1966 Topps #278 Calvin Koonce
About Calvin Koonce
Number 278 places Koonce in the 1966 set's third series, still a Cub. The back belongs to 1965, his second and last full season in a big-league rotation: 38 appearances, 23 of them starts, a 7-9 record and a 3.69 ERA across 173 innings, with three complete games and one shutout. Only his rookie year brought him more work. After two summers of shuttling between Chicago and Triple-A he stuck in the majors for the whole schedule, and the 3.69 mark was the best full-season ERA he had managed to that point.
Calvin Lee Koonce, a right-handed pitcher born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on November 18, 1940, grew up in Hope Mills and played baseball and basketball at Campbell College, then a two-year school, where he earned junior college All-American honors in 1961. The Cubs signed him that May, and he reached Chicago in April 1962. Over parts of ten seasons with the Cubs, New York Mets and Boston Red Sox through 1971 he went 47-49 with a 3.78 ERA, 504 strikeouts and 24 saves in 334 games, 90 of them starts, moving from the rotation to the bullpen as he went. His best year came in 1968 with the Mets, and he was a reliable relief arm on the 1969 World Series champions under Gil Hodges. A Campbell man like Gaylord Perry, Koonce admitted while still active that he loaded an occasional pitch with perspiration. He later coached seven seasons at his alma mater, Campbell University, retiring in 1986 as its winningest baseball coach at 174-123 and as Big South Coach of the Year, and he was inducted into the Campbell Sports Hall of Fame in 1987. He scouted for the Texas Rangers, ran the minor league Fayetteville Generals, and died of lymphoma on October 28, 1993, at 52.
Sources: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 258 | 5 | 42 | 136 | 52 | 14 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
| SGC | 10 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-09-04. Half grades fold down for both graders (8.5→8); PSA qualified slabs (OC, ST, PD, MC and the like) are not counted. Where SGC registers no separate row for a variation state, its slabs of that card are listed under the base state.
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Related cards
Team card: #204 Chicago Cubs
More Chicago Cubs cards:
- #2 Ted Abernathy
- #24 Don Kessinger
- #43 Don Landrum
- #63 Jim Stewart
- #82 Bob Hendley
- #110 Ernie Banks
- #139 Cubs 1966 Rookie Stars
- #146 George Altman
- #166 Chris Krug
- #185 Bob Buhl
- #217 National League 1965 Home Run Leaders
- #232 Glenn Beckert
- #246 Ed Bailey
- #290 Ron Santo
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #278 card?
It is card #278 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Calvin Koonce of the Chicago Cubs.
How many cards are in the 1966 Topps Baseball set?
598 cards, tracked as 613 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 598 with no gaps and no number used twice, and 14 cards carry catalogued print variations - five checklists, the trade and sold statement backs, the three-state #43 Don Landrum, three team-card dot pairs and the #161 Jerry Lumpe white streak - that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, Baseball Almanac, Baseball-Reference, the SABR BioProject and the National Baseball Hall of Fame, PSA & SGC population reports. Card data compiled and maintained by T206Cards.com. Page last updated 2026-10-11.