Happy 85th birthday to Mark Smolinski! Smolinski played fullback for two seasons with the NFL’s Baltimore Colts and six with the AFL’s New York Jets. His most productive season was 1963, his first year with the Jets, when he gained 839 yards from scrimmage. In 1968, he was a member of the Jets team that won the AFL Championship and beat the Colts in Super Bowl III.
Today’s card of the day is Smolinski’s rookie card, one of the short prints in the 1964 Topps set. He also appeared on a 1965 Topps “tallboy” card, some Jets team issue photos, and 1965 and 1966 Coke caps.