Besides getting a variety of children’s books published he created, Ray has also been involved in the Spring football league scene. He served as an advisor at one point for the USFL. When writing him I went off on a giant tangent about Spring football and how important it is to me and these players. He kindly responded with a nice greeting card of his Darby the Dinosaur, and inside he wrote that he also enjoys watching Spring football as well.
Originally I sent Ray 3 cards, and included a Score 1991, forgetting that I had already acquired this as part of the Akron Acquisition back in 2011. I threw in his Topps card because Ray was one of the original players who dolled themselves up with the eye paint back in the day. His Pro Set 1990 photo is an extremely underrated action shot perfectly encapsulated on this card.
Gary Plummer played junior college ball before transferring over to Cal where he played NT.
After going undrafted in 1983, played for the Oakland Invaders of the USFL.
The Invaders decided Plummer’s best fit would be at LB- a position he’d play for the remainder of his pro career.
Gary played in 53 USFL contests over his career, lodging 2 sacks, and 6 picks.
Still, Gary was not selected during the 1984 USFL Supplemental Player Draft, so he’d be a free agent after the league folded following the ’85 season.
Signed by the San Diego Chargers, Gary quickly became a starter for the team, as he had strong versatility at the position.
Over his career in the league, Gary started nearly every LB position in 3-4 or 4-3 alignments.
He played the next 8 seasons there in SD, racking up 792 tackles.
At the grand old age of 35, he signed with the 49ers in 1995.
After winning a Super Bowl against his former team, Plummer went on to play for the ‘9ers through the 1997 season.
Action Packed 1990, #237Skybox 1992, #113
NOTES:
A member of Tecmo Super Bowl, with some great cards, I thought it was fine time to add Gary to my collection. He has a very nice autograph. I really like the unique curvature of his signature, especially the ‘G’. I appreciate him taking the time to sign my cards, with apparently a pretty fresh sharpie.
Well 2 out of 4 isn’t bad as it’s apparent that Albert is a big collector of his own cards. He kept his Score 1989 and Action Packed 1991 that I sent him, but I still got these two nice autographs back on his Fleer 1990 Update and his Skybox 1992.
He also refuses to sign his Gameday 1992- claiming that it isn’t him. -And I mean with good reason, as he was cut by the Colts before he even played that season and later on joined the Steelers. Now I can confirm that Gameday, like other card makers was engaged in the quiet, slick practice of using old player photos for current cards because they just looked good, so it’s entirely possible that they did get a good shot of him from a few years prior so that they could include him in the set with the Colts uniform on.
Celebrating the game, the players, the cards, and the autographs for over 25 years.
