Ode to Post-war Football Oddball Sets

[jefferyepayne]

Nice oddball stuff, guys!

This set is tough. One of the only AAFC card sets out there.







jeff

[jefferyepayne]

In 1948 a regional set of sports stars was distributed in the DC area. It is believed to be the first police set produced and goes by the name Safe-T-Card. The set includes a total of 67 cards with 30 of them being Redskins. Most of the cards have a B&W front but a few use colored ink. The backs have multiple colors. This is a very difficult set to complete

Here are some of the Redskins:





There are actually two different Sammy Baugh cards in this set. They look very similar with one having a larger head shot than the other.





The old HOF lineman makes the set as a Redskin executive.





Besides the Redskin players/coaches, there are a couple of other football related cards of interest.



I believe this is the only card of NY Jets founder Harry Wismer back in his Sports Director days.



Not sure why Corinne was included in the set and not her husband, Redskin founder George Preston Marshall. Maybe the police liked her better? Regardless, they spelled her first name wrong which probably didn't make George very happy.

jeff

[obiwin]

Thanks for sharing these. A very tough set indeed. I've lost out by a lot on several auctions for these.

Corinne Griffith was a very famous and popular silent film actress, so was probably way more collectable than Marshall himself.

[DBesse27]

I've always loved the Dixie lids and the Sears Brown's cards. This is a great thread!

[jefferyepayne]

One of my all-time favorite odd ball football sets is 1959 Bazooka. These cards are cut from the bottom of a 20 piece Bazooka gum box and the set is very difficult to complete. It includes 18 cards with three short-prints: Groza, Tracy, and Conerly. Jim Brown is also very difficult to find.

Here are some of my favorites.













jeff

Love the 1959 Bazookas. Great looking cards, and yes the Brown is very difficult.

If you're on a budget, here's a reasonable Walter Payton Rookie Card from the 1976 Crane Potato Chips Set. Even NRMT condition whole sets don't cost much more than $30. A handful of great Hall of Famers in this 30 large disc set. Paired with the 1976 Pepsi disc/football/tabs, it's a pretty comprehensive checklist of Cincinnati Bengals, haha Here's a very brief article by Dan Beyers which references the fate of the Crane Potato Chips Company: https://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...laQ_story.html

[jefferyepayne]

Nice Crane set, Ty! I always liked those.

Throughout the years, Wheaties has featured football players on their boxes periodically. In the 1930s, they produced a bunch of cards that I wrote an article on for Gridiron Greats Magazine (with Joe Squires). In the 1950s, Wheaties produced a multi-sport set of cards also distributed on boxes of cereal. There are six football players in the set, each with two poses: a portrait and an action shot. Here are a few.









These are readily available on ebay and occasionally someone will sell a complete Wheaties back panel that includes multiple cards on it.

Also produced in the 1930s and 1950s were single serve Wheaties boxes with athletes on them. These are much scarcer than the other Wheaties items, probably because single serve boxes were not as popular and probably purchased mostly by restaurants and other types of food service instead of consumers.

I believe this 1951 single serve Johnny Lujack is the only football player on a single serve box from the 1950s but could be wrong on that.



jeff