Interactive 1959 Topps New York Giants Team Card

Pictured here is an interactive 1959 Topps New York Giants team card. If you hold your cursor over any player, you can see his name and whether he appears on any cards in the gallery. If a player appears on cards of his own, you can click on the player to see them.

Though this is a 1959 card, the image actually shows the 1958 Giants team. You can find the same image in the Pro Football Hall of Fame's photo gallery for "The NFL'S Greatest Game Ever Played." Checking the photo against the Giants' 1958 roster, there are these differences:

• Number 78 appears in the photo, but not on the roster. This is Walt Yowarsky, who, according to Wikipedia, left the Giants for the 49ers before the 1958 season started. He also appears on a 1958 Topps card of his own, which has him still with the Giants.
• Number 83, Jon Jelacic, appears on the roster, but not in the team picture. Jelacic was a rookie in 1958, and he played only part of the season. It is possible that he joined the Giants after the season started, and after the team photo was taken.
• Number 31, Don Sutherin, appears in the photo, but not on the roster. Sutherin was with the Giants during the 1958 preseason (thanks, Mike Moran!), but he apparently did not make the team. Instead, he spent the 1958 season with the CFL's Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Sutherin spent most of his pro career in the CFL, and he was later elected to the CFL Hall of Fame. Sutherin's bio on cflapedia.com shows his 1965 Topps CFL card.

Besides Sutherin, only one other player in the photo does not appear on a card or photo of his own in the Vintage Football Card Gallery. That player is M.L. Brackett. Another player, Harland Svare, does not appear in the Gallery as a player, but he is shown on two Play of the Year cards as the head coach of the Los Angeles Rams.

A couple of friends, Tom Daley and Mike Moran, identified most of the coaches and trainers on the card; among the coaches are Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry. With Lombardi and Landry, there are a total of eight Hall of Famers on the card. Three of the coaches--Landry, Ken Kavanaugh, and John Dell Isola--appeared on earlier football cards as players.

Topps liked this image so much that they used it on their Giants team cards for four more years: 1960, 1961, 1962, and 1963. They might still be using it, had Philadelphia Gum not obtained the rights to print cards of NFL players in 1964.

Below is a list of the team members on the card above. Clicking on a team member's name will show you all of his cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

Also see my interactive 1961 Topps Green Bay Packers, 1963 Topps Dallas Cowboys, 1964 Topps Oakland Raiders, and 1967 Philadelphia Cleveland Browns team cards.