Tuesday 20 August 2013

The new oldest card in my 2/14 binder


Move over Tom Borland. Ronnie Knox has you beat. Your 1960 card is nice, but this one is from 1957.

I didn't have much hope in finding a card of his when I saw his profile at football reference consisted of 1 game. But, sometimes it still does pay to look, and I was able to get my hands on this one for about 70 cents plus 1 dollar shipping.

Now that I had one, I was interested in finding out more about him.

He came out of UCLA but only played for one season due to financing issues. He came to the CFL, then quit to become an actor. He then signed with the Bears, but got suspended after his stepfather's open criticism of the team. He then went back to the CFL, and played for a couple years with the Argonauts,  including a 522 yard passing performance, before trying the Hollywood thing again.

He did get a few roles. There wasn't anything major, but if you're a fan of the cheesy 60s Batman TV show, you might remember one of them. He played Skip Parker in "Surf's Up, Joker's Under", in where he was kidnapped by the Joker and had his surfing knowledge transferred out of him with a Surfing Experience and Ability Transferometer.

See! I'm not making any of this up!

Anyhow, after that, we move to a stage that wikipedia titles "a drifter, and a poet". Which seems accurate to describe his life until his passing in 1992.

He has a lot more written about him than you'd figure someone with 1 NFL game to his credit would, and it is an interesting read if you've got time to kill.  He's definitely among the more interesting characters in the binder.

Ronnie Knox, Rest in Peace
The Sordid Tale Of Ronnie Knox
Some Thank Yous and More on Ronnie Knox
Poetry in Motion



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