’ offensive armor. Dean retired after 1991, starting only 1 game that season, at the age of 30. I’d meet him at Houston Oilers Training Camp in his last season where he nicely stopped and signed this ProSet card. Over his career he played in 100 games and started 77.

Dean lives now in Syracuse, Nebraska where he runs a storage unit facility, operates a car wash and enjoys watching his sons follow in his footsteps into football.  Of Dean’s accomplishments was that he was named to the 3rd string All Century College Team and also had his number retired at Nebraska.

I sent off for his autograph on his Score 1990 and 1991 cards trying to get the autograph of some of the great Oilers I remembered in 2010 through the Mieselman list, and received a response a bit over a year later in November of 2011.

NFL

White, Lorenzo (2)

Cards: Stadium Club 1992, Playoff 1993
Acquired: TTM 2011, C/o Home
Sent: 6/28/10  Received: 8/1/11 (403 days)
Previous Post: Lorenzo White

Well you can’t look a gift horse in the mouth. I waited a bit over a year to hear a response from Lorenzo White from the Houston Oilers and Cleveland Browns before putting his post up finally giving up in late July. Nothing is so nice as to get an autograph TTM after you’ve truly given up on getting it back, so almost like clockwork postmarked on July 29th Lorenzo White signed 2 of 3 cards, (minus his awesome ProSet 1990 card) from Fort Lauderdale, Florida where he’s now a high school football coach.  I was happy and surprised to get this one back.

So as discussed previously, Topps was really stepping up their quality with their Stadium Club entry. It was so different than their starter base set, that it really helped them weather the trading card storm yet to come. Playoff was also a late entry to the market, with the cards made of an extremely light metal. The scan here does the expensive card no justice, but the quality and reflective shine really added to the quality of the brand. Combined with its minimal design, Playoff made a nice splash into the market and remains one of the survivors today- but have since abandoned the metal foil look on their cards.

As you can tell when comparing this to the other cards in this library, these are definitely autographed while the others are stamped.  Lorenzo is considered the greatest runningback in Michigan State history. He currently coaches high school football in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, He also has a son, Lorenzo White Jr. who is currently a defensive back at Central Michigan.

Here’s a highlight of Lorenzo at MSU:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RkC6l_6lmY&feature=related

 An interview with Lorenzo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLBz7Fp3S4Q

NFL

Richardson, John “Bucky”


Card: Star Pics 1992, SkyBox 1992, GameDay 1992, ProSet 1992.
Acquired: In Person, Houston Oilers Training Camp 1992. TTM 2011, C/o Home
Sent: 7/5    Received: 7/14   (9 days)

John “Bucky” Richardson was a scrappy quarterback from Texas A&M in the dying days of the Southwestern Conference who did almost as much damage with his legs as he did with his passing arm. He finished his career as the SWC All-time leading rusher for quarterbacks with 2095 yards, and just had a knack for winning, finishing with a 24-6-1 record,  2 SWC Championships and 2 bowl games victories, in the Cotton and the Holiday Bowl.

The Houston Oilers would make the surprising grab in the 8th round of the 1992 draft and take Bucky with the 220th pick. (Brad Johnson went 7 picks later to the Vikings, but as of this date, no member of the 1992 draft has been enshrined.)

An immediate fan favorite due to the proximity of A&M, Richardson unseated Houston 3rd string quarterback Reggie Slack for the position and rode the bench squarely behind Warren Moon and Cody Carlson. Bucky was a great athlete and with a ‘do it all’ mentality, even contributing on special teams for the Oilers. At training camp demand for his autograph even rivaled that of Warren Moon, but I would manage to get his autograph on this really nice Star Pics 1992 card.

After the Oilers collapsed again the playoffs in 1993, owner Bud Adams made good on his threats and dismantled the Oilers, starting by trading quarterback Warren Moon to Minnesota. With Moon gone, Carlson was the defacto starter to begin the 1994 season, but fans began clamoring for Richardson during the preseason after his memorable last second Herculaneum heroics against the Dallas Cowboys. Carlson’s career in the meantime took a bad turn and injuries sidelined him for the majority of the season, leaving the starting job firmly in the hands of 3rd year pro Richardson.

While fans were overjoyed hoping to see the same heroics from Bucky that they had seen during the preseason, he would not be given any luxury to learn on the job as the team completely collapsed. He’d step in throw for 203 yards and 3 touchdowns in an opening loss to the Colts,  but after misfires in the following weeks, Carlson stepped back in only briefly, before Richardson would split time with Billy Joe Tolliver for the remainder of 1994. Although Richardson was good as a change of pace quarterback, he finished with a 1-3 record as a starter for the team- with his lone victory coming in the 24-10 season finale win over the New York Jets.

With Jeff Fisher now in place as the Oilers coach, Richardson was allowed to leave via free agency at the conclusion of the season. The Dallas Cowboys signed Richardson in 1995, converting him to fullback but he would not see any playing time. He’d be on the move again in 1996 as Bucky signed with the Chiefs, ironically beating the Cowboys again in the preseason at quarterback. He’d finish his career sitting on the bench in Kansas City.

Since football Bucky has retired to Houston where he’s still remembered fondly by the A&M faithful for his playing days in the SWC. He also runs a water treatment facility and coaches little league football. I sent off for the Skybox, ProSet, and GameDay autographs last month, and received a response in under 10 days.

The GameDay card is an odd card with 4 players occupying the image. Of note this is probably the only card that exists for the trio of Davis, Dafney or Brown in their Oilers uniforms. Unfortunately none of them made the squad and Dafney and Davis would become journeymen, respectively at their positions. The ProSet 1992 Series 2 card is quite garish. Bad design, bad logo change, and don’t you think they could’ve gotten a photo of Bucky with his helmet on in action? -Unfortunately this is when ProSet really started cutting corners.  This Skybox one though is really nice, even though they sacrifice promoting the company on the card front. Exceptional framing, especially with Bucky silhouetted against the word “ROOKIE”. By far my favorite of the group, outside of the Star Pics offering.

G/Gs  16/4     Att  185    Comp  97     Yds  1257   Pct  52.5
Td   6    Int   6     Rat  71.4  |
Rush  33     Yds  225   Avg  6.8    Td 1    Lg 18