Today’s card of the day is a 1952 Bowman Large card of Ollie Matson. Matson was a running back for fourteen seasons in the NFL: 1952 to 1958 for the Chicago Cardinals (except 1953, when he served in the Army), 1959 to 1962 for the Los Angeles Rams, 1963 for the Detroit Lions, and 1964 to 1966 for the Philadelphia Eagles. He was named First-Team All-Pro in his first seven years in the league, and he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1972.
Matson played college football at the University of San Francisco. In 1951, he finished ninth in voting for the Heisman Trophy. (See the Gallery’s page of Heisman candidates.) He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1976.
And that’s not all! Matson also starred in track. Before joining the Cardinals, he won two medals in the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland: bronze in the 400 meter dash and silver in the 1600 meter relay. He is one of about a dozen players on the Gallery’s Olympic Athletes on Vintage Football Cards page.
Matson’s 1952 Bowman card is his rookie card and one of the short prints in the set. It might be my all-time favorite football card; it’s certainly in my top five. Not surprisingly, he appeared on many more cards, too.
