Football & Pizza - The 1986 Jeno's Pizza Rolls NFL Stickers

As we approach Super Sunday, I wanted to take a look at a set that combines the two elements that make the day so special - food and great football action! In 1986 Jeno's ran a promotion where they included NFL team action stickers inside their boxes of Pizza Rolls:

A number of the stickers feature great action shots from previous Super Bowls, such as Joe Namath leading the Jets over the Colts in Super Bowl III:


Thankfully Jeno's put their logo on the back of the sticker instead of the front so that we get a very nice clean uncluttered photo, that just happens to look exactly like the 1966 Philadelphia Football play cards:



Each team had 2 stickers, which means a full set consists of 56 stickers. Here is a look at the full set:








What I really like about the stickers is that the photos are not closely cropped shots just of a single player, but are a wider shot that allows more of the action surrounding the play to be seen, just like the Fleer Team Action cards of the 1970's & 1980's.

The backs have a writeup that describes the action on the sticker:


There was also an offer for "Terry Bradshaw's Action Play Book" on the box which was just a fancy title for "Sticker Album":


The album pages appear to include the same text that was on the back of the stickers, which was nice so that you didn't have to save the backing if you decided to put your stickers in the album:


Its too bad that with sports card licensing being so restricted nowadays that we don't see very many food sets like this any more. It really would be fun to open up a few boxes of pizza rolls this Sunday and get a few football stickers as a bonus.

Football & Pizza - The 1991 Domino's Pizza Quarterback Challenge

In 1991, Domino's Pizza teamed up with Upper Deck to produce a 50 card set of current and past NFL quarterbacks in a set entitled "Quarterback Challenge":


The backs feature another picture as well as stats and career accomplishments:


The cards came in packs which included 4 cards:


According to Beckett, the promotion launched in August, 1991. Customers who ordered the Domino's Pizza NFL Kickoff Deal received 2 medium cheese pizzas, four cans of Coke/Diet Coke/Sprite, and one pack of cards for $9.99.

The first 31 cards feature then current NFL quarterbacks that were active in 1991:





Cards 32 - 46 featured retired quarterbacks:


and cards 47 - 49 were combo cards featuring 2 quarterbacks from the same team but different eras:


Card 50 was a checklist.

As Papa John's is the official NFL pizza sponsor this year, it would be great if they were doing a similar promotion this year. How much better would your Super Bowl pizza taste if the pizza delivery guy handed you a pack of cards along with your pizza!

IHOP NFL Mugs & Pitcher

After taking a look at the NFL mini helmets, NFL magnets, and NFL/MLB/NBA/ABA/NHL place mats that were available at The International House of Pancakes during the 1970's, I've got one last item to review that was also available at IHOP - NFL Mugs and Pitchers:


There was an orange mug which featured helmets of the AFC teams:


and a blue mug which featured the NFC teams:


The promotion was featured on IHOP placemats


as well as in print ads:


It appears this promotion ran in 1972 given the copyright date in the ad.

In addition to the mugs, there was a pitcher as well:


The pitcher features all of the AFC and NFC teams as well as the AFC, NFC and NFL logos:




That wraps up the look back at all the great collectibles that IHOP offered during the 1970s to get sports fans to go out for breakfast. Its too bad we don't see any of these types of promotions any more.

IHOP MLB NFL NBA ABA NHL Team Placemats

In addition to NFL Helmets and NFL Magnets, The International House of Pancakes (IHOP) also offered team placemats from all four major sports leagues which were used to not only promote the local professional sports team, but also promote the local IHOPs in the area as well.

Lets take a look at the examples I've been able to find.

Major League Baseball:


Based on the fact that this placemat honors the 1969 World Champion Mets, I think its most likely that these would have been found in IHOPs in 1970.




I like the fact that they added "This IS Next Year" on the Cubs place mat:


I came across another version of the placemat that features color photos:


I think this version of the placemat is from 1969 as it features Dick Selma who pitched for the Cubs in 1969, but played for the Phillies in 1970. Here is another example of this version where someone was able to get some player autographs:







While the placemat above shows that LA had a ton of IHOPs, the Phillies placemat shows that Philadelphia only had 2:




NFL:


Its interesting that while IHOP and the NFL partnered together on other promotions during the 1970s which allowed IHOP to use NFL logos, for these 1970 placemats, they only had the license from the Players Association so the uniform on the placemat is somewhat generic.



NBA:






There were even placemats for ABA teams:



NHL:


I am sure there are a number of other team placemats besides the ones I've been able to find, but obviously most of these didn't survive, so they don't seem to show up for sale very often.