Today’s card of the day is a 1961 Nu-Card card of Wilburn Hollis. Hollis, a star quarterback for the University of Iowa, passed away last week at the age of 83. In 1960, as a junior, Hollis led the Hawkeyes to an 8-1 record and third place in the final AP college football poll. Following the season, Hollis was named a second-team All-American and a first-team All-Big Ten player.
Iowa’s only loss in 1960 was to the Minnesota Gophers, who finished first in the final AP Poll. The game was notable because it was the biggest college game of the year, and it was between two Black quarterbacks, Hollis and Minnesota’s Sandy Stephens.
In 1962, the St. Louis Cardinals drafted Hollis in the ninth round of the NFL Draft, and the New York Titans (now the Jets) chose him in the American Football League Draft. He did not see playing time in the NFL or AFL, but he did play one season for the Canadian Football League’s Edmonton Eskimos, according to cflapedia.com.
The 1961 Nu-Card set contains eighty cards of star college players. Curiously, the cards are numbered 101 to 180. You can see the full set of 1961 Nu-Card football cards in the Gallery.
