Tag Archives: proset 1991

NFL

Maryland, Russell (2)

Cards: Upper Deck 1991, Score Supplemental 1991, GameDay 1992, ProSet 1991, ProSet 1991 #1 Pick, ProSet 1992
Acquired: In Person 2020, Dallas Renegades v The Houston Roughnecks
See Also: Russell Maryland

So Russell was this Cowboy that I just got once or twice at Cowboys training camp as a kid and then that was it. The other players probably told him not to shell out too many autographs because we were there all the time (and they probably suspected us of selling them). Over the years I piled up some great cards of Russell. From his college ProSet card to his Gameday card, I had heard from time to time he did sign through a project that he was doing in Florida called Reading for Dragons or something like that, but didn’t want to take the chance of that being a bad lead, so I just held on to these cards. I never thought in my wildest imagination that 30 ish years later I’d get him at a Spring Football game in Dallas, but here we are!

The Cowboys pretty much jumped at the opportunity to embrace the XFL Renegades, loaning greats Everson Walls and Russell Maryland for the Renegades game against the Houston Roughnecks. As a Roughneck fan I was given a chance to attend the road game for free- so I seized upon the chance and drove to Dallas with these cards in tow. The Dallas front office put together a really nice pregame show. The Cowboys players did an interview and then afterwards signed autographs.

Russell was a really nice guy. He didn’t have any qualms with signing so many cards now. We chatted for a few minutes about those hot summers in Austin at training camp and how much fun he had. He was surprised that I knew about Reading for Dragons and told me that he only briefly did that and that the program was long gone. After signing Russell, with a wide and broad smile, pretty much surprisingly blended in with the crowd, so much so he got pulled aside when he entered the arena, to be wanded by arena staff.

NFL

Anderson, Ottis ‘OJ’ (3)

Cards: ProSet 1991 SBXXV, Score 1990 Ground Force, Topps 1990 1,000 Yard Club, Absolute Ink 2015
Acquired: TTM 2019, C/o Home.
TTM 2020, C/o Home
Sent: 11/18 Received: 11/30 (12 days)
Sent: 2/22 Received: 3/1 (7 days)
See Also: OJ Anderson, Ottis Anderson (2)
* Fee Enclosed

When I saw that there was a small spike in Ottis Anderson autographs, I had to pound these cards out the door as fast as I could. I had gotten him in the past, way back in 2010, and paid an exorbitant fee to secure the autographs. On top of that the autographs were not consistent card to card- which really upset me. Later I pulled a certified autograph of OJ’s which really made me feel better- however I realized after the fact, because I didn’t have a firm grasp on my inventory back then, that I missed out on a lot of great cards to get signed.

Among my favorites of this era were the Score 1990 Ground Force cards. This one of Ottis was released in their Series II set. It’s a nice little shot of him, and his white uniform pops off the dark background quite nicely.

The Topps 1990 card seemed to be the ubiquitous shot of Ottis running for 3 yards with 4 defenders on him. It’s a well framed shot, if not for the hot green and yellow used to stage the significance of the image.

Much later I picked up this Absolute Football Ink certified autograph. I meant to give it away as part of a promotion to some people who I know through my Facebook group, but I fell in love with the design of the card and decided to keep it.

Very clearly I still wanted to get Ottis’ autograph still on a few more cards. Among them was his Pro Set 1990 MVP Super Bowl XXV card. This card was not released in the 1990 set, rather it was a special insert into Pro Set 1991 Series II. While somewhat rare compared to the other cards in the set, because Pro Set in general was overprinted, there really wasn’t a shortage of this card- just of demand. I was not aware that it existed until last year, but had trouble finding it in the open market. Eventually one of the new friends I had made through a Facebook TTM group I help manage (Rick) nabbed a copy for me that I got signed.

No doubt, Ottis had many set needs I was still after, and all of these represented one in one fashion or another. Hopefully I am done, but when I initially sent it to him this time around, I forgot the donation. He returned the letter and cards, so I awkwardly put it in there with the cards and a note. He responded in no time flat, signing all 4.

NFL, Pro Football HoF

Munoz, Anthony (2)

Cards: GameDay 1992, Skybox 1992, Proset 1991
Acquired: TTM 2019, C.o Home
Sent: 12/2 Received: 12/14 (12 days)
See Also: Anthony Munoz

Anthony Munoz sometime during 2019 decided to let go of his very stringent signing policy which required fans to jump through the hoops and pay a fee in order to get his autograph. Surprisingly he was signing anything and everything with no fee. I decided to give him a shot again since I had some really nice cards I had always wanted to get his autograph on. I thought that 3 was a tall order, so I felt I needed something that’d really stick out among his autograph requests- so I wrote my entire letter in Spanish. There’s a first for everything, and while I didn’t get complimented for my syntax, I did get these 3 cards back autographed in a very short amount of time.

While Anthony had an outstanding ProSet and Action Packed entry, I decided to pass them up in order to get a few nice set needs. The ProSet 1991 card art card by Merv Corning is outstanding. The autograph looks very nice on the canvas- especially on the white. I’m sure he signs this card more than any other.

The other two cards are cards that I really liked the design of, and were sets that I collected near the end of my first collecting phase in 1992. The GameDay set I am particularly fond of, and this is a nice, unique card of Anthony. I really like how it shows his padded, gloved hands- something that has become more rare and rare over the years in the league. Skybox remained near the top there at the end for me , and when I can, I love to pick up an autograph here or there on one of them.

Sometime in 2020, Muñoz closed the door again on signing for free and without the acrimonious signing policy. As of this post he is back to asking for $25.00 per item.