Tag Archives: jacksonville jaguars expansion draft

Arena, NFL, WLAF

Tucker, Mark ‘Rebel’

Card: Wild Card World League 1992
Acquired: TTM 2020, C/o Work
Sent: 9/16 Received: 10/8 (22 days)

A four-year starter at right guard for USC from 1987 to 1990, Mark Tucker was selected in the 7th round of the 91 NFL Draft by the Atlanta Falcons spending most of the year on the practice squad. The next year he joined the Colts in a similar capacity and then was allocated to the Frankfurt Galaxy of the World League where he spent a season with the squad in 1992.

After the World League reorganized, Mark joined the Arizona Cardinals, playing for them the next two seasons (1993-1994). In the meantime, Mark moonlighted on ‘American Gladiators’ as an injury replacement gladiator named ‘Rebel’. His interesting career journey continued from there spending a season with the Jacksonville Jaguars as an expansion selection in 95. With the following season under his belt with the New Orleans Saints in 96, Tucker decided to take his talents to the Arena Football League, playing for the Arizona Rattlers. He experienced his best football years with the franchise, and played from 1997 to 2006 with the squad.

Mark quickly jumped into coaching offensive and defensive lines for the Rattlers, and then later the New Orleans Voodoo. He moved to the high school ranks, where he has become an acclaimed position coach over the last 20 years.

Arena, NFL

Clark, Vince ‘Vinnie’

Cards: Action Packed Rookies 1991, Star Pics 1991, GameDay 1992
Acquired: TTM 2016, C/o Home
Sent:  8/6/16   Received:  10/25/18      (810 days)

Vinnie Clark was a member of The Ohio State University from 1988 to 1990. He impressed peers in 1990 when he posted 51 tackles, 3 fumble recoveries, and 6interceptions for 51 yards- which led the Big 10 Conference.  An athletic cornerback with sub 4.35 speed, Vinnie was the 19th player selected overall in 1991 by the Green Bay Packers. 

Vinnie played for the Packers from 1991 to 1992. During his time with the Pack, he recorded 15 starts, 4 interceptions, and 68 combined tackles. He joined the Falcons in 1993, and then late in 1994 joined the New Orleans Saints. This turned out oddly to be his best season as a pro, as he had 5 interceptions for 149 yards, 2 forced fumbles, and 73 total tackles.

Clark was selected by the expansion Jacksonville Jaguars in 1995. He’d start every game for the franchise, and record the first interception in the history of the franchise (albeit in the preseason). He’d finish 1995 with 1 interception and 66 tackles. He’d be released 4 games into 1996 and retire. 

He’s done a lot of coaching since then, briefly popping up in the Arena league coaching for the Columbus Destroyers. Vinnie is doing well currently as of this post, and is coaching High School Football in Ohio.

Well an obvious set need with the Action Packed 1991 Rookies card, but the GameDay 1992 and the Star Pics cards also found a home close to my heart. Vinnie had a lot of cards to choose from, and these really stood out to me. The Star Pics one just had this garish 1990s feel to it with the montage of footballs in the background/ His uniform with the oversized pads and numbers felt encompassing of the era. Vinnie’s GameDay card is an outstanding action entry. I really like how his whole body is squashed down into the canvas area and compliments the design quite nicely.

I saw a lot of successes for Vinnie fly by while I waited patiently for these cards to return. I had given up on them after a year or so, but Clark must have finally reached the bottom of his mail bag with my cards down there and decided to sign them after a scant 810 days.

G/GSTACSACFUMINTYDSAVGTDLG
83/592800.031333525.7074
NFL

Chung, Eugene (2)

Card: Action Packed Rookies 1992
Acquired: 2017, Trade
See Also: Eugene Chung

Eugene since his playing days has slowly edged into coaching throughout the pro tree working with current Eagles head coach Doug Pederson, and also respectable offensive line coaches Juan Castillo and Howard Mudd .  From 2010-2012 his title with the Eagles was Assistant Offensive Line Coach. He served in the same capacity with the Chiefs from 2013-2015.  Afterwards Chung rejoined the Eagles under Pederson and now serves as the Assistant Offensive Line Coach/ Tight Ends/ Run Game Coach.

I had considered sending out this card to Eugene for sometime as I needed it for the set, but something else always came up. D-Rock, a respectable collector from Sportscollectors.net remembered that I was an Action Packed fan from years ago, and out of the blue offered to send me one for free. He said that the person who originally got the autograph was going to throw it out because there was a slight smear. (That’s just terrible.) We both agreed that it’d be something that we’d add to our collections regardless. It just so happened that he also wanted one of the Hart Lee Dykes autographs I got. The cards that were returned to me were not mine and I wasn’t particularly attached to the Upper Deck 1991 (it’s a terrible photo) so I offered to send it in exchange for Eugene’s autograph. It meant a lot to me that he remembered me and I was glad to trade him this card he needed for his set as well.