Before the Rookie: Ed Macauley

Ed Macauley's true rookie card arrived in his ninth pro season. His pre-rookie is stranger. A photo barely bigger than a postage stamp came out of the pack blank, and you developed it yourself.

The 1948 Topps Magic Photos #3B comes from what's generally credited as Topps' very first card issue, sold under the Hocus Focus gum name. There were 19 lettered series. Series B is "All American Basketball." The backs pose trivia questions. The fronts stay blank until you wet the card, press it to the chemically treated wrapper and set it in the sun to coax out a sepia portrait. Results varied, which is why so many survive half-developed.

The first series hit shelves late in 1948, months after Macauley led Saint Louis University to the NIT title, back when the NIT was the tournament that mattered. It arrived as he began a senior season that ended with AP Player of the Year honors. It pictures him in his college jersey, about a year before his pro debut. A pre-rookie in the purest sense, and his earliest known card.

His prime then fell inside the nine-year drought between 1948 Bowman and 1957 Topps, so the trail stays sparse. A second pre-rookie arrived in 1955, the All American Sports Club #13, hand-cut from 32-card sheets mailed to $1 fan-club members. It's the same obscure set that holds Bill Russell's pre-rookie #61.

The drought-breaker is the 1957 Topps #27, his first card in a mainstream set, issued in the championship year in St. Louis. A three-time first-team All-NBA center was finally on a card kids could pull from a pack, just as his playing days were winding down.

He was MVP of the first All-Star Game in 1951 and a seven-time All-Star. In 1956 Boston sent him and Cliff Hagan's rights to St. Louis for the draft rights to Bill Russell. Macauley asked owner Walter Brown to make the deal. His young son had been stricken with spinal meningitis, and he no longer knew whether he could return to Boston. He won a ring in 1958, coached the Hawks to the 1960 Finals, and was enshrined that same year at 32, still the youngest male player inducted. In 1989 he was ordained a Catholic deacon.

Images: 1948 Topps Magic Photos #3B front and back; 1955 All American Sports Club #13; 1957 Topps #27.