In 1964 Topps lost the National Football League. The license went to the Philadelphia Gum Company, which made four NFL sets, 1964 through 1967, while Topps carried on with the AFL alone.
The first of them has 198 cards, fourteen to a team: twelve players, a team card and a play card. Jim Brown is #30.
He kneels on one knee in the brown jersey, number 32, a helmet held in the crook of his arm, in a plain posed picture with a yellow box at the bottom reading JIM BROWN, CLEVELAND BROWNS, FULLBACK. Behind him is a long parked car that collectors have called his pink Cadillac for decades. Whose car it was, and on how many of the Browns cards it appears, is still argued.
Behind him, a car the hobby has called his pink Cadillac for decades.
The season these cards were sold ended with a championship. On December 27, 1964, at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, the Browns beat the Baltimore Colts 27–0 for the NFL title, and Brown carried 27 times for 114 yards.
The set has its quirks: two of the checklist cards still read 1963, and some names are misspelled. The backs are light blue, with a cartoon about the player.
