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.
Ozzie just keeps signing after all these years, and after getting him back in 2019, I thought I was done. Then I got hooked on all the set needs and realized all the cards I hadn’t gotten The Wiz on. I figured I might as well get the rest out there I could, biting my nails on the Whizzer White cards which while rare are still fairly common on the secondary market- just jacked up in price by opportunists. Although it took a bit longer than usual, the autographs were as advertised, knocking out these very final photographic cards.
Anthony Miller doesn’t sign TTM, so after not seeing anything for him since I got his autograph at a paid signing way back in…. 2015- I jumped at the chance to get him for a very affordable price on all my set needs that developed over the last few years. There might be one or two more in the late future but for right now I consider myself quite sated.
Most of the usual suspects are all here. The Fleer 1990 is very nice, and the ink was absorbed on the canvas quite nicely.
I think the 1989 Pro Set card was a featured photo on the Pro Set 1989 box somewhere. It was one of the lesser known error cards because eventually it was corrected. On the back of his card the stat line incorrectly states 14.8 as his TDs for 1988.
The Action Packed 1990 card also has an error that was uncorrected. In the blurb on the back of the card, Miller’s bio reads that he had 76 catches when he had 75.
I think it’s interesting that Miller’s Gameday card has an empty bleacher very close to him in the background. I suspect that this photo was taken at a training camp.
Fleer 1990, #311
Celebrating the game, the players, the cards, and the autographs for over 25 years.
