1977 Detroit convention in Sports Collectors' News (16 pages!)

[trdcrdkid]

Here are the first 16 pages of the August 15, 1977 Sports Collectors' News, with exhaustive coverage of the Midwest Sports Collectors Convention (the Detroit show), held July 29-31, 1977. More than 5000 people attended, up from 1000 at the 1973 Detroit show that I just posted about; this was the de facto national convention before there was an official National. There is a story about Barry Halper's proposal for a new national association of sports collectors, which actually was formed but never really led anywhere, as far as I know; the results of the Friday and Saturday night auctions; a summary of what people were selling at the convention's 200 tables; and lots of photos, including several of a young, mustachioed Jim Beckett and numerous other well-known hobby figures. I assume that most of the articles here are written by SCN editor Mike Bondarenko, the same guy who wrote the 1969 editorial I posted last night, about the then-new phenomenon of card conventions.