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Originally Posted by vintagechris
For those who collected cards in the 50's(Ted Z and any others), how popular were football cards compared to baseball in the 50's? How did kids generally view football cards?
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I collected football cards in the late 50s and early 60s, and, though they certainly weren't as popular as baseball cards, football cards had their appeal. It may be a function of where you grew up, of course.
I was raised outside Pensacola, Fla., where the closest major league baseball franchise was hundreds of miles away (St. Louis until the Houston Colt 45s were born in 1962). There was only one baseball game on television each week and the only radio games were the Mutual Game of the Day each weekday afternoon and the Cardinals on KMOX at night. Though NFL cities were just as distant, college football (Auburn and Alabama more than Florida State and Florida, which were not the powers they are today) was a year-round topic. There were lots of areas of the US like that in the 50s and 60s. By the way, the TV networks fed us a weekly dose of Washington Redskins games (and they were pretty bad then), considering D.C. the NFL's Southern outpost.
Besides the familiarity with college football players (remember that NFL sets emphasized a player's college credentials and some earlier sets had pictured active college players), the football sets were small and featured mostly star players. Thus, much less of a financial commitment for youngsters and more bang for your nickle (don't forget the insert stickers, tattoos, etc.).
Bob Richardson