A Tale of Two Whizzers

nearmint · February 15, 2005 12:37PM

Every week or two, someone sends me a correction for my football card gallery. Sometimes I have the player's hometown wrong, sometimes his college, sometimes his team. Now and then someone gets really upset about the mistake, which amazes me. I had some player's college listed as Mississippi when he had really gone to Mississippi State, and the woman who corrected me, while not quite nasty, was very stern. There's a big difference, she said, as if I entered the wrong school just to offend her.

Anyway, someone recently sent me a correction (nicely) that I thought might interest the football guys. I didn't know this, but it turns out that there were two Whizzer Whites. I had assumed there was only one Whizzer, Byron "Whizzer" White, who went to Colorado and who appeared in the 1955 Topps All-American set. This Whizzer was a U.S. Supreme Court Justice from 1962 until 1993. (Here is his obituary on the U. of Colorado web site.)

I had assumed that this card, a 1954 Bowman, was Byron's rookie card, and I had it listed as such in the gallery.

It isn't Byron, though. The Bowman card is of Wilford "Whizzer" White, who attended Arizona State. This Whizzer is the father of Danny White, the Cowboys' long-time quarterback.

Interestingly, in college both Whizzers led the country in rushing, Byron in 1937 and Wilford in 1950. This page shows all of the NCAA rushing leaders since 1937, including our two Whizzers. Some of the other names are also familiar to us vintage football guys: Frank Sinkwich, Ollie Matson, J.C. Caroline, Dick Bass, Pervis Atkins, and Brian Piccolo were all NCAA rushing leaders, too.

Mike

boggs301012 · February 15, 2005 1:01PM

And the whizzer on top is the corrected whizzer off hand. I am sure you know there is an error version of that card.

nearmint · February 15, 2005 1:30PM

There is an error version of the 1955 White card; it has Gaynell Tinsley's bio on the back. (Conversely, there's an error version of the Tinsley card that has Whizzer's bio on the back.) I didn't know that there was a difference on the front between the error version and the correct version. How can you tell that this is the correct version?

Southsider · February 15, 2005 11:06PM

Just an update to your update:

Justice White retired from the Court in 1993 and he passed away in 2002.

Did you know that HOFer Alan Page is a justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court?

Justice Alan Page

Read this man's bio. Simply amazing. He was the first defensive player to win the MVP. He went to law school while still playing football!

There should be more people like Alan Page. Can you imagine some of today's players accomplishing as much?

wolfbear · February 16, 2005 12:24AM

Great stuff guys !
Did not know all that stuff about Page.

By the way, the 1970 rookie pic is from nearmints great website , and is available for sale.

I'm guessing that giving someone the nickname "Whizzer" must of meant they could run fast.
Nobody ever gets nicknamed that anymore, but it has a nice ring to it.

I'm even thinking of changing my nickname from Sasquatch to Whizzer ...

kingraider75 · February 16, 2005 12:34AM

I actually have 2ct of each Whizzier and Tinsley error cards graded. Built a graded set and bought upgrades, but didn't sell the doubles. Anyways, the front of the cards is the same, the error is only the back of the card. There have been a lot more of these error cards getting graded lately. The tally use to 20 for the Whizzier, but I think it's up to 30 now. Tinsley use to be in the mid-teens' but now it's over 20 I believe.

I have no knowledge about their being two Whizzier White's. Guess Whizzier must have been a common nickname back in the day.

nearmint · February 16, 2005 12:37AM

Thanks for the update, SouthSider--and for the info on Alan Page. I had no idea what he had accomplished, and you're right, the man is awesome.

And thanks for the pics and the plug, Whizzer Wolf. I love the recent picture of Mr. Page!

Mike

larryallen73 · February 16, 2005 1:22AM

Interesting stuff. Does this mean we may get another Oil Can Boyd or The Bird Fydrich in baseball one day? What are the odds of two Whizzer Whites!?

nearmint · February 16, 2005 2:16AM

<< <i>Does this mean we may get another Oil Can Boyd or The Bird Fydrich in baseball one day? >>

I'll bet there are a few more Oil Can Boyds out there, though they don't seem to have made it to the big leagues. And if there are any more people in this country named Fydrich, I'll bet a few of them are nicknamed The Bird, too. We had a Jeff "Franco" Harris in high school in the Steelers' heyday, and I also know of a white "Spider" Lockhart.

My guess is that since the first Whizzer White was famous, the second Whizzer was nicknamed after him, half a generation later. White being a common name, I'll bet there were hundreds of high school Whizzer Whites at the time--and maybe there still are.

Mike

dallasactuary · February 16, 2005 4:10AM

<< <i>Can you imagine some of today's players accomplishing as much? >>

I'd be shocked if half of today's players are able to read about Page's accomplishments, let alone duplicate them.

A Tale of Two Whizzers

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