Rowr.

I haven't posted a card from my vintage binge in a while so here's an oddbally one:

1951 Topps Animals of the World - Cougar

There was a whole slopload of non-sports cards in the bargain box and I had to pick out a few choice ones, especially if they were an old Topps card. There were a whole bunch of these cards in the box and it took me a while to finally choose a cougar as my Topps type card animal, but I had a really good reason for it.

NO. NO. WRONG. BAD.

Not that kind of cougar and anyways, she's a puma. No, I picked this card because the mascot of my high school was the Henderson Cougars.

Ok, so my high school is now a middle school. Our football team sorta played like a middle school team. True story: the five years I went to that school (grades 8-12, I didn't flunk!) we got massacred on our homecoming game every single year except once. My senior year we beat Druid Hills (traditionally the stoner school who couldn't play football worth a flip) something like 62-7. The kids from Druid Hills made fun of us after that because they actually scored a touchdown. Of course I was in the marching band tooting away on a tuba at the time so it wasn't my fault!

This guy here taught me algebra in the 8th grade. George B. Maloof, one of the few teachers (or people in general, actually) from high school that I miss. Godspeed, George. Interestingly enough, he taught my ungle algebra also. This guy could coach and teach! See his shirt? Henderson Cougars? MY SCHOOL. So I got this card instead of the gorilla or the quagga.

This card set was put out in 1951 as a follow up to their Bring 'em Back Alive set (which you'll see soon enough, muahaha). Since it's a continuation of that first set, the 100 card set is numbered from 101-200. It's a pretty simple set, the front is just a picture of an animal with a small colored background and plenty of white space. The back reads like an encyclopedia summary, with a little bit of horror at the end to give '50s kiddos a thrill. The wrapper seems to be emphasizing the educational aspect of the cards with the Animals of the Zoo theme. No worries, we'll get into lurid sensless violence soon enough (again, muahaha!) This is still a pretty nifty card from Topps that pre-dates their mainstream baseball set. And it's a Cougar! Go Cougars!