A Mystery 49er from 1974

[Evan]

Okay, I need the Forum's help for this one. I came across this fellow in the NFL Films highlights of a 1974 Oakland at San Francisco game, but I have no idea who he is (he looks kind of like Forrest Blue and Larry Schreiber, but is neither one).

There is no No. 50 for SF in the OAK-SF gamebook, and if his number is actually 58, that was Bill McKoy, who I believe did not look like this guy at all (please correct me if I'm wrong).

According to Pro Football Reference, there was a No. 50 who played for SF later in the year, Ceasar Belser, which is a very odd number for him as he wore no. 24 as a DB for KC earlier in his career. http://www.pro-football-reference.com/p ... lsCe20.htm.

So two questions:

1. Can anybody identify this mystery No. 50 for the 1974 49ers?
2. Just curious, why would Caesar Belser be assigned a No. 50 as a DB ... or is that a mistake, as in, he did not wear No. 50, or whoever wore No. 50 was not Caesar Belser?

Thanks in advance for any insight. I've exhausted all other research options I'm aware of!

[MatthewToy]

Did a google image search on Caesar Belser and it's definitely not him. Mr. Belser is black. Unfortunately that's all I got.

[Wendell02]

This might be an absurd notion, but here goes. If the image in the highlight film is from stock footage from a previous season, it might be Ed Beard. Beard was a LB for the 49ers from 1965-1972 and wore #50. Mustache, sideburns, hair color. Even the part in the hair is on the same side. Not sure when this photo was taken.

Ed Beard.jpg (14.36 KiB) Viewed 11815 times

[TodMaher]

This might be an absurd notion, but here goes. If the image in the highlight film is from stock footage from a previous season, it might be Ed Beard. Beard was a LB for the 49ers from 1965-1972 and wore #50. Mustache, sideburns, hair color. Even the part in the hair is on the same side. Not sure when this photo was taken.

Ed Beard.jpg

That's what I was thinking - they simply threw in some footage from another season or even the preseason game (but Beard retired on Aug. 15 and the preseason game was Sept. 2).

And Belser wore #50 (and #65) for the 49ers in 1974 because they had him playing LB.

[Evan]

Wow, that's some serious detective work fellas, thanks a million!

I think that must be Ed Beard. I wonder if there was any chance he snuck in to that 1974 Oak-SF game somehow, perhaps as a last-minute replacement of some kind. I only wonder as I wasn't aware that NFL Films used the "filler stock footage" on their team highlights, it seems like all that stuff is from the year it is reviewing. But I suppose anything is possible.

If you want the context, the shot is at the 12:23 portion of this 1974 Raiders highlights film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCR4dzqsLjw

Thanks again, I really can't believe you all came up with that stuff.

[MatthewToy]

I'm going to say stock footage from a previous season because in 74 SF had a slightly different jersey number font than in the early 70s. But they could easily have had a few players wearing the older jerseys since a lot of teams then had mismatched jerseys.

[JohnR]

Taking stock footage from a prior season isn't that unusual. Editors need a tired sad old face to tell the story of defeat...OK, here's a good one.
Also, in 1974 the Niners had iron on numbers and Ed's are sewn on.