Forward Pass

I spied some Topps prototype cards over on eBay a little while back and given we're probably all in a post-Thanksgiving torpor, partially pigskin induced, it seems appropriate they were created to develop the 1968 Football set.

Fake/wrong names were pretty common on these, but everything about this one is correct (UPDATE 11/29/25 12:05 PM-except the image, as pointed out in the comments. It's Kyle Rote, of course, from his 1961 Topps card.)  Charlie Gogolak was the older brother of Pete Gololak and was taken as the seventh pick in the 1966 NFL draft by the 'Skins. He was the first placekicker ever selected in Round One:

That, and all the prototype images today, are from the BMW Sportscards eBay store BTW, you can also find them on the web: https://bmwcards.com/

How do we know this is a 1968 prototype?  Why Woody Gelman tells us so:

I think the Gogolak looks a little stodgy in execution but the boys at Topps were on it. Joe Pipick, on the other hand, is an entirely fictional creation:

I'm not even sure that a Patriots uniform, I think they had some shoulder piping and this #31 is solid red.  Maybe it's a college uniform; any thoughts out there? (UPDATE 11/29/25 10:18 AM-we already have an answer thanks to the first comment here; it's Don Bosselor, RB for the Redskins).

The back is blank on this one.

The 1968 Football cards as issued evolved to look like this:

That's a killer uni, isn't it?  The backs were definitely not blank:

So from stodgy to final, I'd say the boys at Topps really did a nice job on the graphics, front and back. It's an attractive set.

Here's first series uncut sheet, just for fun:

More football viewing this weekend!