Goin' Back To Indiana

I came across this picture of The King of Pop and was pretty certain it would make for a fun basketball card.  The image is from the Jackson 5's television special that aired on ABC in 1971 and was entitled Goin' Back to Indiana.  The television special featured comedians Bill Cosby and Tommy Smothers, singers Bobby Darin and Diana Ross, football players Roosevelt "Rosey" Grier, and Ben Davidson, and basketball stars Bill Russell, Elgin Baylor, and Elvin Hayes. There was also a soundtrack album released from it.

Being that we're talking 1971, I got another opportunity to use my funkiest design, the one inspired by the 1971-72 Topps basketball set.  It's one of my favorites.  This was the third card I've done in this style, but only the first where I got to use a color photo.  Truth be told, I kind of like how the black-and-white photos contrast against the solid colored rectangle.  

For the color scheme I matched it to the Pacers cards from that set.  Easy choice, right?

Dave Winfield

It works out well that I've had two college basketball cards made right around the time of the NCAA March Madness tournament. I didn't necessarily plan it that way, just good lucky timing.

Unlike Tony Gwynn, I have known a bit about Dave Winfield being a two-sport college athlete. I was in awe when I found out (probably read it on the back of a baseball card) that Dave Winfield was drafted by the MLB, NBA, and NFL! The San Diego Padres took Winfield with the 4th overall pick in the 1973 MLB Draft. That same year The Atlanta Hawks drafted the 6'6" forward 79th overall in addition to being drafted by the Utah Stars (58th) in the ABA's draft. Despite never playing a single down of college football, the Minnesota Vikings saw enough raw athletic talent to draft Winfield in the 17th round of the 1973 NFL draft. Dave preferred America's Pastime in a move that culminated in a 22-year Hall Of Fame baseball career.

1972-73 Topps

Dave played two season of college basketball, 1971-72 and 1972-73. For the card I chose the 1972-73 Topps basketball design I used once previously with my Prince basketball card. For the image I wanted something that was a posed picture seeing as Topps used that type a picture as opposed to an action shot that year. I love the image even if it took forever to crop out just right. It's black-and-white, but I think that adds for a more dynamic look when it contrasts the yellow background. The color scheme is that of the Atlanta Hawks from the '72-'73 set seeing as Winfield was drafted by the Hawks.

Get a copy of this card HERE.

Fun Facts:

Dave was part of of Minnesota's 1973 Big Ten Championship team ... Winfield was part of one of the ugliest brawls in collage basketball history in a game against Ohio State in January 1972 ... was named MVP of the 1973 College World Series -- as a pitcher!

Game. Blouses.

Here's a card that originally came as a commission request.  Although nothing came of the request, I still thought this would be a fun card to make, and it was.

Apparently Prince, in addition to being a musical virtuoso, could also get down on the hardwood. The Charlie Murphy story that spawned the hilarious Dave Chappelle skit about he and his brother Eddie hooping with Prince at Prince's house is said to be all true, right down to the after game blueberry pancakes.

The 1972 yearbook picture of Prince on Minneapolis' Bryant Junior High's basketball team originally ran in a 1984 article in the Star Tribune, but went viral in 2015 when the old clipping was unearthed and posted on Twitter.  In the article Prince's basketball coach, Richard Robinson, said that Prince was an important part of the team, usually the first or second guy off the bench.  He noted him to have a good shot and excellent handles.  Even though Prince was only 5'2" Robinson told the Star Tribune he could have started for a different group of players noting the team was loaded with talent.  He also said Prince expressed his displeasure with not being a starter frequently.

1971-72 Topps basketball

For the card I wanted to go with the 1972-73 Topps basketball design but I saw that after a search with the keywords 'Prince Bryant basketball' that someone had already beat me to it.  So, I went with the design from the year prior.  The person who did the '72-'73 actually colorized the picture and did a pretty good job at it.  I've only dabbled with colorizing a black-and-white photo - with very limited success - so I kept mine newspaper clipping color.

I knew the biggest challenge to this one would matching the funky font.  As expected I could not find a match.  I decided to seek out something that might be used on the title screen of a 1970's blaxploitation movie.  I think I funked it up pretty good with my choice.

Bryant Junior High closed permanently in the late '70s.  I looked but I couldn't find a mention of the school colors or mascot anywhere.  I chose to go with the color scheme used for the Los Angeles Lakers team cards because the background was purple and Prince is pretty much synonymous with the color purple.  It's also cool that there's the tie-in of the Lakers having moved from Minneapolis in 1960.

In the spirit of a Topps style fun fact that were often found on the backs of cards ... Minnesota is known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes" hence the nickname Lakers.  It's curious that Los Angeles chose to keep the name seeing as there are no naturally occurring lakes in the city of Los Angeles.  Now you know.

The card marks the second card that I've made posthumously of the card's subject, therefore giving me zero chance of an autograph, the first being Tupac.