Uncut Sheets of 1951 Bowman Football Cards

I have never seen a sheet of 1951 Bowman football cards, but since 1950 Bowman and 1952 Bowman sheets were configured identically, I am guessing that 1951 Bowman sheets were configured the same way. All three 1950-1952 Bowman sets--or four, if you count both 1952 Small and Large--contain 144 cards. The 1950 and 1952 sets were printed on four sheets each, with cards 1-36 arranged in sequence on the first sheet, cards 37-72 arranged in sequence on the second sheet, and so on. Some cards in the 1950 and 1952 sets are oriented horizontally, and on the sheets these cards were rotated 90 degrees to the left. Applying these characteristics to the 1951 Bowman set, I got the four sheet configurations below.

If you hold your cursor above any of the cards, your browser should show you the name of the player and the number of the card. Clicking on a card will bring up the full-sized scan. (A real uncut sheet would not have lines between the cards--that's an effect of scanning them individually.)

The first sheet held cards numbered 1 through 36. It looked like this:

1951 Bowman #1: Weldon Humble 1951 Bowman #2: Otto Graham 1951 Bowman #3: Mac Speedie 1951 Bowman #4: Norm Van Brocklin 1951 Bowman #5: Woodley Lewis 1951 Bowman #6: Tom Fears 1951 Bowman #7: George Musacco 1951 Bowman #8: George Taliaferro 1951 Bowman #9: Barney Poole
1951 Bowman #10: Steve Van Buren 1951 Bowman #11: Al Wistert 1951 Bowman #12: Chuck Bednarik 1951 Bowman #13: Bulldog Turner 1951 Bowman #14: Bob Williams 1951 Bowman #15: John Lujack 1951 Bowman #16: Roy Steiner 1951 Bowman #17: Jug Girard 1951 Bowman #18: Ed Neal
1951 Bowman #19: Travis Tidwell 1951 Bowman #20: Tom Landry 1951 Bowman #21: Arnie Weinmeister 1951 Bowman #22: Joe Geri 1951 Bowman #23: Bill Walsh 1951 Bowman #24: Fran Rogel 1951 Bowman #25: Doak Walker 1951 Bowman #26: Leon Hart 1951 Bowman #27: Thurman McGraw
1951 Bowman #28: Buster Ramsey 1951 Bowman #29: Frank Tripucka 1951 Bowman #30: Don Paul 1951 Bowman #31: Alex Loyd 1951 Bowman #32: Y.A. Tittle 1951 Bowman #33: Verl Lillywhite 1951 Bowman #34: Sammy Baugh 1951 Bowman #35: Chuck Drazenovich 1951 Bowman #36: Bob Goode

This table shows how the cards were arranged by number on the first sheet:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

The second sheet held cards numbered 37 through 72. It looked like this:

1951 Bowman #37: Horace Gillom 1951 Bowman #38: Lou Rymkus 1951 Bowman #39: Ken Carpenter 1951 Bowman #40: Bob Waterfield 1951 Bowman #41: Vitamin Smith 1951 Bowman #42: Glenn Davis 1951 Bowman #43: Dan Edwards 1951 Bowman #44: John Rauch 1951 Bowman #45: Zollie Toth
1951 Bowman #46: Pete Pihos 1951 Bowman #47: Russ Craft 1951 Bowman #48: Walter Barnes 1951 Bowman #49: Fred Morrison 1951 Bowman #50: Ray Bray 1951 Bowman #51: Ed Sprinkle 1951 Bowman #52: Floyd Reid 1951 Bowman #53: Billy Grimes 1951 Bowman #54: Ted Fritsch Sr.
1951 Bowman #55: Al DeRogatis 1951 Bowman #56: Charley Conerly 1951 Bowman #57: Jon Baker 1951 Bowman #58: Tom McWilliams 1951 Bowman #59: Jerry Shipkey 1951 Bowman #60: Lynn Chandnois 1951 Bowman #61: Don Doll 1951 Bowman #62: Lou Creekmur 1951 Bowman #63: Bob Hoernschemeyer
1951 Bowman #64: Tom Wham 1951 Bowman #65: Bill Fischer 1951 Bowman #66: Robert Nussbaumer 1951 Bowman #67: Gordon Soltau 1951 Bowman #68: Visco Grgich 1951 Bowman #69: John Strzykalski 1951 Bowman #70: Pete Stout 1951 Bowman #71: Paul Lipscomb 1951 Bowman #72: Harry Gilmer

And it was numbered like this:

37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45
46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54
55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63
64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72

The third sheet held cards numbered 73 through 108:

1951 Bowman #73: Dante Lavelli 1951 Bowman #74: Dub Jones 1951 Bowman #75: Lou Groza 1951 Bowman #76: Elroy Hirsch 1951 Bowman #77: Tom Kalmanir 1951 Bowman #78: Jack Zilly 1951 Bowman #79: Bruce Alford 1951 Bowman #80: Art Weiner 1951 Bowman #81: Brad Ecklund
1951 Bowman #82: Bosh Pritchard 1951 Bowman #83: John Green 1951 Bowman #84: Ebert Van Buren 1951 Bowman #85: Julie Rykovich 1951 Bowman #86: Fred Davis 1951 Bowman #87: John Hoffman 1951 Bowman #88: Tobin Rote 1951 Bowman #89: Paul Burris 1951 Bowman #90: Tony Canadeo
1951 Bowman #91: Emlen Tunnell 1951 Bowman #92: Otto Schnellbacher 1951 Bowman #93: Ray Poole 1951 Bowman #94: Darrell Hogan 1951 Bowman #95: Frank Sinkovitz 1951 Bowman #96: Ernie Stautner 1951 Bowman #97: Elmer Angsman 1951 Bowman #98: Jack Jennings 1951 Bowman #99: Jerry Groom
1951 Bowman #100: John Prchlik 1951 Bowman #101: Robert Smith 1951 Bowman #102: Bobby Layne 1951 Bowman #103: Frankie Albert 1951 Bowman #104: Gail Bruce 1951 Bowman #105: Joe Perry 1951 Bowman #106: Leon Heath 1951 Bowman #107: Ed Quirk 1951 Bowman #108: Hugh Taylor

And it was numbered like this:

73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81
82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90
91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99
100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108

Finally, the fourth sheet held cards numbered 109 through 144. It looked like this:

1951 Bowman #109: Marion Motley 1951 Bowman #110: Tony Adamle 1951 Bowman #111: Alex Agase 1951 Bowman #112: Tank Younger 1951 Bowman #113: Bob Boyd 1951 Bowman #114: Jerome Williams 1951 Bowman #115: Joe Golding 1951 Bowman #116: Sherman Howard 1951 Bowman #117: John Wozniak
1951 Bowman #118: Frank Reagan 1951 Bowman #119: Vic Sears 1951 Bowman #120: Clyde Scott 1951 Bowman #121: George Gulyanics 1951 Bowman #122: Bill Wightkin 1951 Bowman #123: Chuck Hunsinger 1951 Bowman #124: Jack Cloud 1951 Bowman #125: Abner Wimberly 1951 Bowman #126: Dick Wildung
1951 Bowman #127: Eddie Price 1951 Bowman #128: Joe Scott 1951 Bowman #129: Jerry Nuzum 1951 Bowman #130: Jim Finks 1951 Bowman #131: Bob Gage 1951 Bowman #132: Bill Swiacki 1951 Bowman #133: Joe Watson 1951 Bowman #134: Ollie Cline 1951 Bowman #135: Jack Lininger
1951 Bowman #136: Fran Polsfoot 1951 Bowman #137: Charley Trippi 1951 Bowman #138: Ventan Yablonski 1951 Bowman #139: Emil Sitko 1951 Bowman #140: Leo Nomellini 1951 Bowman #141: Norm Standlee 1951 Bowman #142: Eddie Saenz 1951 Bowman #143: Al Demao 1951 Bowman #144: Bill Dudley

And it was numbered like this:

109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117
118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126
127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135
136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144

Looking at PSA's population report, I found that it supports the sheet configurations above. According to the population report, the cards with fewest examples graded PSA 8 and better are numbers 1, 9, 39, 43, 45, 54, 73, 74, 81, 117, 118, 121, 125, 126, 127, 135, 136, 138, 139, and 144. Of these twenty cards, eight appear on the corners of the sheets I propose above, ten are on the edges, and only two--cards 121 and 125--are in the interior. As a rule, cards on the corners and edges of uncut sheets tended to get damaged in production, so corner and edge cards tend to be scarcer than cards from the interior of the sheets. The sheet configurations above follow that rule.

Also, it appears to me that the fourth sheet above was printed in somewhat smaller numbers than the other sheets. According to PSA's report, PSA has graded fewer than 60 each of cards 117, 127, 135, 136, and 139. No cards on any of the other sheets have populations below 60.

For more virtual uncut sheets, see the Gallery's master uncut sheet page.

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