Uncut Sheet of 1965 Philadelphia Football Cards

The picture below shows what I believe was the configuration of an uncut half-sheet of 1965 Philadelphia football cards. This half-sheet contains 110 different cards, with 22 duplicates, for a total of 132 cards. The other half-sheet contained the remaining 88 cards in the set, plus 44 that appear on this half-sheet. A total of 66 cards were duplicated--or "double printed"--on the 264-card full sheet. The double prints are not documented in the price guides, but I have identified them in the Gallery.

I have not seen a 1965 Philadelphia sheet, but I have concluded that 1965, 1966, and 1967 Philadelphia sheets all had the same numbering scheme. You can see my reasoning toward the bottom of this page, and on my 1967 Philadelphia uncut sheet page. I have seen a picture of a 1966 Philadelphia half-sheet, and I used the numbering of that sheet to produce this one.

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

There are two types of horizontally oriented cards in the 1965 Philadelphia set: team cards and Play of the Year cards. Oddly, the fronts of the two types of cards were rotated in opposite directions on the sheet, but the backs were not. I don't know why the company did this, but it is annoying when you put the cards in plastic sheets. If you turn the fronts of the horizontally oriented cards such that they face the same way, the backs of some of the cards appear upside down. And if you order your cards by number, the team cards and Play of the Year cards are right next to each other! Perhaps the company was looking for a bookend effect, since all of a teams' player cards were between its team and Play of the Year cards.

The following table shows how the cards were arranged by number on the sheet. The bottom six rows hold the double prints in the set: the bottom two rows are repeated on the top of this half-sheet, and the remaining four rows are repeated on the other half-sheet.

How did I conclude that 1965, 1966, and 1967 Philadelphia sheets had the same numbering? Well, the four Philadelphia sets, 1964-1967, are very similar in composition: they have the same number of cards, the cards are grouped by team, the teams are in alphabetical ordering, etc. Because the sets are so similar, I thought the sheets might have been numbered the same, as well. So I found a handful of 1965 and 1967 cards that were miscut so badly that I could identify the adjacent cards, and I compared the numbering of the cards to the 1966 sheet. In each case, the cards with the same two numbers were also adjacent on the 1966 sheet. From this I concluded that the sheets from all three years had the same numbering scheme. (1964 Philadelphia did not follow the same pattern.)

Here are some of the 1965 miscuts:

This miscut John Paluck card has a sliver of Jerry Logan's card on the left. The Logan is card number 5; the Paluck is card number 193. Cards 5 and 193 are adjacent on the 1966 Philadelphia sheet, as well.

This 49ers Play of the Year card is showing a bit of Jerry Stovall's card on the right. The 49ers card is number 182, and Stovall is number 166. Cards 182 and 166 are also neighbors on the 1966 Philadelphia sheet.

Finally, this Henry Jordan card is showing part of a Bears Play of the Year card on the bottom. The Jordan card is number 77, and the McRae is number 28. Card 77 is also above card 28 on the 1966 Philadelphia sheet.

I also have a few badly miscut cards with numbers that do not appear on this half-sheet. With those I am piecing together the other half-sheet. Because the numbering of the 1965, 1966, and 1967 sheets is the same, I can use miscut cards from any of the three years to build the second half-sheets for all of them.

For general information on uncut sheets of vintage football cards, see my blog article, U is for Uncut Sheets. Also see my other virtual uncut sheets, listed in the left column of this page.