Uncut Sheets of 1954 Bowman Football Cards

I have not seen a full sheet of 1954 Bowman football cards, but I believe that the sheets were configured as shown below. If you hold your cursor above any of the card images, your browser should show you the name of the player and the number of the card. Clicking on a card will bring up a full-size image. (A real uncut sheet would not have lines between the cards--that's an effect of scanning them individually.)

The 1953, 1954, and 1955 Bowman football sets contain 96, 128, and 160 cards, respectively. Because all of those numbers are divisible by 32, I presume that the 1953-1955 sets were printed on 32-card sheets. I also presume that the cards were arranged in numerical order on the sheets, because I have seen pictures of 1950 and 1952 Bowman sheets, and the cards on those were ordered by number. A picture of a four-card panel of 1953 Bowman cards on the Legendary Auctions web site suggests that the cards on 1953 sheets were ordered by number, as well. (See my 1953 Bowman virtual sheet page for details.)

Given all that, I believe that the first 1954 Bowman sheet held cards numbered 1 through 32, and it looked like this.

1954 Bowman #1: Ray Mathews 1954 Bowman #2: John Huzvar 1954 Bowman #3: Jack Scarbath 1954 Bowman #4: Doug Atkins 1954 Bowman #5: Bill Stits 1954 Bowman #6: Joe Perry 1954 Bowman #7: Kyle Rote 1954 Bowman #8: Norm Van Brocklin
1954 Bowman #9: Pete Pihos 1954 Bowman #10: Babe Parilli 1954 Bowman #11: Zeke Bratkowski 1954 Bowman #12: Ollie Matson 1954 Bowman #13: Pat Brady 1954 Bowman #14: Fred Enke 1954 Bowman #15: Harry Ulinski 1954 Bowman #16: Bobby Garrett
1954 Bowman #17: Bill Bowman 1954 Bowman #18: Leo Rucka 1954 Bowman #19: John Cannady 1954 Bowman #20: Tom Fears 1954 Bowman #21: Norm Willey 1954 Bowman #22: Floyd Reid 1954 Bowman #23: George Blanda 1954 Bowman #24: Don Dohoney
1954 Bowman #25: John Schweder 1954 Bowman #26: Bert Rechichar 1954 Bowman #27: Harry Dowda 1954 Bowman #28: John Sandusky 1954 Bowman #29: Les Bingaman 1954 Bowman #30: Joe Arenas 1954 Bowman #31: Ray Wietecha 1954 Bowman #32: Elroy Hirsch

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

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

The second sheet held cards numbered 33 through 64:

1954 Bowman #33: Harold Giancanelli 1954 Bowman #34: Bill Howton 1954 Bowman #35: Fred Morrison 1954 Bowman #36: Bobby Cavazos 1954 Bowman #37: Darrell Hogan 1954 Bowman #38: Buddy Young 1954 Bowman #39: Charlie Justice 1954 Bowman #40: Otto Graham
1954 Bowman #41: Doak Walker 1954 Bowman #42: Y.A. Tittle 1954 Bowman #43: Buford Long 1954 Bowman #44: Volney Quinlan 1954 Bowman #45: Bobby Thomason 1954 Bowman #46: Fred Cone 1954 Bowman #47: Gerald Weatherly 1954 Bowman #48: Don Stonesifer
1954 Bowman #49: Lynn Chandnois 1954 Bowman #50: George Taliaferro 1954 Bowman #51: Dick Alban 1954 Bowman #52: Lou Groza 1954 Bowman #53: Bobby Layne 1954 Bowman #54: Hugh McElhenny 1954 Bowman #55: Frank Gifford 1954 Bowman #56: Leon McLaughlin
1954 Bowman #57: Chuck Bednarik 1954 Bowman #58: Art Hunter 1954 Bowman #59: Bill McColl 1954 Bowman #60: Charley Trippi 1954 Bowman #61: Jim Finks 1954 Bowman #62: Bill Lange 1954 Bowman #63: Laurie Niemi 1954 Bowman #64: Ray Renfro

And it was numbered like this:

33 34 35 36 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

The third sheet held cards numbered 65 through 96. According to my Beckett catalog, these cards are much scarcer than the other cards in the set. Judging by PSA's population report, the cards in this range are indeed scarcer (in general, anyway--there are exceptions), so it appears that the third sheet was printed in smaller quantities than the others.

1954 Bowman #65: Dick Chapman 1954 Bowman #66: Bob Hantla 1954 Bowman #67: Ralph Starkey 1954 Bowman #68: Don Paul 1954 Bowman #69: Ken Snyder 1954 Bowman #70: Tobin Rote 1954 Bowman #71: Art DeCarlo 1954 Bowman #72: Tom Keane
1954 Bowman #73: Hugh Taylor 1954 Bowman #74: Warren Lahr 1954 Bowman #75: Jim Neal 1954 Bowman #76: Leo Nomellini 1954 Bowman #77: Dick Yelvington 1954 Bowman #78: Les Richter 1954 Bowman #79: Bucko Kilroy 1954 Bowman #80: John Martinkovic
1954 Bowman #81: Dale Dodrill 1954 Bowman #82: Ken Jackson 1954 Bowman #83: Paul Lipscomb 1954 Bowman #84: John Bauer 1954 Bowman #85: Lou Creekmur 1954 Bowman #86: Eddie Price 1954 Bowman #87: Ken Farragut 1954 Bowman #88: Dave Hanner
1954 Bowman #89: Don Boll 1954 Bowman #90: Chet Hanulak 1954 Bowman #91: Thurman McGraw 1954 Bowman #92: Don Heinrich 1954 Bowman #93: Ray McKown 1954 Bowman #94: Bob Fleck 1954 Bowman #95: Jerry Hilgenberg 1954 Bowman #96: Bill Walsh

The third sheet was numbered like this:

65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72
73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80
81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88
89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96

Finally, the fourth sheet held cards numbered 97 through 128:

1954 Bowman #97: Tom Finnin (double error) 1954 Bowman #98: Paul Barry 1954 Bowman #99: Harry Jagade 1954 Bowman #100: Jack Christiansen 1954 Bowman #101: Gordon Soltau 1954 Bowman #102: Emlen Tunnell (corrected) 1954 Bowman #103: Stan West 1954 Bowman #104: Jerome Williams
1954 Bowman #105: Veryl Switzer 1954 Bowman #106: Billy Stone 1954 Bowman #107: Jerry Watford 1954 Bowman #108: Elbert Nickel 1954 Bowman #109: Ed Sharkey 1954 Bowman #110: Steve Meilinger 1954 Bowman #111: Dante Lavelli 1954 Bowman #112: Leon Hart
1954 Bowman #113: Charley Conerly 1954 Bowman #114: Richard Lemmon 1954 Bowman #115: Al Carmichael 1954 Bowman #116: George Connor 1954 Bowman #117: John Olszewski 1954 Bowman #118: Ernie Stautner 1954 Bowman #119: Ray Smith 1954 Bowman #120: Neil Worden
1954 Bowman #121: Jim Dooley 1954 Bowman #122: Arnold Galiffa 1954 Bowman #123: Kline Gilbert 1954 Bowman #124: Bob Hoernschemeyer 1954 Bowman #125: Wilford White 1954 Bowman #126: Art Spinney 1954 Bowman #127: Joe Koch 1954 Bowman #128: John Lattner

And it was numbered like this:

97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104
105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112
113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120
121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128

According to PSA's population report, the cards in the set with the fewest examples graded PSA 8 and above are numbers 65, 66, 73, 74, 75, 81, 82, 89, 90, 120, 127, and 128. Most of these were on the left end of the third sheet, and the last three were in the bottom right corner of the fourth sheet.

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