Like all football fans in 1970, I was sorry to hear he had lost his battle to cancer. But I had never been a "fan." He was, after all, a Chicago Bear and insomuch as I followed any team in the NFL, I was a Packers backer.
I recently completed a Brian Piccolo card for my on-going custom card tribute to the 1955 Topps All-American college football set.
It's not my finest work, largely because there are very few usable pictures of Piccolo from his days at Wake Forest. But I'd always wanted to add a Demon Deacon card to my set, and you can't do better than Brian Piccolo.
As I noted on my card back, even in the heyday of NFL-AFL player draft wars, Piccolo went undrafted. This despite the fact that in 1964 he led the nation with 17 TDs, 111 points and 1,044 yards. He also had only one fumble in nearly 400 carries in his varsity collegiate career.
This is not my first Brian Piccolo custom card. Several years ago, after Topps had offered a couple of really nice Piccolo photos in its "Vault" auctions, I created a 1966-style Philadelphia Gum custom of Piccolo with the Bears. His truncated NFL career had previously limited his football card appearances to just the 1969 Topps set.
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