Bob Perina was born on this day in 1921. After playing college football at Princeton, we went on to play five season in the NFL for five teams (New York Yankees, Brooklyn Dodgers, Chicago Rockets, Chicago Bears and Baltimore Colts).
After his playing career, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin School of Law. He served as a deputy district attorney before going into private practice. Perina passed away in 1971.
He was only pictured on one card, this 1950 Bowman. Cardboard Connection has this summary of the 1950 Bowman set: “Bowman decided not to issue a football set for 1949 as part of an agreement that allowed Leaf to have a monopoly on the market before leaving. As a result, they took over in 1950 as the dominant company when it came to featuring stars of the gridiron.
The design for the 1950 football set is very close to what Bowman used for baseball players that year. The fronts were very simple, yet striking, featuring a painted photo of a player surrounded by a white border. There were no other elements (name, team, logo, etc.) on the fronts at all. Most cards are positioned vertically, but a few are horizontally oriented. The backs are dominated by a written biography about the player’s career. His name appears in red ink at the top, followed by a few vital statistics. In the upper right corner is a Bowman five star logo, and a notation running along the bottom gives the card number and a copyright line.
With the World War II veterans who took advantage of the GI Bill coming out of college, there are several significant rookie stars appearing in the set. Otto Graham, Y.A. Tittle, Lou Groza, Tony Canadeo, Elroy Crazylegs Hirsch, Joe Perry and Marion Motley are some of the big-name players showing up on their first cards.
1950 Bowman had a numbering structure that allowed teammates to be clustered together in groups of two or three cards. In essence, they appeared together in each series. For example, Detroit was the first team in each series (cards #1, 37, 73 and 109) with two or three cards, and then they were followed by Chicago Bears. The set totaled 144 cards, issued in four 36-card printing sheets. There are no scarce series or variations.”
For my money, the 1950 Bowman cards are some of the most beautiful sports cards ever produced. Sports Collectors Daily ran a piece last month with the headline “1950 Bowman Football Set Meshed Well With NFL.”
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