National Chicle Set - what could have been

[TanksAndSpartans]

First, thanks so much for the positive feedback. I'm glad people enjoyed this. It was fun to do - I worked on it on and off throughout the week and I had lots of scratch outs - it was tough to settle on 36. My last changes before posting were to actually go back and put 4 or 5 of the original cards back in. I really like the set, I didn't want to change it too much.

Originally Posted by Footballdude

Benny Friedman would have been a good one to "stretch" into the set. I think he retired after the 1934 season, so depending on when he announced his retirement and when the cards were prepared and issued for the next season, it is conceivable he could have been added as well. Then, his card could have been pulled from future printings, because of the retirement, thereby creating a great SP rarity.

Nice call on this one. I agree. My last 3 cuts were Link Lyman (another HOFer who retired after 34 season), Roy "Father" Lumpkin, and Harry Newman (premium exists which I noticed after Jeff's post).

Originally Posted by jefferyepayne

This might hint at their plan to put out premium photos of some of the other players in this set. Or that the individual player premiums would later be put on cards. Individual player/coach premiums in the set include: Joe Bach, Eddie Casey, George Christensen, Red Grange, and Harry Newman.

Also interesting to note that a lot of the premiums show action shots from college games. Again, a possible hint that more college stars would be included eventually.

jeff

Jeff, excellent points. I honestly wasn't thinking about the premiums when I made my list. I've seen the Grange premium before, but I was surprised to see the Christensen and Newman premiums. Those are nice to see as was the Giants premium. One of the things that has always bothered me is several card backs mention Bowl games and other specific college games, but not even Ken Strong's card back mentions the NFL championship and Strong had a pretty good game. Just reading the backs of the cards, it seems like college football was still "king". On one hand, I think Chicle wanted to do a professional player set - we've seen the letter written to the Eagles which shows commitment to getting images of pro players, but on the other hand, I think they wanted to hedge and make sure they represented the college game as well. You mentioned the Rockne card and the premiums of college games. Looking at the premium checklist, there are also a few premiums of college players, so I would say, it's not a stretch at all to assume that they would've done cards of college players had interest/funding of the project continued.