Sunday, November 23, 2008

NFL Properties / Sunbeam / Schwebel Bread Cloth Patches

In addition to the 1972 - 1976 Fleer NFL Football Cloth Patches, there was another set of cloth patches issued in 1975 which looked almost identical to the Fleer patches, but were smaller in size, and only had one patch per sticker instead of 2.


The patches have a 1972 NFL Properties copyright, just like the Fleer patches did from 1972 through 1975. Because there is nothing else identifying who issued the patches, these are often referred to as the NFL Properties set, and sometimes as the 1972 NFL Properties set given the copyright. These are believed to have been released with Sunbeam and Schwebel Bread products, so you will occasionally see these referred to as Schwebel or Sunbeam patches.

Even though these have a 1972 copyright, we can determine that they are actually from 1975 because of the Giants patch:


1975 was the only season the Giants used this design, so this allows us to place the year of issue as 1975. Its also interesting to note that the stickers have TMs, which the Fleer stickers also started carrying in 1975.

The patches measure 1 1/2 x 1 3/4, and there are a helmet and a logo patch for each team. Here is the complete set of helmet and logo patches for all 26 teams:









There is a Sunbeam Helmet Stickers Saver Book for the helmet patches:

The book is from 1975, given that for some of the teams in the album it mentions their 1974 season (and in the case of the Giants shows their 1975 helmet):



There was also a separate album for the emblem / logo stickers:


It also is from 1975 as it also features the 1975 Giants "NY" logo on the space where you are supposed to attach the sticker.

One interesting thing to note is that in the pictures of uncut sheets I have seen, the helmets and logos are not together on the same sheet. If you take a look at this shot, you can see that the entire sheet is logos:


It looks like the helmet and logo stickers must have been issued separately since there are different albums for both, and the one uncut sheet that has surfaced only has logos and no helmets.

If anyone remembers getting these back in 1975, please let me know as I'd be interested to hear what you remember about where they came from.

Speaking of uncut sheets, if you are interested in an uncut panel of all 26 team logos, please visit Steve who runs the excellent The Dallas Cowboys Complete Football Card Guide site.

Steve doesn't have the entire sheet available as pictured above, but he does have a portion of the sheet that has all 26 teams together like this:


Click here and scroll to the bottom of the page to see what Steve has available.

Steve helped me complete my set of the logo patches (which seem to be harder to find than the helmet patches) as well as a 26 team logo panel (suitable for framing!) - Thanks Steve!

He does have a few single patches as well as the 26 team panel if you are interested.

We're not finshed with the Sunbeam Football issues yet, so stay tuned for 2 other Sunbeam sets.

3 comments:

Todd said...

There was a book for the logos as well. I lived nearby a Sunbeam Bread factory (ah the smell of bread baking everyday). I remember these collections well. There were two books—The red one as shown for collecting/displaying the helmet patches—And a blue one for collecting/displaying the logo patches.

I also remember the glue seeping through these "cloth" stickers—making it difficult to stack your collection. Remember that?

Anonymous said...

I remember collecting these as a kid. They did indeed come one at a time. My mom would bring in the groceries and I'd open up the bread bag and grab the sticker. Never knew what team it would be or if it would be a helmet or logo sticker. I remember having the "helmet" sticker book, but I had pasted both helmet and logo stickers into it. Ahh the good old days.

Dukesplc said...

Got The Sticker Team Emblem Book From When I Was A Kid & missing Bills/Chargers out of AFC & 6 Teams NFC