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Joe Gilliam's 1975 Topps Football Card:
Historic Player -- Wasted Talent
By Mike Bonner
Trivia Question:
Who was the first black starting QB in the history of the National Football League?
Answer: Joe Gilliam
Before examining the sole contemporary Topps football card of Joe Gilliam, it's fascinating to consider the career of
this pioneering player. In sum, it amounts to a tragic case of wasted talent, possibly the worst in the hundred year history
of American professional football.
You have to wonder what could have been because the ability was there. Even in his final season of appearances in a professional
uniform, Gilliam was a force to be reckoned with. He was an amazing quarterback, when clean.
Let's revisit a series of games near the end of Gilliam's turbulent career, when he was signed late to a USFL squad, the
Washington Federals, in a desperation move.
It was in the early spring of 1983, some eight years after Gilliam had been bounced from the NFL Pittsburgh Steelers for
inattention to his job and drug abuse.
Gilliam got plucked from a New Orleans loading dock by Ray Jauch, the coach of the new and struggling Federals franchise.
Both Jauch's No. 1 and 2 quarterbacks -- Mike Hohensee and Kim McQuilken -- got scratched in Week Six of the USFL's inaugural
season because of injuries. Jauch needed a sharp, savvy vet who could pick up Washington's pass-oriented playbook on the fly.
Enter Joe Gilliam. (Although spelled like it ought to be "Gill-ee-am," the correct pronunciation was "Gill-um."
By now Joe had gotten his drug problems (temporarily) under control, and eagerly signed on.
The 1-5 Federals had nothing to lose by starting Gilliam on April 11 against the 3-3 Arizona Wranglers, led by Alan Risher,
the former LSU Tigers QB. The resulting game was a wild back-and-forth that featured several lead changes.
Gilliam's passing performance was more inspired than safe, completing eleven of 30 for 203 yards.
He also had four interceptions, but most critically, drove the Federals into position to win at the end.
Unfortunately, the potentially winning field goal (held by Gilliam) skewed wide.
The rattler-bit Federals with Gilliam as signal caller lost another squeaker the following week. This time it came as
the Federals scored late on an incredible 52-yard pass from Gilliam to running back Craig James.
That pulled them to within a point of Herschel Walker's New Jersey Generals. All Gilliam had to do now was run or pass
on a two point conversion for the lead.
Unfortunately, Gilliam's pass failed. In two more games Gilliam would appear on the field for the hapless Federals, amassing
170 yards in hard-fought loss to the Tampa Bay Bandits on April 24 and 164 yards and eleven completions on 34 tries during
a 35 to 3 shellacking by Rollie Dotsch's Birmingham Stallions on May 1.
He had four interceptions in the Mayday game, too.
Some fifty years later, the tragic outlines Joe Gilliam's struggles are poignant to historians of professional football.
For those of us who closely follow the sport, the dimensions of athletic excellence the man threw away still astonish.
****
Turning the clock back another decade, to 1973 -- young Joe Gilliam is fresh out of Tennessee State. He is running at
high tide. After four decades of Pittsburgh Steelers futility, Chuck Noll had fashioned a breakout season in 1972, which included
the "Immaculate Reception" game.
But midway through 1973, three losses in a row spurred Noll to raise Gilliam from the taxi squad to compete at QB with
unproductive veteran Terry Hanratty and a still-shaky fourth year man, Terry Bradshaw.
In some limited game appearances, Gilliam shined.
The next season, Gilliam was starting for the Steelers, eclipsing the two Terrys with his quickness, field command, accuracy,
and arm strength. In doing so, Gilliam achieved a noteworthy mark -- he became the first starting quarterback of African-American
descent in National Football League history. Fans across the country watched closely.
Steelers head coach Chuck Noll was famous for having a racial blind spot, with people saying he had about as much interest
in a player's ancestry and race as eye color.
In Noll's world, only results counted.
Raised in a Cleveland, Ohio neighborhood that mixed recent East European immigrants with "Great Migration" African-Americans
more or less willy-nilly, Noll had come to adulthood as unprejudiced as a toddler.
So it wasn't any kind of bias that prevented Gilliam from the success and recognition that black athletes of his caliber
later won. Celebrated stars such as Steve McNair, Donovan McNabb, and yes, Patrick Mahomes come to mind.
For Gilliam there would be no blaming of the team or the power structure. It was Gilliam's own doing, due to his imperfect
attention to his job as quarterback and fondness for putting drugs into his body.
There's a saying that the criminals who control the drug trade use to describe their marketing strategy:
"The first one's free."
What that means in effect is that they don't sell the drug to the user, the sell the user to the drug. In the final analysis,
Gilliam sold it all to drugs, including his own life.
He really fell into a hole after his football years -- broke, jobless, often homeless. Towards the end, he finally pulled
himself together and quit using, returning to a normal life, and in contact with his family once again.
He had been clean for years until, evidently, his resolve broke down on Christmas Day 2000, after watching an NFL Cowboys-Titans
football game on TV.
The authorities deemed it a cocaine overdose.
Joe was fifty years old.
Rest in peace, Joe.
Long after your 1970s heyday, you could still manage to deliver fun football to fans. I watched those USFL games forty
years ago. Thanks for the thrills.
****
Which brings us to the next phase of what interests us as football card collectors. Discriminating hobbyists might consider
adding the Topps football card of Gilliam to their private stash, it being the only contemporary football card issued during
his career.
The Topps Joe Gilliam football card, Number 182 in the 1975 set, shows him posing with a football in his black and gold
uniform. His card is a typical Topps product of the era, measuring standard size at 2½ by 3½ inches, on low grade cardboard,
imperfect centering, a prosaic design, and staid photography. Gilliam has his throwing arm cocked back on a grassy field with
trees in the background -- it's the Steelers summer camp in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
But it exists. An authentic Gilliam card exists. There are cards available showing Gilliam in his USFL suit, but these
are modern "retro" cards created from old photos. No 1980s Topps USFL card of Gilliam was ever made.
As collectors, it's time to take a fresh view and forgive Joe for his transgressions, not just against his family and
the sport of football, but against himself.
Not only is Gilliam's card affordable at about $5.00, it's historically significant. There are many specimens available
and I am adding another to my vault.
It's time to reconsider the Joe Gilliam card.
The End
Mike Bonner is the author, along with Carl Lamendola, of Collecting Vintage Football Cards, A Complete Guide with Checklists,
available for $25.99 from on-line retailers everywhere.
A video of the April 17, 1983 Washington Federals vs New Jersey Generals USFL game, announced by Lynn Swann and Keith
Jackson, is on YouTube at the link below:
Federals vs Generals - April 17, 1983
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