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.

IHOP NFL Football Helmet Magnets and Standings Board

In addition to the miniature NFL football helmets promotion at the International House of Pancakes during the 1970's, IHOP also had a promotion featuring NFL team football helmet magnets that were available with a magnetic standards board:


The copyright on the bottom of the standings board shows that this was produced in 1977, so it appears that the plastic helmets promotion was an early to mid 70's offer, while the magnets were offered in the late 1970's.

Just as with the NFL plastic helmets, the magnets were sold individually so you had the choice of picking which team you wanted.




I remember trying to get as many magnets as I could each time we went to IHOP. Unfortunately as you can see from the picture of my board, I wasn't able to find all the teams.

The magnets were produced by Sports Magnets, Inc. who also sold the magnets with a nearly identical standards board:


As you can see, the boards are almost identical except for the top the board which added IHOP's name and replaced one of the NFL shields with an IHOP logo:


To this day, I can't help but think about collecting the helmet magnets any time I pass by an IHOP, and the fun I had keeping track of the standings with my board each week that season.

IHOP NFL Football Helmets and Standings Board

The International House of Pancakes (IHOP) was definitely the place to get your football fix as a kid growing up in the 1970s.


Whats not to like about getting to eat on a placemat with football helmets on it and having the the chance to buy your favorite team's mini helmet!

If you were lucky enough to come across this IHOP ad, you could get a coupon to buy one helmet and get one free!


The IHOP helmets are just the regular gumball helmets that we all remember collecting, but its still great to think that you could go to the restaurant and have your pick of which team you wanted to buy as opposed to just taking whatever came out of the gumball machine.

Recently someone had up for auction a nearly complete set of the helmets in the original IHOP packaging:






As the header card has a hole in it, it seems like these were probably hanging on a rack near the register so you could search for teams while mom or dad was paying the check.

In addition to offering the helmets, IHOP also sold a standings board which held the gumball helmets:


Here is a view of the back of the board:


Based on the helmet designs on the back, I would say this board dates from 1972 or 1973 as it shows the white Chargers helmet (which changed to blue in 1974).

Here is a picture from the side to show how the board stood up:


It would be great if the NFL and IHOP would consider bringing back this promotion in the future as it would be fun to see ads like this


as well as it would provide a great excuse to go out for breakfast!