Tag Archives: proset 1990

AFL, College Football HoF, NFL, Pro Football HoF

Griese, Bob

Card: Pro Set 1990
Acquired: TTM 2012, C/o Home
Sent: 2/22     Received: 12/8   (290 days)

At 290 days, -a wait well worth it I’d say, as another HoF headliner joins the club, in the name of Bob Griese.  I had given up on Bob, and when I got the envelope back I must admit that I was surprised and pleased with his response. Bob had an impressive career at Purdue for the Boilermakers playing football, basketball, and baseball. He’d play quarterback for the Boilermakers from 1963-1966. It wasn’t until his Sophomore season in 1964 that Bob took the reins and start as the team’s quarterback, punter, and kicker.  In 1965 he led Purdue to a 25-21 upset of #1 ranked Notre Dame. As a starter he’d post a 22-7-1 record. In his senior season, Griese led the team to a Rose Bowl victory over USC 14-13 in what is considered the school’s signature victory. Bob was a smart QB and what he couldn’t do with his arm, he’d frequently do with his legs. His final numbers set precedence for the school’s modern era quarterbacks such as Jim Everett and Drew Brees to break.

Griese was drafted in the first round of the 1967 AFL draft by the Miami Dolphins.  He’d have 15 TDs passing,  2005 yards, and 157 yards rushing his rookie season- good enough to earn All-Star Honors, despite starting the season originally on the bench, and for an expansion franchise. He’d grab All-Star honors the next season as well with 21 TD passes. Still, the team continued to struggle with winning, and Griese was becoming known as a good quarterback on a bad team. Don Shula was brought in to coach the team in 1970, and Griese guided the team to a 10-4 record. At the conclusion of the season, Bob was named MVP of the league, but the team fell in Super Bowl VI against the Dallas Cowboys. The Dolphins came back with a vengeance the next season, and steamrolled opponents in 1972, going 14-0. While Earl Morral came in to replace Griese during the season due to injury, the team returned to Bob in the playoffs to help them win the Super Bowl. Griese capped off Super Bowl VIII as well with a victory over the Minnesota Vikings.  By 1977 Bob began wearing those iconic black rimmed glasses on the field, but new powers began to rise in the AFC in the Central division, with the indomitable Steel Curtain in Pittsburgh and the Houston Oilers ground game led by Earl Campbell. While Griese continued to post good numbers and the Dolphins posted solid records, they wouldn’t return to the Super Bowl again.  After the 1980 season, Griese retired. The Dolphins had David Woodley waiting in the wings, and he’d guide the team to another Super Bowl loss, before Dan Marino took the reins in 1983 and rewrote all the record books for the franchise.

Griese kept close to the game and did color commentary for many years at the college level. He also handled color for the Dolphins’ preseason games as well. He’s enjoying now full retirement, in Florida and was inducted into the Pro Football HoF in 1990, the College Football HoF in 1984, the Dolphins Honor Roll, and had his number retired by the franchise as well.

G/Gs 161/151     Att 3429     Comp 1926         Yds 25092      Pct 56.2%      
Td  192   Int 172    Rat 77.3  |

Rush 261   Yds 994    Avg  3.8     Td 7     Lg 35

NFL

Hampton, Rodney

Cards: Score Supplemental 1990, Action Packed Rookies 1990, Action Packed 1991, Proset 1990
Acquired: In Person, 6/11/2012 Houston Fan Fest III
Failure: TTM, C/o Home 2010

Now I was absolutely giddy to get Rodney Hampton at Fan Fest.  I had just found a new address for him and was ready to drop $20 to get a few autographs from him TTM, but while I was preparing cards to be sent out in May, I saw an update to Fan Fest that had him included on the guest list and decided to get him in person instead. Again, Hampton marks another member of the Action Packed 1990 Rookies set that I am trying to complete out as thoroughly as possible, but in general he just had some great cards to get autographed from his rookie season, and I beat that dead horse to death going back a second time for 2 more autographs. Talking to him and the Ruben Studdard clone that was sitting next to him, I recalled his rookie season and how I had used him in the stone ages of Fantasy Football to wallop a friend.  Hampton had an incredible preseason game his rookie year and dismantled the Bills, breaking off some monster runs. I picked him up for the regular season contest and he didn’t disappoint rushing for a bit over 100 yards against them. I really enjoyed meeting him, and also had been talking to him through Sotl.com until they changed the format of the site.

Hampton was a member of the much ballyhooed runningback class of 1990. Among the group was Blair Thomas, Emmitt Smith, Darrell Thompson, and Steve Broussard, – all taken in the first round before the Giants selected Rodney with the 24th pick,  who needed a set of fresh legs to spot aging Ottis Anderson.  (There would be over 40 runningbacks taken in the 1990 NFL Draft.)

Rodney followed in the footsteps of guys like Herschel Walker at Georgia, and finished with 2,661 yards over 31 games for the Bulldogs, good enough for 2nd All-Time in the school annuls.  In 1987, he set a Georgia record with a whalloping 7.06 yard per carry average.

Hampton’s rookie season showed flashes of potential as he electrified the crowd taking his first carry of the preseason 89 yards against the Bills for a touchdown. I remember it, and it was one of the most impressionable carries I ever saw. Behind Ottis, Hampton played sparingly in 1990, registering a modest 455 yards rushing, 32 receptions, and playing sparingly on special teams.  After the season the Giants won SuperBowl XXV against the Bills. 1991 started a string of 5 straight 1000+ yard seasons, while the team went through transitions at both quarterback and fullback. In 1992 and 1993, Rodney got his due with Pro Bowl nominations as the team’s workhorse back. A consistent and thorough runner, Rodney played for the Giants through 1997 when injury sidelined him for all of 14 games of the season. With the signing of Gary Brown, Hampton essentially passed the torch to the team’s new runningback star, Tiki Barker. He would be a free agent and both the Cowboys and Cardinals expressed interest in him, but Rodney opted to retire instead.  At the time of his retirement, Hampton was the team’s All-Time leading rusher, but has since been surpassed.

One has to wonder how the record books would be written today if the Cowboys had taken Hampton over Emmitt Smith, as after the smoke cleared, Hampton emerged as the only back to challenge Smith from the 1990 draft pool.  In 8 seasons for the Giants, Rodney rushed for 6,897 yards and 49 scores.

Hampton at this time is heavily involved in after school and summer athletic camps for kids which are run in Houston, Atlanta, and Newark. You can visit Hamp’s Camp Inc at: www.hampscamp.com. He is also partnered with Player Protect- a company that employs police officers as escorts for NFL players. As quite the entrepeneur, Hampton is also an endorser of fitness equipment, charity events, strength and conditioning, and orthopedic surgeons. Rodney also remains an ardent supporter of Big Blue as a Giants Ambassador.

 
Absolutely love these cards. I am not sure when he started the practice, but for two of these you can see that Hampton, who loved
running through defenders, double cluched the ball.  In a bit under 2000 touches (rushing/receiving) Hampton only fumbled 18 times- a reliable and remarkably low .9 %.  Rodney was a dynamo in Tecmo Super Bowl on the Nintendo. I loved eating up the clock when I played against Josh, and Hampton was a monster for that. In Tecmo Super Bowl MI, Rodney rushed 10 times for 116 yards and 2 touchdowns. He also had 2 receptions for 32 yards and a 3rd TD to stomp the hated Cowboys 32-26.

 

G/Gs 104/85      Rush 1824     Yds 6897      Avg  3.8     Td 49     Lg 63t |
Rec 174      Yds 1309       Avg 7.5    Td 2   lg 62

NFL, ufl

Glanville, Jerry

Cards: ProSet 1989, ProSet 1990, ProSet 1991
Acquired: TTM 2012, C/o Home
Sent:  2/19     Received: 2/25  (6 days)
See Also: Houston Oilers Official Autograph Souvenir 

Jerry Glanville certainly has earned a reputation for being controversial- from wearing all black at football games, getting bit by a rattlesnake before a game, to leaving tickets at the will call ticket booth for Elvis. Its these antics that earned Glanville a reputation in the media over his accomplishments as a coach primarily for the Houston Oilers and Atlanta Falcons.

After his college career as a linebacker ended at Western Kentucky, Jerry became a graduate assistant at the school alongside Joe Bugel. By 1974 the enigmatic Glanville had worked his way into the professional ranks with the Detroit Lions as an assistant coach. He’d join the Falcons as an assistant in 1978, and be promoted to defensive coordinator in 1979. He’d help the team win its first NFC West Division Title in 1980 behind strong defensive play, and remain with the franchise through 1982. Glanville briefly joined the Bills in 1983, before heading over to the Oilers to become their defensive coordinator in 1984. With the dismissal of Hugh Campbell after the 1985 season, Glanville secured the head coaching job from owner Bud Adams, and vowed to return the Oilers to glory- something they hadn’t seen since the Luv Ya’ Blu Era and Bum Phillips.

After a slow start in 1986, Glanville’s team began delivering on those promises in 1987. The team rolled to a 10-6 record and second place in the contentious AFC Central and advanced to the Divisional Round after beating the Seahawks in an overtime Wild Card contest. They’d get spanked by Denver. The Central at the time consisted of Marty Schottenheimer in Cleveland, Chuck Noll in Pittsburgh, Sam Wyche in Cincinatti and Jerry in Houston. The Oilers had been a disrespected doormat since the early 80s, but under Jerry’s leadership they transformed into a mean and dirty team. The Oilers gambling defense and special teams became the hallmark of the franchise and the Astrodome became known to other teams as: The House of Pain. The Oilers quickly became upstarts, and were rivals of every team in the division. Infamously after being skewered by the Oilers at the Astrodome, Noll approached Glanville at mid-field after the game and accused him of being dirty. Wyche and Glanville traded punches running up the score on each other’s home contests. The Oilers were also known as a ruthless home team, but a paper tiger on the road- that got in trouble making stupid penalties and errors.

Glanville also had a flare for implementing college style offenses, forcing Warren Moon to run the option, and quietly implementing portions of the Run ‘N Shoot offense, calling it the “Red Gun”. Glanville returned the Oilers to the playoffs in 1988, and again the Oilers came on late to beat the Browns in a snowy nail-biter at Cleveleand 24-23 advancing to the Divisional Round. Again the Oilers were beaten- this time by Buffalo. By 1989, Glanville’s schtick was beginning to wear, and the Oilers, were the prime losers in Plan B as many future players and stars left for greener pastures. Among the bigger names to leave during the Glanville years were offensive lineman John Davis and special teams demon Steve Tasker leaving for Buffalo, safety Keith Bostic heading for Indianapolis, and TE Jamie Williams headed for San Fransisco. Eventually this took a heavy toll on the Oilers’ depth. They’d scrape up enough elbow grease to enter the playoffs in 1989 and 9-7 but be bounced in the first round after losing an embarrassing contest to the Steelers. During the game, Jerry would kick an onside to Pittsburgh to show them how much he disrespected their offense. It only served to backfire in his face. It would be the end of the road for Jerry in Houston. Unable to get past the Divisional Round of the playoffs, Bud Adams demanded Glanville’s resignation after the season. It was sudden and unexpected for somebody who had guided the team out of the cellar of a hotly contested division and into the playoffs 3 straight seasons.  A tearful farewell by Glanville, only proved to be what amounted to crocodile tears between the two, as Glanville was quickly snatched up by Atlanta, while Houston went with the opposite of Jerry in Jack Pardee.

It appeared that Jerry was going to have the final laugh against Houston at first. He drubbed the Oilers 47-27  in his debut and then gave the gameball to SMU (-a team that had been trounced by Pardee’s Houston Cougars a year before 95-21). The Falcons embraced Jerry’s persona going so far as welcoming the franchise back to its black uniform roots. A full-time commitment to the Red Gun offense saw the transformation of Chris Miller into an All Pro quarterback, and the fleecing of the Colts in the Jeff George trade allowed the Falcons to get offensive tackle Chris Hinton and budding wide receiver Andre Rison from Indianapolis, in addition to a bevvy of draft choices.  He’d also sign cast off Oilers, grabbing Mike Rozier and Robert Lyles in 1990, and Drew Hill in 1991 via free agency. After a 5-11 mark in 1990, Jerry helped Atlanta return to the playoffs for the first time in roughly 10 years after the 1991 season posting a 10-6 record. The Falcons also played close to the fire like the Oilers, with an aggressive 3-4 defense, great special teams, and a bad attitude, but after taking a step back in 1992 and 1993 with duplicate 5-11 records, Glanville’s tenure in Atlanta would be up. He’d be replaced by his personal friend June Jones-which would initially chide Glanville.  Jerry was a notorious ‘doghouser’ and if you didn’t play the way he wanted, you were either cut, traded, or even worse- sat on the bench.  During his tenure in Atlanta, Glanville had the distinction of getting rid of not one, but two future Hall of Famers in the beginning of their careers. Brett Farve was be traded to the Packers for John Stephens, and future CFL HoFer Mike Pringle was cut but found greater glory in the CFL as their career leading rusher.

Glanville spent extensive time in the studio as an NFL broadcaster, a stock car racing owner, and then returned to college football in 2005 rekindling his friendship with June Jones at Hawaii. After 2 seasons there as the defensive coordinator, Jerry brought his style to Portland State to coach the Vikings, but after a dismal tenure there from 2007-2009, Jerry was dismissed. In 2010, the UFL hired Jerry Glanville to coach the Hartford Colonials. Assembling an impressive staff and then rallying fans, Glanville couldn’t understand why the UFL couldn’t work. Then the UFL ‘suspended’ the Colonials before they even took the field. Jerry was not without a job. The league reassigned him to color commentating games, and helping the league find new locations to play at. Glanville did not answer my question about if the UFL had folded.

Jerry Glanville was a character I grew up with. I really liked him. I just thought that his mouth and attitude got him in a lot of trouble with other teams and the media. While he’d always have something smart to say, he was always a target. I remember being very upset that the Oilers fired him- especially since he had guided the team to the playoffs those previous seasons. When people talk about the attitude of Rex Ryan, I always tell people he was nothing compared to the bravado that is Jerry Glanville.

W 63  L  73   Pct .463