1972 Topps Football Cards

Product Details

The 1972 Topps Football card set would be the first and only time that a football card set was issued in three series. However, the decision to include a third series seems to have been made at the last minute. There were no checklists for the new series as there had been in previous years, and the final series has long been a very scarce issue. In the end, the set contained 351 cards, which made it the largest football card set ever released up until that time.

The key rookie cards of the 1972 Topps set belongs to Roger Staubach (#200) and John Riggins (#13). Other notable rookies include Archie Manning (#55), Lyle Alzado (#106), L.C. Greenwood (#101), Charlie Joyner (#244), Gene Upshaw (#186), Emmitt Thomas (#157), Larry Little (#240), Rayfield Wright (#316), Ron Yary (#104), Ted Hendricks (#93), Jim Plunkett (#65) and Steve Spurrier (#291). One of the more elusive and expensive cards in the set is Joe Namath's Pro Action card, which is part of the third series.

For the first time in several years, the 1972 Topps Football card release was produced with subsets including:

• Conference Leaders - #1-8
• Playoffs - #133-139
• All-Pro - #264-287
• Pro Action - #119-132, #250-263, #338-351

Design

Measuring 2-1/2 by 3-1/2 inches, the cards feature both a horizontal and vertical layout. The card fronts showcase a very basic design in comparison to previous years' sets. There are no banners or cartoons, or even team-specific logos, just square shapes and block lettering. The cards include a player picture, with his name and position towards the bottom of the picture and superimposed over the image. The team name is shown at the top of the card inside a box that frames the picture. Each team has its own distinct color scheme. A white border surrounds the entire card. The backs of the cards feature the player's name, position and team arranged across the top and the rest of the card broken into two sections. On the left are vital stats and a cartoon about the player, along with a circle containing the card number. The right side features a biography and year-by-year statistics for most players.

Printing and Distribution

Originally, it appears Topps went with the same 132-cards series format it had used since 1969. The two series releases create a 263-card set, just like the three previous years. However, a third series of 88 cards showed up very late in the season. They don't appear to have been distributed in mass quantities. In fact, many of them have filtered into the hobby over the years after being offered by one seller who managed to hold onto several cases of them. As a result, the cards in the third series are much more valuable than the cards #1-263.

The 1972 issue was the last time a football card set by Topps was released in multiple series. The first two were available in wax and rack packs as well as cellos and vending boxes. The third series, however, was released in smaller quantities and was not widely available, but regionally, could be found in both wax and rack packs. Card number 79, the checklist, is a double-print, as it was printed in both the first and second series. The third series of cards contains numbers 264-351.

Condition Issues

Common condition issues for the 1972 Topps Football card set mostly center around printing defects including print dots and smudges. Other issues frequently seen in the set include rough cut edges and poor centering. There are several uncorrected error cards having mostly to do with misspellings and inaccurate information. The most notable of these is the card of Mike Curtis (#326) who is given credit as being the MVP of the1971 Super Bowl. However, in actuality, Chuck Howley was the recipient of that award.