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.