Chew Gum, See Dartmouth
A collection of Green sports cards is bigger than you might think.
As I sorted through baseball cards at a recent sports memorabilia show, a portly, cigarchomping dealer slapped me on the back. "What can I help you find, young man?" he asked. "Well, sir," I replied, "I'm looking for sports cards of former Dartmouth players and..." By the confused look on his face I might as well have been speaking Greek. "Dart-what?"
So goes a normal day in the pursuit of my newest hobby: collecting sports cards of former Dartmouth athletes.
Some people are quick to ridicule it. "Collecting Dartmouth baseball cards? Well, that shouldn't take too long," is a refrain I've heard more than once. But it will surprise many to learn that a complete Dartmouth card collection includes more than 175 different cards, dating back to the early 19305. Hostess Cupcake cards, Post Cereal cards, minor-league cards, as well as traditional bubble-gum cards from the United States and Canada all display former Dartmouth baseball, basketball, football, and hockey standouts. Included are baseball's Robert "Red" Rolfe '31, Pete Burnside '52, Art Quirk '59, Pete Broberg '72, Chuck Seelbach '72, Jim Beattie '76, Tom DeMerit '88, and Mike Remlinger'88; basketball's Rudy LaRusso '59 and Walter Palmer '90; football's Don McKinnon '63, Reggie Williams '76, Nick Lowery '78, and Jeff Kemp '81; and hockey's Carey Wilson '83. For good measure I also have a couple of former Dartmouth baseball coach Tony Lupien's cards. Although former Yankee third baseman and Dartmouth Athletic Director Red Rolfe's 1934 rookie card costs around $350, most Big Green cards run less than $1. The trick is finding the cards, which, unlike those of major stars, are often filed away far from sight in boxes labeled "Commons."
The cigar-smoking card dealer seemed genuinely interested in my hobby once I explained that Dartmouth was an Ivy League college. "Just be thankful you don't collect Columbia cards," he said between puffs. "Those would cost you an arm and a leg." The reason: Hall-of-Famer Lou Gehrig graduated from Columbia. His 1933 card costs around $3,500.
Andrew Edison haunts card stalls in Charlottesville, Virginia.
