2005-2006 Topps Fan Favorite Ollie Taylor # FFA-OTA

I am happy to report that I have a new scanner. That means more & better pictures from my personal collection. Digital cameras can do wonders, but scanners are just better for cards.

Today's card is my latest addition to my collection. I've been trying to win one on eBay for a while, but at a price I wanted to pay. Unfortunately I kept getting my bids sniped at the end. So I put bids on 2 different auctions that ended within an hour of each other. I figured if I got sniped on one, I'd win the other. Of course, I won both of them. The duplicate will be going to a fellow Coog that was nice enough to give me a set of the 1992 Motion Sports Football cards featured in August.

The card is of Ollie Taylor from the 2005-2006 Topps Fan Favorite Set. There are so many reasons why I love this card.

First of all, it's an old school style card. Just a clean picture on a plain, but colorful background. The back of the card has some stats and a fun fact. No fancy graphics, multiple photos, glossy card stock, or special effects. This reminds me of the cards of my youth. Probably some good old day syndrome, but I love it.

Second, it's from the ABA. Who doesn't love the ABA? Maybe some people who never got to see it, but I can't imagine anyone else.

Third, it's Ollie Taylor. Long before Phi Slamma Jamma, Taylor was skywalking and dunking for UH in the late '60s. Supposedly he had a 46" vertical. WOW! At 6'2", he played post & jumped center (and won) against guys like Kareem. I highly recommend reading this article about him. It's an amazing story.

Finally, it's autographed by Ollie Taylor. Where else am I going to get his autograph?

2007 Topps TX Exclusive Silver Vincent Marshall 152

The 2007 Texas Bowl featuring UH vs TCU is coming up December 28th, 7 PM at Reliant Stadium. Click here to buy your tickets. If you can't make it to the game, watch it on the NFL Network or channel 27 in the DFW area.

Speaking of UH bowls, let's look back on one of the best plays in recent bowl history. Who can forget the end of regulation time in the 2003 Hawaii Bowl when Vincent Marshall took an 81 yard pass from Kevin Kolb to tie the game up in the final minute?



Unfortunately Houston lost the game in overtime, but Marshall would go on to become UH's all-time career leader in receptions and receiving yards.

Since you're a UH collector, you need to have a football card for UH's all-time receiver, so let's look at the 2007 Topps TX Exclusive set card #152. There are 4 variations of this card: Base, Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Pictured below is the Silver variation.

As far as I know, this is the only Vincent Marshall card on the market, but hopefully he'll have more in the future.

Baseball Card Checklist

Finally an addition to the UH collectibles checklist. Previously I did a checklist for basketball (which I'm sure needs updating by now). This time, I have a list of UH baseball collectibles. The list is available both in Excel & pdf formats. If you know of any missing players or collectibles, please let me know.

Baseball Checklist Highlights:

• There are 3313 collectibles for 38 ex-UH players
• The player with the most cards is Ryan Wagner with 602. That does include all card variations.
• The oldest card listed is from 1954 for Bill Henry on a Red Sox Team Issue card. 1955 Bowman card of Bill Henry was released the next year.
• Plenty of minor league cards are included on the list

Click here for the pdf version (178 kb)
Click here for the Excel version (730 kb)

The checklist will also remain available in the navigation on the left for your future reference.

Next checklist... football

Carlton Hanta 1960 Doyusha 4 in 1

Not all UH baseball players play in the US. For example, Carlton Hanta played in the Japanese league. He played for the Nankai Hawks and Chunichi Dragons.

This card is from the 1960 Doyusha 4 in 1 set. Also featured on this card is Japanese Base Hall of Famers Motoshi Fujita, Osamu Mihara, and the legendary Sadaharu Oh.

Hanta is at the top left.

Chandi Jones and Sancho Lyttle

It's easy to focus on collectibles of the male athletes, but let's look at the ladies today. We have two of the best ladies basketball players in UH history: Chandi Jones and Sancho Lyttle.

Chandi Jones was Conference USA Freshman of the Year in 2001 and was Conference USA Player of the year in 2002, 2003, & 2004. She was 2nd team All American in 2004 and is the all time UH scoring leader.

Sancho Lyttle was an All-Conference USA first teamer in 2005 and was an All American Honorable mention.

Both players were selected in the first round of the WNBA draft.

Today's cards are the 2004 WNBA Fleer Ultra #98 for Chandi Jones and 2006 WNBA 10th Anniversary #34 for Sancho Lyttle.

1957 UH vs USM Football Program

Think that the University of Houston didn't play Southern Miss prior to Conference USA? Think again. UH played USM once before on November 9th, 1957.

Southern Miss (or Mississippi Southern as they were known then) came into the game with a perfect 7-0 record including 6 shutouts and only 6 points in the 7th game. UH came in at 2-4-1.

But UH was not to be denied this day. After it was over, UH won 27-12. The Coogs were led by Claude King who scored twice and average 12 yards per carry. The Coogs would end the season by winning their next 2 games to end with a 5-4-1 record and their second consecutive Missouri Valley Conference championship. USM would lose 2 of their next 3 including the Tangerine Bowl and have a final record of 8-3.

UH USB Flash Drive

This is just too cool. I love flash drives. This one has very little memory, but it has the Cougar logo. Save all of your UH pics on this or download the basketball checklist to share with other Cougar alums.