Today’s card of the day is Don Ettinger’s 1952 Parkhurst Canadian football card. Ettinger played guard and linebacker for seven seasons in the NFL and CFL: 1948 to 1950 for the New York Giants, 1951 for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, 1952 and 1953 for the Toronto Argonauts, and 1954 for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He was named an All-Star all four of his years in Canada, and he helped Toronto win the Grey Cup in 1952.
Ettinger played college football at the University of Kansas. According to Wikipedia, he is credited with inventing the “red dog” defensive play, now known as the blitz.
Ettinger is one of 81 players in the 1952 Parkhurst set. The set also contains 19 “How to Play Football” cards. The 81 player cards show players from the four Interprovincial Rugby Football Union teams: Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and Hamilton. In 1958, when the CFL was established, those four teams would form its East Division.
