False Advertising - 1979 Topps Football Sell Sheet

I saw this 1979 Topps Football sell sheet on ebay, and was quite surprised to see the Steelers logo on Terry Bradshaw's helmet. This flyer certainly gives the impression that the 1979 set would include team logos on the helmets based on the picture:

Alas, what we actually got was the same old airbrushed helmets that we had to endure for the entire decade as this is what we ended up with:

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I'm guessing that Topps didn't bother to airbrush the sell sheet as that isn't a trading card, and they probably figured the NFL would not bother going after them over a sell sheet.

Here is a look at the other sports sell sheets from 1979:

Oh to have bought a few cases of each of these and just put them away for about 40 years!

Seattle Pilots in the Sunday Comics

The comic strip "The Argyle Sweater" by Scott Hilburn had a great look at retired sports logos in today's Sunday paper, including the Seattle Pilots logo playing checkers with the Minnesota North Stars logo:

Also included are the Montreal Expos, Seattle SuperSonics, Houston Oilers, Hartford Whalers, and Quebec Nordiques.

I wonder how many readers would be able to identify all the teams.  I'm guessing a lot of people won't recognize the Pilots.

Thanks to Scott for a great Pilots reference!

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.