Ken Ploen, who played quarterback for eleven years for the CFL’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers, passed away on February 13. He was 88 years old. Ploen led the Bombers to six appearances and four wins in the CFL championship game, the Grey Cup. He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1975. Cflapedia.com has a nice summary of Ploen’s career.
Ploen played college football at the University of Iowa. In 1956, he led the Hawkeyes to the Big Ten championship and a win in the Rose Bowl. He finished ninth in voting for the Heisman Trophy the same season. (See the Football Cards of Heisman Trophy Candidates page in the Gallery.)
Today’s card of the day is Ploen’s 1958 Topps CFL card. He appears to be wearing number 81 in the image, but I don’t know why. Anyone else have a clue? The other photos of Ploen I’ve seen, both college and pro, all picture him in number 11.
Topps apparently liked the image, because the company reused it on Ploen’s cards every year from 1960 to 1965. It also appeared on a 1959 Wheaties CFL card. Unfortunately, Topps misspelled Ploen’s name “Pleon” each year from 1960 to 1962.
You can see all of Ken Ploen’s cards and the full set of 1958 Topps CFL cards in the Gallery.
It seems weird that Topps would’ve been able to spell his name correctly for the first couple of years, and then all of sudden screw it up for the next couple.