Today’s card of the day is a 1954 Blue Ribbon Canadian football card of Gerry James. James passed away on February 13, at age 89. James played running back for twelve seasons with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and one for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. He was the second Blue Bomber legend to die on February 13; his longtime teammate Ken Ploen passed away the same day.
Like Ploen, James played in the CFL championship, the Grey Cup, six times, with the Blue Bombers winning four of them. He won Canadian football’s Most Outstanding Canadian award twice, in 1954 and 1957. He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1981.
James also played five seasons for the National Hockey League’s Toronto Maple Leafs. In the overlapping football and hockey seasons between 1959 and 1960, he played in both the Grey Cup (a Winnipeg win) and the Stanley Cup playoffs (a Toronto loss). James appeared on cards in both sports; you can see him and other multi-sport athletes on the Gallery’s Cards in Multiple Sports page.
James was not the only sports star in his family: His father, Eddie James, played ten seasons of professional football in Canada. The elder James was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in its inaugural year, 1963.
You can see all of Gerry James’s football cards and the full set of 1954 Blue Ribbon cards in the Gallery.
Now that’s a neat looking set! I had no idea that anyone had ever played both football and hockey professionally. And to do that during that era, he must’ve been a pretty tough fella.