Gibbs' return to Little Rock in '63 stirred crowd

Jake Gibbs played most of his first four
seasons of pro ball as catcher for the
N.Y. Yankees' AAA farm team at
Richmond (International League).

Uncommon commons: In more than 30 years in sportscards publishing I have thrown hundreds of notes into files about the players – usually non-star players – who made up the majority of the baseball and football cards I collected as a kid. Today, I keep adding to those files as I peruse microfilms of The Sporting News from the 1880s through the 1960s. I found these tidbits brought some life to the player pictures on those cards. I figure that if I enjoyed them, you might too.

Casual sports fans in attendance at the July 10, 1963, ballgame in Little Rock, Ark., may not have fully understood what was happening when the Richmond Virginians sent a pinch-hitter to the plate in the top of the eighth inning.

The city had gone the previous season without a professional ballclub after decades as a mainstay of the Class AA Southern Association. When the Class AAA International League had gone to a two-division, 10-team circuit for 1963, Little Rock had received an expansion franchise. They were a top farm club of the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Richmond pinch-hitter was catcher Jake Gibbs. As he was announced, the crowd erupted with cries of "sooiee!" They remembered the last time Gibbs had appeared in Little Rock.

On Oct. 22, 1960, Gibbs was on the field at War Memorial Stadium as the All-American quarterback for the undefeated Ole Miss Rebels. They were playing #14 Arkansas, that season's eventual Southwest Conference champion.

The Razorbacks and Rebels had faced each other dozens of times since 1908. From 1940-47 and 1952-62 they renewed the rivalry annually. 

In 1960 the game was tied 7-7 late in the fourth quarter when Gibbs engineered a drive beginning on the Mississippi 25-yard line and stalling just inside the Arkansas 40-yard stripe.

Allan Green came on for a 39-yard field goal attempt. Gibbs was the holder as Green lined up for the kick. The roar of the home crowd was deafening. Referee Tommy Bell, a Southeastern Conference official, called time out to quiet the crowd so the Rebels could hear their signals. Green, however didn't hear Bell's whistle and kicked what would have been the winning field goal.

He had to retry the attempt but the result of the re-kick was the same, Ole Miss won the game 10-7.

Arkansas fans were howling mad. They swore that Bell signaled the kick was good as soon as Green's foot contacted the ball. They said the try went wide.The home folks felt Bell's call was a make-good and they roasted the ref. Without multiple cameras and the benefit of slo-mo replays, Bell's call was the final word.

The game came to be known in Arkansas as the "Tommy Bell Game." Although Bell went on to a 15-year career as one of the NFL's most respected officials he had few fans among the Razorback faithful.

The fans in Little Rock got some measure of satisfaction that July night when their one-time nemesis Jake Gibbs popped out.

Yes, that is a Confederate flag on my Civil War News custom

Back on Dec. 18-20, 2014 on my blog I presented a pair of Civil War-themed custom cards in the format of the 1955 Topps Rails and Sails bubblegum card set.

At that time I mentioned that I had plans for a custom card in the style of the 1962 Topps Civil War News set.

Months passed and that project got put on the back burner.

Recent events, however, have spurred me to action. I present herewith my CWN custom, a tribute the University Greys of Ole Miss.

When I first heard the story of that unit, I was deeply moved.

When Mississippi became the second state to secede from the Union, on Jan. 9, 1861, the students at the University of Mississippi, along with many of their professors, left school and formed Company A of the 11th Mississippi Infantry Regiment.

The back of my card offers few more details, and you can spend days on the internet  studying the unit's participation in the war.

The patriotic spirit of the student-soldiers from Ole Miss is exemplified in a surviving letter home from one of Company A's casualties.

It is preserved in John Cofield's blog entry on HottyToddy.com, linked here:

A rebel's last words

As a child collecting Civil War News cards in 1962, I couldn't intelligently discuss the whys and wherefores of the war; I still can't. Suffice it to say that I was--and am--an admirer of the common man who took ups arms to defend what has been romanticized as the Lost Cause.

I have no illusions that the University Greys were the "common man" of 1860s Mississippi. The college students would have certainly been among the slave-holding aristocracy, but they were willing to fight and die for their beliefs. 

And that's all I'm going to say about the current politicization of certain symbols of Southern heritage.

Aw, hell. That's not all I'm going to say.

If that peckerwood had posted internet photos of himself holding the U.S. flag before he desecrated that church would there be an outcry to banish it? Or would the pointy-headed liberals find another pretense to reinterpret and demonize Southern history? Is what the Neo-Reconstructionists are doing any different than Isis's campaign to obliterate what it feels are politically incorrect historic sites and relics in the Mideast and Africa?

Once the Confederate battle flag has been removed from all government properties, will the bronze statues be toppled? Will bodies be exhumed from National cemeteries? There are already reports of Confederate soldiers' headstones being broken or defaced with graffiti. Will the playing of Dixie be outlawed?

Where does it end?

How divisive and/or violent will the inevitable backlash be?

Because my Civil War News custom card uses an original painting, "Imperishable Glory," by noted Gettysburg artist Dale Gallon, I will not be offering it for sale.

A "new" 1952 Bowman card

This was an exciting NFL draft for me. Besides waiting anxiously to see with which team home-town boy Austen Lane would land, and which team would take Tim Tebow and when, I was watching the selections to see where Dexter McCluster was going in the NFL.

I had the pleasure of watching McCluster in person at Ole Miss against Nat'l Champ Florida in 2007. He is a playmaker, though he is decidedly undersize for the NFL. I was hoping that the Green Bay Packers would realize that McCluster could fill a number of their needs, principally as a "change-up" running back and as a punt returner. I don't really follow any other NFL teams, although I have some leftover affection for the N.Y. Jets from my days as a Namath fan, and I'll always watch the Giants with their Ole Miss alumn quarterback. Now I have a reason to tune in the Chiefs when they're on TV.

I decided to go with a 1952 Bowman style card, instead of my usual 1955-Topps All-American, because I found such a great artwork picture of McCluster on the cover of a video game.

Unfortunately, the huge EA Sports logo on the game box covered too much of the player's right side just below the football, so I wasn't able to opt for a vertical format, or plkace the name banner/logo desigjn elements below the picture, as is more commonly seen on '52 Bowmans. Still, I like the final result.