1970s Parker Brothers Pro Draft Football Game
 

I picked up this 1970s football game at a yard sale recently and didn't look closely at it until now. The box is in pretty good shape, except for some crease marks in the top right corner (as if something heavy was placed on it or someone stepped on it). The inside contents are very clean and it appears to have hardly been played, except for the Topps football cards, which have some slight corner wear and a few creases here and there.

The box says the game contains 50 trading cards, but I counted 52 in the stack. When I bought it I didn't search it closely, but some "star" cards - Staubach, Simpson, Harris, etc. - were mixed in throughout the stack.

The Topps cards vary over several years in the early/mid '70s. I understand that the kid who owned it might have mixed in his own cards, but I'm wondering if a specific year of Topps cards were used originally or were they actually mixed among several years when the game was distributed?

Anyone here know much about this game? Thanks.

Hi Brad -- we catalogue football games as well as baseball at our site, but we're not too "up" on details for most football games.
Our best information, though, for whatever that's worth, is that Pro Draft was produced in only 1974. We're fairly confident that
the Topps cards included in the game were from the '74 set only, so our suspicion, like yours, is that a previous owner
probably traded some of the game cards away and mixed in Topps football from other seasons.

The box is showing the game being played with cards from 1973, so I would assume that this is what would have come with the game.

Tim, that may very well be correct, but -- again for what it may be worth -- all the examples (not a great many) that we've seen of the game
at auction or for sale have included 1974 Topps cards while showing '73s on the box lid.

Thanks for the input, fellas. I don't have the game in front of me but I would estimate that my stack of cards has roughly 30 of the 1974s, maybe 10 '73s and 5-6 each of the '72s and '75s.

The '72s and '75s seem to be more of the "star" type of players, so my guess is that over time the owner simply replaced some of the commons with a few of his favorite players.

I really don't have any interest in playing it (just thought it was a good deal at a yard sale), but it would be interesting to find an unopened version of this game so we could see how it originally came to the consumer.

Interesting that they would have the 1974 cards. If they most always have the 1974 cards, then I would guess it was probably developed in 1973 (showing the current year cards) then published in 1974 with the 1974 cards, probably just didn't want to change the packaging at that point.

The cards that were in the game originally were made specially for the game.

The fronts are 74 fronts, with a couple pose differences between the regular ones and the game cards. The backs usually have slight differences often a little as a different number of asterix in the copyright line.

There's a good checklist here
http://www.footballcardgallery.com/s...rker+Brothers/

I've had 3 or four of the games, and if I remember correctly eventually the complete set, but probably not all the variations within the set.

Steve B

The set came w/ 50 cards, every box had the same 50 cards. They originally produced the set and all cards varied from the regular Topps cards in that they exhibited two asterisks on the back next to the copyright line whereas the regular Topps cards had one, they also changed the cards for several of the cards in the regular set that were "All-Pro" cards and changed them to regular cards... these changed cards tend to be the ones in higher demand as they are true variations.

Late in the game run they remade the set and this time the cards all had the regular one asterisk on back like regular Topps cards but the "changed cards" were still the non-All Pro variety but this time w/ just the one asterisk on back... this later set is harder to find for those that care and the non-All-Pro cards are rarer than the regular Pro Draft versions but since the remainder of the cards are indistinguishable from Topps cards the two sets tend to sell for about the same.

Hope that helps

Steve and Rhett, thanks for the details and insights on the game.

Tim, yes, that would be typical of Parker Brothers' procedure in game production.

Thanks to all for the insight - Steve, that checklist link was hugely helpful.

I have three of the '74 "error" cards that later had the photos changed out - all are a bit beat up, with corner bends and creases in the upper right:

#49 Bob Windsor
#124 Forrest Blue
#127 Bob Tucker

These all have the 1972 stat lines and the double asterisks. Actually, all of my 1974 cards that have stats on them show the 1972 stat line - but I guess maybe some of them were never corrected? (They're not listed as "errors" on that website link.)

Lastly, my stack includes not only Ken Bowman's 1974 card that came with the game, but also a mis-cut version of a 1973 card of Ken Bowman/Pete Duranko. That combover on Bowman - mixed with the fu manchu - is simply an amazing look. :)

I thought I remembered the set as all having the 72 date. I went with the checklist since I was too lazy to try to find the cards. I guess I should trust my memory a bit more. :)

The color of the backs is also a bit different. You can see that in his scans. Maybe that's a way to tell the "identical" ones apart?

Steve B