Uncut Sheets of 1952 Bowman Large Football Cards

The picture below shows how uncut sheets of 1952 Bowman Large football cards were configured. As a model for the first one, I used a photo of a real uncut sheet that Ted Zanidakis posted in the net54baseball.com forums. Then I followed the simple numbering pattern of the first sheet to get the configuration of the other three sheets.

The first sheet contains cards numbered 1 through 36, in order, starting at the top left. The cards in the leftmost column and the cards in the rightmost column are short prints, because one of those two columns--usually the rightmost one--was truncated in he printing process. Quoting Ted:

"Bowman took their Small set and enlarged the size of their cards in order to compete with the very popular larger 1952 Topps baseball cards. Bowman had not yet increased the printing press track to 43 inches (used in the printing of all their cards from 1953 to 1955). In order to print all 144 cards in their football set, they had to cut down the size of the cardboard to fit the press's track. Thereby, cards on the rightmost column and the leftmost column of an original 36-card sheet were truncated. That resulted in, all cards divisible by 9 are short-printed. And, all cards divisible by 9 (+ 1) are short-printed."

As I understand it, then, the total population of Otto Graham cards (card #2) should approximately equal the total population of Norm Van Brocklin cards (card #1) plus the total population of Joe Spencer cards (card #9). On each of the sheets that Bowman printed of cards numbered 1-36, the Graham card would have survived, but either the the Van Brocklin card or the Spencer card would have been cut off.

If you hold your cursor above any of the cards below, 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 is an effect of scanning them individually.)

1952 Bowman Large #1: Norm Van Brocklin 1952 Bowman Large #2: Otto Graham 1952 Bowman Large #3: Doak Walker 1952 Bowman Large #4: Steve Owen 1952 Bowman Large #5: Frankie Albert 1952 Bowman Large #6: Laurie Niemi 1952 Bowman Large #7: Chuck Hunsinger 1952 Bowman Large #8: Ed Modzelewski 1952 Bowman Large #9: Joe Spencer
1952 Bowman Large #10: Chuck Bednarik 1952 Bowman Large #11: Barney Poole 1952 Bowman Large #12: Charley Trippi 1952 Bowman Large #13: Tom Fears 1952 Bowman Large #14: Paul Brown 1952 Bowman Large #15: Leon Hart 1952 Bowman Large #16: Frank Gifford 1952 Bowman Large #17: Y.A. Tittle 1952 Bowman Large #18: Charlie Justice
1952 Bowman Large #19: George Connor 1952 Bowman Large #20: Lynn Chandnois 1952 Bowman Large #21: Bill Howton 1952 Bowman Large #22: Ken Snyder 1952 Bowman Large #23: Gino Marchetti 1952 Bowman Large #24: John Karras 1952 Bowman Large #25: Tank Younger 1952 Bowman Large #26: Tommy Thompson 1952 Bowman Large #27: Bob Miller
1952 Bowman Large #28: Kyle Rote 1952 Bowman Large #29: Hugh McElhenny 1952 Bowman Large #30: Sammy Baugh 1952 Bowman Large #31: Jim Dooley 1952 Bowman Large #32: Ray Mathews 1952 Bowman Large #33: Fred Cone 1952 Bowman Large #34: Al Pollard 1952 Bowman Large #35: Brad Ecklund 1952 Bowman Large #36: John Lee Hancock

Following the pattern of the first sheet, the second sheet, containing cards numbered 37-72, would have looked like this:

1952 Bowman Large #37: Elroy Hirsch 1952 Bowman Large #38: Keever Jankovich 1952 Bowman Large #39: Emlen Tunnell 1952 Bowman Large #40: Steve Dowden 1952 Bowman Large #41: Claude Hipps 1952 Bowman Large #42: Norm Standlee 1952 Bowman Large #43: Dick Todd 1952 Bowman Large #44: Babe Parilli 1952 Bowman Large #45: Steve Van Buren
1952 Bowman Large #46: Art Donovan 1952 Bowman Large #47: Bill Fischer 1952 Bowman Large #48: George Halas 1952 Bowman Large #49: Jerrell Price 1952 Bowman Large #50: John Sandusky 1952 Bowman Large #51: Ray Beck 1952 Bowman Large #52: Jim Martin 1952 Bowman Large #53: Joe Bach 1952 Bowman Large #54: Glen Christian
1952 Bowman Large #55: Andy Davis 1952 Bowman Large #56: Tobin Rote 1952 Bowman Large #57: Wayne Millner 1952 Bowman Large #58: Zollie Toth 1952 Bowman Large #59: Jack Jennings 1952 Bowman Large #60: Bill McColl 1952 Bowman Large #61: Les Richter 1952 Bowman Large #62: Walt Michaels 1952 Bowman Large #63: Charley Conerly
1952 Bowman Large #64: Howard Hartley 1952 Bowman Large #65: Jerome Smith 1952 Bowman Large #66: Jim Clark 1952 Bowman Large #67: Dick Logan 1952 Bowman Large #68: Wayne Robinson 1952 Bowman Large #69: James Hammond 1952 Bowman Large #70: Gene Schroeder 1952 Bowman Large #71: Tex Coulter 1952 Bowman Large #72: John Schweder

The third sheet, with cards numbered 73-108, would have looked like this:

1952 Bowman Large #73: Vitamin Smith 1952 Bowman Large #74: Joe Campanella 1952 Bowman Large #75: Joe Kuharich 1952 Bowman Large #76: Herman Clark 1952 Bowman Large #77: Dan Edwards 1952 Bowman Large #78: Bobby Layne 1952 Bowman Large #79: Bob Hoernschemeyer 1952 Bowman Large #80: Jack Blount 1952 Bowman Large #81: John Kastan
1952 Bowman Large #82: Henry Minarik 1952 Bowman Large #83: Joe Perry 1952 Bowman Large #84: Buddy Parker 1952 Bowman Large #85: Andy Robustelli 1952 Bowman Large #86: Dub Jones 1952 Bowman Large #87: Mal Cook 1952 Bowman Large #88: Billy Stone 1952 Bowman Large #89: George Taliaferro 1952 Bowman Large #90: Thomas Johnson
1952 Bowman Large #91: Leon Heath 1952 Bowman Large #92: Pete Pihos 1952 Bowman Large #93: Fred Benners 1952 Bowman Large #94: George Tarasovic 1952 Bowman Large #95: Buck Shaw 1952 Bowman Large #96: Bill Wightkin 1952 Bowman Large #97: John Wozniak 1952 Bowman Large #98: Bobby Dillon 1952 Bowman Large #99: Joe Stydahar
1952 Bowman Large #100: Dick Alban 1952 Bowman Large #101: Arnie Weinmeister 1952 Bowman Large #102: Bobby Cross 1952 Bowman Large #103: Don Paul 1952 Bowman Large #104: Buddy Young 1952 Bowman Large #105: Lou Groza 1952 Bowman Large #106: Ray Pelfrey 1952 Bowman Large #107: Maurice Nipp 1952 Bowman Large #108: Hubert Johnston

And the fourth sheet, with cards numbered 109-144, would have looked like this:

1952 Bowman Large #109: Volney Quinlan 1952 Bowman Large #110: Jack Simmons 1952 Bowman Large #111: George Ratterman 1952 Bowman Large #112: John Badaczewski 1952 Bowman Large #113: Bill Reichardt 1952 Bowman Large #114: Art Weiner 1952 Bowman Large #115: Keith Flowers 1952 Bowman Large #116: Russ Craft 1952 Bowman Large #117: Pat O'Donahue
1952 Bowman Large #118: Darrell Hogan 1952 Bowman Large #119: Frank Ziegler 1952 Bowman Large #120: Dan Towler 1952 Bowman Large #121: Fred Williams 1952 Bowman Large #122: Jim Phelan 1952 Bowman Large #123: Eddie Price 1952 Bowman Large #124: Chet Ostrowski 1952 Bowman Large #125: Leo Nomellini 1952 Bowman Large #126: Steve Romanik
1952 Bowman Large #127: Ollie Matson 1952 Bowman Large #128: Dante Lavelli 1952 Bowman Large #129: Jack Christiansen 1952 Bowman Large #130: Dom Moselle 1952 Bowman Large #131: John Rapacz 1952 Bowman Large #132: Chuck Ortmann 1952 Bowman Large #133: Bob Williams 1952 Bowman Large #134: Chuck Ulrich 1952 Bowman Large #135: Gene Ronzani
1952 Bowman Large #136: Bert Rechichar 1952 Bowman Large #137: Bob Waterfield 1952 Bowman Large #138: Bobby Walston 1952 Bowman Large #139: Jerry Shipkey 1952 Bowman Large #140: Yale Lary 1952 Bowman Large #141: Gordon Soltau 1952 Bowman Large #142: Tom Landry 1952 Bowman Large #143: John Papit 1952 Bowman Large #144: Jim Lansford

According to the price guides, the most valuable card in the 1952 Bowman Large set is card number 144, Jim Lansford. Not only is the Lansford one of the divisible-by-9 short prints, they say, but it is also the last card in the set. In price guide conventional wisdom, the first and last cards of each set got more wear than the other cards, because their original owners--kids--stacked their cards in order, and the cards on the top and bottom of their stacks tended to get more wear than the others. In practice, I have found that this conventional wisdom doesn't hold true, and it doesn't hold true for this set. According to PSA's Population Report, some of the other cards on the right edges of the sheets above are scarcer in high grades than the Lansford. The last time I looked, there were fewer John Lee Hancock (#9), Glen Christian (#54), and John Schweder (#72) cards graded PSA 7 or higher than there were Jim Lansfords. The Lansford card sells for more, but only because the price guides say it's worth more.

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

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