Happy 80th birthday to Larry Gagner! Gagner played guard for four seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers, one with the Kansas City Chiefs, and two with the World Football League’s Jacksonvile Sharks. He played in high school for the Seabreeze Sandcrabs–the best team name I’ve ever heard!–and in college for the Florida Gators.
Today’s card of the day is the 1968 KDKA Steelers Guards card, on which Gagner appears with Sam Davis and Bruce Van Dyke. There are fifteen cards in the 1968 KDKA Steelers set, but they’re all multi-player cards, so the set includes nearly the whole team. I really like the set for that reason, and it makes me wonder why there are so few multi-player football cards.
After football, Gagner used his degree in commercial arts and became a professional artist. He is still creating; you can see his work on his web site, larrygagner.com.
