Ode to Post-war Football Oddball Sets

[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

[DBesse27]

So much great stuff - the bazookas, the cranes, the wheaties!!

[jefferyepayne]

Tresler Comet is a great little regional set from the early days of the Cincinnati Bengals. There's some real star power in this set! Check it out.











jeff

[jefferyepayne]

In 1951 Berk Ross produced a multi-sport set of 72 cards that came in four windowed boxes containing two card perforated panels. Over half the cards are of baseball players but there are eight college football players in the set including several stars.









jeff

WOW Jeff, Sweet Tresler Comet and Berk Ross cards!

Surprised no one has mentioned the 1962 Post yet; Unitas and Tarkenton RC: