Back to School with NFL and AFL Book Covers from the 1960s

Fall means its time for football and time to head back to school.  As we gear up for another NFL season while the kids are heading back to class, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at something that combines both of these Fall activities by reviewing NFL book covers from the 1960s.

In 1965, kids could buy book covers for their favorite NFL team, such as this cover for the Baltimore Colts:

 

Here is a closer look at the front (note the $.10 price in the upper right corner):

and here is a closer look at the back showing helmets for all the NFL teams (note at this time helmets were shown with chin straps): 

Here are the other teams I have been able to find pictures for with this design:

Chicago Bears:

 

Cleveland Browns:

 

New York Giants:

 

Detroit Lions:

 

Washington Redskins:

There was also a cover showing all 14 NFL Helmets and Team Logos:

Here is a closer look at the team logos:

 The book covers could be purchased in a group of 5 for $.49:

 

 

These were also apparently available via a offer on the wrapper of 1965 Philadelphia Football Cards where you could buy all 15 covers (the 14 teams plus the cover with all the team helmets) for $1.50:

In 1966, the design changed as seen on this Green Bay Packers book cover:

and there were now 15 teams with the addition of the Atlanta Falcons:

which is also reflected on the back of each book cover with the team logos:

Here are the other teams I have been able to find with this design:

Chicago Bears:

 
Dallas Cowboys:

Detroit Lions:
 

Los Angeles Rams:

Minnesota Vikings:

New York Giants:

Philadelphia Eagles:

Pittsburgh Steelers:

Saint Louis Cardinals:

San Francisco 49ers:

Once again, the book covers were available through an offer on 1966 Philadelphia Football Card Wrappers, but the offer now includes 16 covers for $1.60:

The same design was used in 1967 as there is also a book cover of the expansion New Orleans Saints, but note that the back cover still only shows the 15 teams that were in the league in 1966:

It appears they used the same design in 1967 (which is why these are sometimes identified as being from 1967), but didn't bother to update the back to include the Saints.

The book covers were again available through an offer on the 1967 Philadelphia Football Card Wrappers:

 There were also AFL book covers with a similar design

 

but the backs had the team logos in a shield:

  

It looks like these were available in 1964 given the copyright:

To wrap up, here is another item which would have been great to have heading back to school back in the day - an NFL Folder:

 

 

This folder has a 1967 NFL Properties copyright:

1968 Topps Test Cloth Football Patches Wax Box

Recently an item came up for auction that I thought I'd never see - a 1968 Topps Test Real Cloth Football  Patches wax box:

Up until now, the only picture of the box I had seen was the proof sheet that had been offered for sale by the Topps Vault, which I included in my review of the set back in 2010.

Given how scarce this test issue was, I didn't think I would ever see a wax box, so I was very pleased to see the seller posted a number of pictures of the box:

This is one of my favorite Topps test sets, with the colorful team patches and the oversized team cards,

but unfortunately it was done on such a limited basis that the cards and patches are very hard to find, and therefore very expensive.

To give collectors a chance to put together a modern version of this set, I think it would be a great idea for Topps to incorporate this set into next years Archives Football release.  Just as they did this year honoring the 1971 Topps Greatest Moments (my other favorite test set) in this year's Baseball Archives set,

they could make the team cards box toppers (as they are the same size as the Greatest Moments), and include the cloth team patches a an insert set.  Are you listenting Topps?

1968 Topps Test Football Cloth Patches and Team Cards

In 1968 Topps issued a fantastic test set which featured a colorful team cloth patch


and an oversize (2 1/2" x 4 11/16") B & W team photo card


which featured a listing of all the players pictured on the card.


Thanks to The Topps Vault, I have a picture of one of the test wrappers

as well as a picture of the wax box proof:


As the wrapper and box show, the Real Cloth Football Patches are the featured item with the team photos being considered almost like an insert. According to Beckett, there was one cloth patch and one team card per pack.

Since Topps had regained the rights to produce NFL cards in 1968 (after a 4 year run in which they produced only AFL cards), the set features both NFL and AFL teams.

There are 44 different cloth patches, with 26 team logo patches and 18 patches with either numbers or letters (presumably so kids could make their own "uniform" as the side of the wrapper indicates or put their name or initials on their books).

Here is a look at the NFL cloth patches:












Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a picture of the Giants patch yet.






and here are the AFL team patches:












Here is an example of one of the number patches


and an example of the letter patches


Even though there were 26 teams in the league in 1968, there are only 25 team cards as the expansion Cincinnati Bengals do not have a team photo card (since they didn't play the previous season and therefore did not have a team photo).

Here are the NFL team cards:

and the AFL team cards:












This is one of my favorite Topps test sets, but its a shame that it was done on such a limited basis as I would really like to try to complete both the cloth patch and the team card sets. Unfortunately, as not many of these were made, the patches and team cards are very expensive.

There are usually a couple of team cards and occasionally a cloth patch available on ebay (which is how I've been able to track down these pictures over the years), but they certainly aren't cheap.

1968 was quite a year in terms of Topps oddball and test sets as The Topps Archive is showing with a review of a number of different issues, and I think Topps did a great job with this set.

The patches are very colorful and attractive, and the larger team photos with the players listed on the back is a great improvement over something like this:


One thing I can't help but think might have given Topps some inspiration to come up with this test issue is this:


In 1967 and 1968, Fleer issued cloth patch Baseball Emblems with patches for hats, shirts, books and uniforms (sound familiar?)


with a cloth patch with a circular team logo surrounded by a colorful border



and packaged with an oversize card (2 1/2" x 4 1/2")



Was Topps using this test to see if it was worthwhile to try to compete against Fleer for the sale of cloth patches? It seems like there is a little too much similarity between the two sets to say that it is entirely a coincidence that Topps was test marketing cloth patches without any thought of trying to compete against Fleer.

It appears this test issue was not a big success as Topps did not follow it up with any future cloth patch releases. I guessing Topps looked at the results of this test and figured there wasn't a strong enough demand for a product where the team logos were the main selling point, and decided they would concede that market niche to Fleer.

UPDATE 11/2013:

Thanks to a recent ebay auction, here are some pictures of the wax box: