Hey, pennant guys

[Domer05]

Originally Posted by ooo-ribay

Hey, Kyle, aka pennant maker researcher extraordinaire -

I'm pretty sure I showed this "WC" mark on my 1962 picture pennant (left of photo). I was re-organizing my pennants the other day and found the same WC on a few more. The last one pictured shows a batter in un-enclosed Candlestick but I also found the same mark on similar pennants of post-enclosure Candlestick (1970). Any ideas? A buddy says "Wincraft" but I think we ruled that out.

Rob:

I think the consensus when we last discussed the first two pennants you showed was that Trench made these; and, this "WC" mark was likely a concessionaire's mark. Although we were stumped as to precisely who this concessionaire was.

We found at least one other pennant--a Univ. of California stadium pennant featuring Memorial Stadium, I recall--that also had a similar "WC" mark. It too appeared to be by Trench. So we speculated that WC must have been a San Francisco Bay area concessionaire and/or retailer that sold Trench pennants.

This new/third pennant you discovered is really interesting. Here, the "WC" mark is quite hidden within the artwork (on the batter's knee). I struggled to find it. That's making me re-consider things.... Although, I can think of no pennant manufacturer that went by these initials in the 1960s.

The problem with WinCraft is they didn't come to exist until 1961. And, when it began, it was reportedly a three-person company specializing in buttons and pom-poms for local high schools in Minnesota. So if "WC" on your '62 Giants pennant stood for WinCraft, we'd have to believe they made the astronomical leap from Winona, MN high school buttons to San Francisco Giant pennants, within a year's time.

Which seems unlikely.

I will cover ASCO/WinCraft next on Pennant Fever. Maybe I'll learn more about their early days to be able to shed some new light on this.