Tag Archives: ttm autograph

NFL

McGee, Buford

flr90 mcgeeCards: Fleer 1990, Score 1991, Fleer 1991
Acquired: TTM 2015, C/o Home
Sent: 4/13     Received: 4/22  (9 days)

Ah, Buford McGee. A great find from the grand old days of the 80’s and 90’s NFL Gridiron. A true team player, McGee was just happy to be there. Buford was one of these guys who was a hard nosed fullback.  A rare 5 year college player, he played for the Mississippi Rebels from 1979 to 1983.  During his Senior season, he rushed for 580 yards and 7 touchdowns on 141 carries. Buford ran for 1446 yards on 345 carries, and 13 TDs over his career at Mississippi.  He also displayed nice touch catching the ball out of the backfield 112 times for 856 yards and 4 more TDs.

flr91 mcgeeBuford snuck into the 1984 NFL draft as the 286th player taken in the 11th round, by the San Diego Chargers.  Buried on the depth chart behind Earnest Jackson, Lionel James, and Chuck Muncie- McGee displayed the willingness to do what others would not do, and developed a knack for being a powerful blocker.  He’d not only make the squad and contribute on special teams, he also ran for 226 yards and 4 TDs. The Chargers continued to get great value for McGee, especially during 1986 when he rushed for a career high 7 touchdowns.  With offensive coordinator Ernie Zampese leaving the Chargers for the LA Rams in 1987, Buford was not far behind. He’d be traded to them in exchange for two draft choices and runningback Barry Redden.

sco91 mcgeeAlthough injuries caught up with McGee derailing parts of his 85, 86, and 87 seasons, he continued to contribute to the Rams offense in whatever capacity he could. In 1990 he had a career high 234 yards on 44 carries, and caught 47 balls for 388 yards. The LA Rams named Buford their 1990 MVP.  After the 1991 season, head coach John Robinson was relieved of his duties, and going for a more ground oriented approach, new head coach Chuck Knox cut Buford in May of 1992. McGee made one final stop in Green Bay. He’d suit up for the Packers for that last season where he started 3 games.

Retired, he now lives in East Texas. I was really happy to get the former Ram on these cards. Buford was never really appreciated for his contributions to the pro game by the fan at large, but coaches far and wide appreciate what he did for all those teams he so unselfishly played for. McGee is also a member of the 1991 Los Angeles Rams Tecmo Super Bowl team.

G/Gs   107/50     Rush 289     Yds  1086    Avg 3.8     Td 17     Lg 44   |
Rec  155     Yds 1264      Avg  8.2     Lg 43    Td  13
KR 23    Yds  465    Avg  20.2     Lg 35    Td  0
Att  3     Comp  3     Yds 24      Td 1     Int 0      Rat 139.6

CFL, NFL, WLAF

Smith, Irvin ‘Irv’

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Cards: Ultimate WLAF 1992, Wild Card WLAF 1992, JOGO 1994, JOGO 1995, JOGO 1997, JOGO 1999, JOGO 2000, JOGO 2001.
Acquired:  TTM 2014, C/o Home
Sent:    2/9       Received: 3/13   (31 days)

Irvin Smith played collegiality for Maryland from 1985 to 1988. Unable to make it on the roster of the Jets, Irvin joined the London Monarchs of the WLAF in 1991. There he made 2 picks for 8 yards as the team finished with a 9-1 record as a talented defense shut down the Dragons in jogo94 ismithWorld Bowl jogo95 ismithI 21-7.

After a short stint on the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the CFL, Smith returned to the Monarchs in 1992.  Although the team did not meet the same success from the previous season, Irv stepped up and recorded another 2 interceptions that season.
The league restructured after the season, so Irvin took his talents back to the CFL settling on the Saskatchewan Roughriders.  In 1993 he returned to the NFL and was on the roster of both the Redskins and Vikings.

jogo97 ismithjogo99 ismithThe CFL had been eyeing the US market for a long time, so in 1994 they decided to expand
southward, selecting locations such as Las Vegas, Sacramento, Baltimore, and Shreveport. Irv signed with the Baltimore Colts (later CFLers/Stallions). He made an immediate impact in Don Matthews defense, pulling down 6 interceptions for 97 yards where the Stallions made their first appearance in the Grey Cup. Although the team lost to the BC Lions, Irvin and the Stallions won the Grey Cup the following season and Smith had established quite a reputation as a dangerous defender to pass against. As the CFL contracted due to jogo01 ismithjogo00 ismithfinancial issues and the NFL gave Baltimore the Ravens, the Stallions moved up to Montreal and became the Alouettes in 1996.

Irvin at first didn’t feel like making the move, but went ahead and joined the franchise in Montreal. It’d be a new chapter in Smith’s career, and a very productive one at that with 6 interceptions for 105 yards and a TD in ’96. He’d follow it up with two back to back 3 interception season in 1997 and 1998.  Smith had his finest season in 1999, hawking 7 interceptions for 51 yards and a touchdown. Irvin played for 2 additional years in Montreal, retiring after the 2001 season.

Smith returned to the Baltimore area where he lives today and is a firefighter. I had been trying to track Smith down for sometime finally locating his address through the White pages. After sending to the address I found in Maryland, I got an RTS with a forwarding address in Florida. I turned it around and sent it to the other address the next day. About a month later I got this stuffed envelope full of cards and a nice letter from Irvin. I had only sent Smith his 2 WLAF cards, but he stuffed it with all his JOGO cards and a nice letter.

 

WLAF    Tac N/a   Sac N/a   Fum N/a
Int 4     Yds 23     Avg 5.8     TD 0    Lg 15

CFL   Tac 329     Sac 1.0      Fum 10
Int 31    Yds 352     Avg 11.4      Td 2      Lg 54

NFL

Williams, Calvin

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Cards:  Score Supplemental 1990, Upper Deck 1992
Acquired: TTM 2011, 2015-  C/o Home, C/o Purdue
Sent:  11/8/11  Received: 3/19/15    (1227 days)
Sent: 3/16/15   Received: 3/26/15    (10 days)

The Eagles passing attack during the late 80s was crippled by the declining durability of wide receiver Mike Quick, and the departure of Cris Carter, so they moved to address it. To do so, Philadelphia aggressively went after receivers during the 1990 draft. In addition to selecting Mike Bellamy in round two, and Fred Barnett in round three, the Eagles swooped back in round five and picked Calvin Williams. Williams had one of the better combines that year, and fought had to win a spot in training camp. He performed so well, that he took over Carter’s former starting spot, and set an Eagles rookie record with 9 receiving touchdowns.  His 37 receptions for 602 yards contributed to him earning All-Rookie Honors at the end of the season. A solid redzone threat throughout much of the early part of his career, Calvin again led the Eagles in TDs in both 1992 (7 TDs) and 1993 (10 TDs- a career high).  In 1995, he had a career high 63 receptions and later joined the Baltimore Ravens during the 1996 season.

I spoke to Calvin back in 2011 via SotL (School of the Legends). Back then, SotL billed itself as an online community for fans to talk to, and get advice from NFL players. I had begun to build a reputation on the site as a knowledgeable fan, and began to send out TTM to some of those players. Over those months I had a few conversations with Calvin and decided to shoot a few cards out.

Shortly after declaring a new long wait response, Calvin Williams blows that one out of the water by nearly 3 years. Williams has built an interesting reputation within the TTM community. Not only is Calvin a sporadic signer, he signs only one card, keeps the rest, and frequently switches out the card he sends back with other people who have previously sent requests.  The Score Supplemental was the only card that I sent out back in 2011 that made it back. I was happy with that. In the meantime before that one came back I had sent out a second attempt, but he switched out the Action Packed Rookies 1990 and the GameDay 1992 cards with this – Upper Deck 1992 card. Oh well, still a success in my book.

Calvin was among the leading plaintiffs who sued the NFL and helmet makers for concussion and head related injuries in 2011.  He’s been involved in physical education for quite a few years, and is currently on the Purdue Boilermakers staff.

G/Gs 100/85     Rec 308     Yds 3925    Avg 12.7     Td 35    Lg 80t