1981 Topps #17 Otis Birdsong

Congratulations to Robert "Fluff" McKiver for his 52 point night against USM on Wednesday. Anytime a player reaches a benchmark like that, it's time to review other great scorers in UH's past.

Fluff was only the 4th player in Cougar history to score at least 50 points in one game. The first to do it was Don Boldebuck on 2/7/55 when he scored 50 points against Sam Houston State. Next was Lyle Harger on 2/16/63 when he scored 50 against Trinity.

Elvin Hayes is the other player to score at least 50. He did it 4 times with his biggest game of 62 points on 2/24/68 against Valparaiso.

I was surprised to hear that Otis Birdsong never scored 50 in a game. Otis has the second highest season average in UH history at 30.3 points per game in '76-'77. It's amazing that he could average that high and not score 50 points. That shows his ability to consistently score every game. Hayes is 1st, 3rd, & 4th on that list.

Today's collectible is the 1981 Topps #17 of Otis Birdsong.

2008 Senior Bowl Donnie Avery

Donnie Avery is participating in the NFL Draft Combine this weekend. Good luck to him and to all Cougars trying to make their way to the NFL or any other professional football league.

Today's card is Donnie Avery's 2008 Senior Bowl Card. These cards are given away at the Senior Bowl Fan Freezy.

1991-1992 Kellogg's College Greats #11 Hakeem Olajuwon

Hakeem "The Dream" Olajuwon in his college uniform. How could it get better? Well... it's a food product based card which, until recently, have frequently been very cheap and cheesy looking. That's true here too, but it's still a nice card.

On the front of the card, Hakeem looks great going up for the dunk. The red border accents the uniform and picture well. The yellow Kellogg's logo stands out, but it doesn't distract from the rest of the card. The classic skinny UH logo is also on the front.

The back of the card is very basic... skinny UH logo, Kellogg's logo, & Raisin Bran logo at the top. The name, position, and jersey number are listed. Awards and honors as well as college stats for his enter Cougar career are listed. It's great to own a card that has fairly complete stats for reference.

Football Card Checklist

A list of Cougar football players and coaches collectibles is now available. It is available in both pdf and Excel versions. Besides the links in this post, they will also be available on the left under checklists.

There are 4386 cards/collectibles for 142 players/coaches. The list is based on November's Beckett so I'm sure there are already plenty of cards to be added later.

That's one step closer to my comprehensive list. A list of golf cards is still needed. Baseball, basketball, and even football need to be updated. And I'm working on my programming skills so hopefully my dream of creating UH collectibles software/website will become a reality.

1985 Topps #45 Jim Jeffcoat

We'd like to welcome Jim Jeffcoat as the Defensive Line coach for the University of Houston. Click here for the official announcement. As a lifelong Dallas Cowboys fan, I'm very excited by this hire. He was a great player and solid coach for the Cowboys.

Today's collectible is Jeffcoat's rookie card, 1985 Topps #45. This is a very sharp looking card with the black border which is always a danger to collectors. If you handle your cards at all, you'll know it's very difficult to keep those black borders in excellent shape.

1994-1995 Jam Session Gamebreakers #5 Hakeem Olajuwon

Who doesn't love an oversized basketball card? Probably a lot of people, but I enjoy them. The extra long cards seem to emphasize the height of the players. In the '60s there were oversized cards including Elvin Hayes' Rookie Card. In 1993, Fleer introduced the Jam Session brand which brought the oversize back.

Today's card is from the 1994-1995 Jam Session set. It is an Gamebreakers insert card featuring Hakeem Olajuwon. In addition to being oversized, the image of Olajuwon is also embossed which also makes it pop.

It's a gimmicky card, but I think it's a clean look with some sharp graphics.

1991 Wild Card Draft #134 Chuck Weatherspoon

SPOON!!!! Chuck Weatherspoon is definitely a UH fan favorite. I have plenty of memories of watching Spoon play, but my favorite was watching him run over UT in 1988.

That was my first UH game in Austin and the Coogs destroyed the Horns 66-15. With a score like that, plenty of players had gaudy numbers. For example, current Cougar coach Jason Phillips had 11 catches for 171 yards and 4 TDs. But I remember every time Spoon touched the ball, it seemed like he was breaking a long run. He only had 11 carries, but he managed to gain 218 yards and had 1 TD. That's 19.8 yards a carry.

Today's collectible is the 1991 Wild Card Draft card #134. For those not familiar with Wild Card, the brand had a trade in element. There was a base card as well as 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, and 1000 stripe cards. A collector could mail in 5 of the same card, for example, and get a 5 card stripe card in return. Or he could mail in a 50 stripe card and get 50 base cards in return. Interesting concept and an early variation card set, but I don't know how successful it was.