Jeff Mullins came to Duke in the Fall of 1960 as a 6-4, 185lb high school All-American from Lexington, Kentucky. He was coach Vic Bubas' second major recruiting success, beating out the University of Kentucky in the recruiting wars one year after snatching Art Heyman away from the clutches of UNC. During his career as a Blue Devil, he scored 1884 points in 86 games, a 21.9 points per game average which ranks him 10th on the all-time Duke scoring list. He was selected to the All-ACC and All-Tournament teams for each of the three years he played on the varsity squad, and as captain of the team in his Senior year, he was named All-American, ACC Player of the Year, ACC Tournament MVP, and a member of the All-NCAA Final Four Team. He helped the Devils reach the Final Four in both '63 and '64, playing his last collegiate game in the championship against UCLA, which began its streak of 10 titles over 12 years with that game. In the first game of the '64 tournament, Jeff scored 43 points and had 12 rebounds playing all 40 minutes against Villanova.
In the summer of '64, Jeff was a member of the US Olympic Basketball team which won the
gold medal in Tokyo. In the 91 Impel US Olympic Hall of Fame card #59 above,
Jeff is second from the left in the
front row standing. He was the fifth overall pick in the NBA draft, signing
with the St. Louis Hawks where he played for two seasons. In '66, he went
to the Warriors, where he played for ten more years.
Jeff was consistantly
near the top of the league in free throw shooting, and led the Warriors in
scoring for four straight seasons. In the 70-71 Topps series, card #4 recognized
Jeff finishing the 1970 NBA season with an 84.7 free throw percentage, which was
third best in the league.
A review of Jeff's cards is a study of the early Topps basketball issues.
After producing a set in 57-58, Topps did not produce a regular
issue basketball set again until 69-70. From that year through the 75-76
season, Jeff appeared in each set, along with the insert sets produced during
that time. His rookie card, #70 in the 69-70 set, is displayed at the top of the page.
These cards, along with the 70-71 set, were 2 1/2"
by 4 11/16", slightly longer than a normal-sized trading card. A special
insert set called "Rulers" was produced with the 69-70 cards, depicting a
cartoon drawing of the top players against a ruler showing the player's height.
In the 70-71 Topps issues, Jeff appears on card #76 as well as the leaders card above. A Poster insert appeared that year printed on thin paper measuring 8" by 10". These inserts were folded to fit into the packs, and between the folds and the thin paper, not many of these survived. Jeff appeared on poster #5, seen below.
Beginning with the 71-72 season, Topps cards measured the normal 2 1/2" by 3 1/2"
size. Below are each of Jeff's regular issue cards during this period:
71-72 Topps #115, 72-73 Topps #85, 73-74 Topps #75, 74-75 Topps #123 & #147,
and 75-76 Topps #157.
In the 71-72 Topps packs, a sticker set called Topps Trios
was inserted randomly. There were three stickers to a 2 1/2" by
3 1/2" card-sized panel. Jeff Mullins appeared on sticker #38, between
Connie Hawkins and Lew Alcindor. The combination of Alcindor and the fact
that this sticker panel was short-printed makes the value of a near-mint,
well-centered card around $100. It the most valuable card featuring
a Duke Player prior to the Grant Hill era.
There are two more Mullins cards which I do not currently have in my collection.
In 1969, a series of 18 cards appeared on the
sides of Converse basketball shoes. Thses cards were 2 3/4" by 4 1/2",
had black-and-white pictures on the front and no backs. The card set,
referred to as the 69 NBAP Members set in Becketts Basketball Price Guide,
has the NBA logo air-brushed out of the players' pictures. Jeff also appeared
in the 71-72 Warriors team issued photo set. These 10" by 8 1/8" cards
had a black-and-white action photo and smaller portrait picture of each player
on the card fronts.
Information about Jeff Mullins' career came from Duke Basketball: An Illustrated History
by Bill Brill, ©1986 Taylor Publishing Company and the 96-97 Duke Basketball Yearbook