Tag Archives: oakland raiders

AFL, College Football HoF, NFL, usfl, WLAF

Gabriel, Roman (1940-2024)

Cards: ProSet WLAF 1991, ProSet WLAF Helmet 1991, ProSet 1991, UD Legends 2005
Acquired:  TTM 2011, C/o RG Enterprises
Sent: 11/9     Received:  11/23  (14  days)

Embarrassingly I am a fan who grew up after the Roman Gabriel era, and my memories of him is neither as quarterback of the Los Angeles Rams or Philadelphia Eagles, but rather as head coach of the woeful Raleigh-Durham Skyhawks from the WLAF circa 1991.

These were the only cards I had in my collection of him, and after being informed of his stiff signing fee of $10 per signature, I waited sometime before contacting him a second time for an autograph. He kindly enclosed an Upper Deck legends card from 2005 as well, and thanked me for writing.

An all-around athlete for NC State, Roman Gabriel was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in 1962 as the second overall pick. (He was also chosen in the AFL draft by the Oakland Raiders.) Choosing to sign with the Rams, Gabriel went on to become one of the most successful Asian-Americans in American Football (Philipino). Once he was made the starting quarterback in 1966 he went on to rewrite many of the passing records for the Rams franchise.  

After flirting with the AFL and signing with the Raiders,  Roman decided to stay put with the signing of head coach George Allen. His patience was rewarded, as Gabriel went on to be named the NFL’s MVP in 1969.

As knee and shoulder injuries began to take their toll on Gabriel, he’d be traded to the Philadelphia Eagles in 1973 and help right the ship of the woeful Eagles franchise and earn Comeback Player of the Year Honors.

Over the last few seasons he’d play sparingly as a backup quarterback until his retirement after the 1977 season. Gabriel’s strongest attributes as a QB were his powerful arm and his excellent decision making abilities. He’d finish his career with an 84-67-7 record.

Roman (post playing days) remained active in sports and dabbled in acting. Besides owning some car dealerships, he worked as a color commentator and served as a head coach.

In this capacity among his notable stops were that Gabriel was head coach at Cal Poly Ponoma, offensive coordinator of the USFL Boston Breakers in 1983,  quarterbacks coach of the Arizona Wranglers in 1984, and finally at his gruesome stop as first- general manager and then finally as head coach of the WLAF Raleigh-Durham Skyhawks.

Unfortunately things didn’t work out for Gabriel the way he had hoped as the Skyhawks finished 0-10 in their only season in the league.  From then he diversified his interests and was deeply committed to charitable causes.

He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1989, and the Hall of Very Good in 2015.

Roman was a voracious signing up until his final days, and I had just finished putting a letter together for another request.

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EPITAPH:

4/20/2024- Roman Gabriel passed away peacefully at the age of 83, of natural causes.

NFL

Townsend, Greg (2)



Cards: Fleer 1990, SkyBox 1992, Pacific 1992
Acquired: In Person 2011, @ “Raider Image” 8/27 (signing fee)
Previous Posting:  http://n8d.flywheelsites.com/2010/townsend-greg/

Thanks to my autograph colleague Edgar over at myautographsignings.com for the tip on this one -as I had been really baffled as to the lack of autograph signings locally by players. I found out that Greg was appearing  at the local “Raider Image” in Montebello Mall a few weeks back and I had hoped to have caught him at Ontario instead, but was busy that week with family. On a hot August day we trekked to the mall to see him. Cards and photos with Greg were reasonably priced at 5.00 a piece, so I dropped a 20 and grabbed 3 cards and a photo. I talked to Greg for a bit where he told me that the blocker he had the most trouble with was Lomas Brown (Lions) who with his long wingspan kept him regularly at bay. He comically remarked about that it seemed that many of the best blocking offensive linemen all had the last name Brown.

After talking at lengths with him I offered my remaining cards for him to keep. He glowed when he looked at the cards. He remembered the Upper Deck 1991 Team MVP card specifically- because of what he had to do to get to Chicago Bears quarterback Jim Harbaugh who he posthumously suplexed. Townsend also mentioned how he specifically loved the Action Packed cards because of the embossed profile and edges.  I had this photo below in mind to take with Greg. Always great with fans, he was more than happy to accommodate me with a manly arm clasp which really got the crowd going.

NFL, WLAF

Graham, Jeff

Card: ProSet WLAF 1991
Acquired: TTM 2011, C/o Work
Sent: 7/20  Received: 7/27  (7 days)

At the time of his graduation from Cal State -Long Beach in 1989, quarterback Jeff Graham owned virtually all of the 49ers passing records with 8080 passing yards and 42 touchdown passes, along with a school single game 515 yards passing.  During the 1989 draft, Jeff would be taken by the Green Bay Packers in the 4th round.  He’d return in 1990 to finish his degree in criminology from his Alma Mater.
Scouring the free agent waiver wire for a quarterback to back up Todd Hammel in New York, the Knights would sign Jeff with just 10 days for him to prepare for the regular season. Graham, much like Stan Gelbaugh in London would come off the bench in game one and not relinquish the starting job for the remainder of the season. What was more amazing was the fact that Graham did this while constantly under fire suffering 62 sacks in only 10 games. (Prorated over an entire 16 game schedule, that would have been roughly 90 sacks.) In the end, Graham still posted an impressive season with 2407 yards and 8 touchdowns, while setting a league record with 414 passing yards against Montreal.  Jeff’s gaudy 15.3 YPC and 8.9 YPA would also lead the WLAF while he rushed for 6 touchdowns.  He would not return to the Knights for 1992, with Reggie Slack and Brent Pease in camp.

Graham signed with the Chargers in 1991, Seahawks 1992-1994, and Oakland in 1995, as an emergency quarterback. He would see no regular season playing time for any of the franchises and retire after his stint with the Raiders. Since that time Jeff returned to college earning his masters at Colorado State. In 2006, Graham was inducted into the California State Long Beach Hall of Fame and is currently practicing law in the LA area. Below are his WLAF statistics.

G 9/10    Att 272  Comp 157   Yds 2407   Pct 57.7    Td 8   Int 8   Rat 84.6  |
Rush 46   Yds 140   Avg 3.0   Td 6   Lg 24