1974 Fleer Football Big Signs

Fleer's second Football Big Signs set is typically referred to as the 1974 set, although there are no dates on the Signs to confirm the year they were issued.

The second set is not nearly as colorful as the initial set, as the signs have a white background and feature either the team helmet

or the team logo


on the card with a generic player in the team's uniform. Once again the size is 8 x 11.5 inches (slightly taller than a 1 pocket sheet) and the backs are blank. There are 26 signs in the set.

Here is a sample of some of the team signs:

Atlanta Falcons

Baltimore Colts

Cincinnati Bengals

Dallas Cowboys

Houston Oilers

Kansas City Chiefs

Miami Dolphins

New Orleans Saints

New York Giants

New York Jets

San Diego Chargers

San Francisco 49ers

St. Louis Cardinals

Washington Redskins

And finally, here is a picture of 25 of the 26 teams (the picture is missing the Vikings):

1968 Fleer Football Big Signs

Fleer's first Football Big Signs set is often referred to as the 1968 set due to the 1968 copyright at the bottom of the signs. Unlike the Baseball set which contained the team logos with generic baseball drawings, the Football set contained paintings depicting each team. The backs are blank.

The Big Signs contain the same images that were also used on posters marketed by NFL Properties, so it appears NFL Properties licensed these images to Fleer for their set. If you had any of these posters as a kid (which I think were available through Sports Illustrated and perhaps even through Scholastic as I remember ordering the Steelers poster through school), you'll recognize the pictures on these Big Signs.

Here is an example of the Steelers Big Sign:

And here is the Poster with the same image:


Even though these have a 1968 copyright, they were actually issued many years later. The evidence can be found on the Patriots Big Sign:


The Patriots were known as the Boston Patriots until February 18, 1971 when the became the BAY STATE PATRIOTS. That's right -The Bay State Patriots. Here is an article from Feb 27, 1971:

Obviously as this article points out, this was not a popular change, so they went back to the drawing board, and decided on the New England Patriots, as this article from The Bridgeport Post dated March 23, 1971 explains:


So if the Patriots are called the New England Patriots on their Big Sign, the absolute earliest these could have been released was the 1971 season.

However, we then run into the Redskins:


The uniform depicted on the Big Sign was not used until 1972. For the 1970 & 1971 seasons, the Redskins used the Vince Lombardi designed helmet (yellow helmet with a red R) that emulated the Packers design. Therefore, the earliest these Big Signs could have been issued is 1972.

Looking at the helmet designs depicted on the signs, the helmets are generally consistent with what was worn during the 1972 & 1973 seasons, so these could have been released either of these 2 years. The one exception is the Eagles. For some reason, they are shown with green helmets when they actually wore white helmets from 1969 - 1973. Perhaps the Eagles sign is based on artwork from 1968 when the Eagles were wearing green helmets, and new artwork was not created for the Eagles at the time to deal with the helmet difference.

While it is possible that this set may have been issued in 1974 (when the Eagles went back to a green helmet), the second Fleer Football Big Signs set that I will cover next time is generally thought to be from 1974, so that would most likely put this set in either 1972 or 1973.

The 1968 copyright therefore refers to when the images on the signs were copyrighted by NFL Properties and not when the cards were released.

Here are all the signs from the set for the 26 teams that were in the league at the time:

Atlanta Falcons

Baltimore Colts

Buffalo Bills

Chicago Bears

Cincinnati Bengals


Cleveland Browns

Dallas Cowboys



Denver Broncos
Detroit Lions
Green Bay Packers

Houston Oilers

Kansas City Chiefs


Los Angeles Rams


Miami Dolphins

Minnesota Vikings

New England Patriots

New Orleans Saints

New York Giants

New York Jets

Oakland Raiders


Philadelphia Eagles

Pittsburgh Steelers

St. Louis Cardinals

San Diego Chargers

San Francisco 49ers

Washington Redskins


Next time I'll cover the 1974 Football Big Signs which are very different from this set.

1973 Fleer Baseball Big Signs

Time again for another oddball Fleer release. This time we are "Super Sizing" our review by taking a look at the 1973 Fleer Baseball Big Signs:



When Fleer says "Big", they aren't kidding. These cardboard signs measure 8 x 11.5 inches, and dwarf a normal sized 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 card:


Unfortunately these are just a bit taller than a standard 1 pocket sheet as the top of the sign sticks out slightly, so storage can be a bit of a concern.

Storage issues aside, these are a very nice way to display your favorite team's logo. The signs even have a perforated hole at the top which you can punch out if you want to hang up the "sign".

Here is a look at all 24 teams, arranged by the division alignments from 1973:

AL East:


AL West:


NL East:


NL West:


The signs sold for $.10 a piece as shown on the box:


I think these signs were sold without a wrapper as I have never seen one, so presumably you could search the box for the teams you wanted. There is not a date on the box or on the back of the signs (which are just blank cardboard), so I can't say for sure that these were issued in 1973. I've sometimes seen these listed as being from 1974, but most of the time they are referred to as the 1973 Big Signs.

Fleer only issued 1 set of Baseball Big Signs, but issued 2 different Football sets. Next time we'll take a look at the Football signs.

UPDATE January 2023

There are 2 versions of the Angels sign.  One with a small "a":

 and one with a large "A":

This leads me to believe these were issued in both 1973 and 1974.  More details at this post:

1973 / 1974 Fleer Baseball Big Signs Variation Helps Answer Question Regarding When These Were Issued