Now Boarding...United Airlines NFL Ads from the 1960s

With the news that American Airlines and United Airlines have added Flight 1989 from Kansas City to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl to take advantage of the Taylor Swift - Travis Kelce hysteria surrounding Super Bowl LVIII, it made me think of some of the great United Airlines NFL ads I have come across:

Throughout the 1960's and into the 1970's, United Airlines was the official airline of most NFL teams, which they publicized through a number of ads using NFL logos and helmets.

The earliest example I have found likely dates from the early 1960s, which shows a collection of team logos on the side of a plane where they promote that they serve 13 of the 14 NFL teams:

It looks like the Vikings were the one team that used another airline.  The logos in the shape of the NFL shield were one of the ways the NFL was promoting the league at the time, as these color patches show:

Next, we have an ad using helmets, with is likely from the early 1960's as well:

Again, it looks like Vikings were the lone team to not use United.

Later in the decade, we have an ad which is likely from 1967 which includes the NFL expansion teams Falcons and Saints:

Once again, the Vikings are the odd man out.

After the NFL-AFL merger, we now get both NFL and AFL teams in a fantastic poster:

The next ad is likely from 1970 or 1971 based on the Redskins helmet which they only used for those 2 seasons:

Again, no Vikings, and the other missing team is the Dolphins.

Speaking of the Super Bowl, here is an ad where United congratulates the NFL and AFL champions from the 1967 season and indicates they will be getting both teams to the Super Bowl:

The fact that the ad refers to the game as the Super Bowl is interesting, as the NFL was still calling the game the World Championship Game:

 

The NFL did not start referring to the game as the Super Bowl until the following year in Super Bowl III

Finally, we wrap up with one last airline related item - a 1978 United Timetable for flights which just happens to feature Arrowhead stadium:

If you are interested, here is a collection of all available United Airlines commercials (35 in total) that were contained in the yearly NFL Films team highlight shows from 1965-1970:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2PJcn5zf8s

Many of the images came from Vintage Airliners, which has much more information on the connections between airlines and professional football:

https://vintageairliners.com/the-airlines-and-american-football/

Super Bowl Party List - Soft Drinks

One thing you need to make sure you pick up enough of is drinks for your Super Bowl party. Fortunately there are lots of NFL related drink promotions to choose from to make sure your guests don't go thirsty.

1976 Canada Dry Ginger Ale NFL Football Cans:

This set of Canada Dry NFL Football cans is one of my favorite NFL tie ins as you not only get a can with a helmet on it, but you also get a team history as seen on this Houston Oilers can:


I drank a lot of ginger ale back in 1976 trying to collect the full set of cans. I remember going to the grocery store and checking each can in the 6 pack trying to locate teams I still needed.

Here is a look at some of the other teams:



While I couldn't find an ad for these cans, I did find what appears to be a press release that was in the Waterloo Courier on October 18, 1976:

This mentions a collectors board for the cans which I have never seen.

1981 Pepsi & Mountain Dew Bottle Caps:

The other soft drinks that I remember drinking in large quantities in my quest to complete a set of NFL teams were Pepsi & Mountain Dew back in 1981. Pepsi ran a contest where you could win $1,000 if you collected all 14 AFC or NFC team bottle caps, as this Saints bottle cap shows:


Here is a collection of all the team caps except for 2 teams:


It appears the Colts were the AFC team and the 49ers were the NFC team that were the "winning" caps since those were the two I could never find to claim the prize. I've never seen these caps listed for sale, so I'm not sure if this was only a regional promotion or not, but I'm guessing most collectors have never seen these before.

These may have been from 1982 as I'm not 100% certain about the year, but given the Bengals helmet, the earliest these could be from would be 1981.


1964 - 1966 Coke Bottle Caps:

Coke also had an NFL promotion involving bottle caps over a three year period from 1964 through 1966. The promotion featured both players and team logos and was quite extensive in terms of the number of different caps.

Since I'm mainly interested in the logos, here is a picture of the team caps:


along with 2 great Coke NFL ads:




Here is an example of a saver sheet that was published in The Jefferson City Post Tribune in 1964 with places to save your team emblem caps along with the Cardinals and NFL All-Stars:


and here is another ad featuring the Browns "CB" logo helmet from the Sandusky Ohio Register from September 1965:

I like the prizes you could win by collecting caps - especially the "Yell-A-Phone".

1971-1973 Gatorade Lids:

Unlike the Pepsi & Coke caps which you couldn't see until you opened the bottle, the Gatorade NFL lids had the helmets on the top of the cap so you could see which team you were getting. The Gatorade promotion seems to have spanned a few seasons as 4 teams have helmet variations due to changes in their helmet design over this time.

Here is a look at the complete set, including variations:


The Rams can be found with white (1971-72) and yellow (1973) horns, and the Bears can be found with a white "C" (1971-1972) and a red "C" (1973).


The Redskins can be found with the yellow helmet (1971) and the maroon helmet (1972-1973).

The Oilers can be found with a gray/silver helmet (1971) and a blue helmet (1972-1973).

Gatorade also produced a display board for collectors to show off their complete collection:


And finally, here is a newspaper ad for the Collectors Board from 1972:

Its too bad we don't have promotions like these any more as these put a little bit of fun into buying some of the products we use every day.

Super Bowl Party List - 1970 Chiquita Banana NFL Stickers

If you'd like to add a healthy item to your Super Bowl party menu, you might want to consider bananas:


Back in 1970 Chiquita ran an NFL promotion featuring small stickers of all 26 NFL teams on their bananas. In addition to the magazine ad above, the promotion was advertised in newspapers as well:


In addition to looking through the bananas at the grocery store to find your favorite team, you could order a complete set of the stickers:


Since the stickers are rather small in the scan above, here is a closer look at all the teams:


A complete sheet for only $.25! Quite a bargain considering these strips now sell for a couple of hundred dollars if all the stickers are still attached.






The stickers were apparently also available in 1971 as this ad for a Chiquita football (yellow of course) indicates that you could get a sheet of the stickers along with the football:



Chiquita had a marketing partnership with the NFL for a few years as this 1969 ad shows an offer for an NFL 50th anniversary transistor radio:


And finally, Chiquita had one other NFL promotion in 1972 for viewmaster like slides:


There were 13 different slides which each had 2 players (1 on each side of the slide). When the slide is placed in the viewer, the two bottom slides are shown of the first player. When you flip the slide over, you see the other two slides of the other player.

While bananas aren't a food that you would normally associate with football, Chiquita certainly had a very productive relationship with NFL Properties from the late 1960's to the early 1970's.

Super Bowl Party List - 1975 & 1976 Sunbeam Bread NFL Cloth Patchs, Stickers, and Stand-Up Cards

In yesterday's post we looked at what meat to pick up for our Super Bowl party, so now its time to think about some bread for making sandwiches. Sunbeam had 3 different NFL promotions during the mid 1970's which would have made their bread the most logical choice for your Super Bowl shopping list.

In 1975, Sunbeam included NFL Cloth Patches in their loaves of bread:



The patches are very similar to the Fleer Cloth NFL Patches that were issued at the time, but smaller. Even though the stickers have a 1972 NFL Properties copyright, they were actually issued in 1975. The patches are sometimes referred to as NFL Properties stickers because of the copyright on the bottom, and are also sometimes called Schwebel patches as they were apparently available in loaves of Schwebel bread as well.

Sunbeam also issued two collectors albums - one for the helmet patches:

and another for the team emblem / logo patches:


In 1976, Sunbeam once again had an NFL promotion, this time with NFL Stand-Up Football Cards:



The helmet portion of the card could be popped out and the card would be folded in the middle to create a card that would "stand up". Sunbeam also issued a booklet to house the cards:


Sunbeam ran another promotion in 1976 for NFL Pennant Stickers as well.

The backs of the stickers mention a saver book


but unfortunately I have yet to find a picture of one for this sticker series.

For a more detailed look at these 3 Sunbeam issues including pictures of all the teams in each of the sets, please check out this link to previous Sunbeam posts:

http://fleersticker.blogspot.com/search/label/Sunbeam

Since we've still got some more items to add to our grocery list, check back tomorrow for a very rare NFL promotion with another food item that most collectors have probably never seen before!

Super Bowl Party List - 1965 Hormel Trays / Lids

As the Super Bowl is America's ultimate party, its time to start preparing the list of things you need to throw your best Super Bowl party ever.

Over the years, there have been many food products which have had promotions featuring NFL collectibles, so all this week The Fleer Sticker Project is going to showcase some of these food related promotions to help plan your party menu.

First on the list is figuring out what meat to get for the party. One thing that would really make your party stand out is some Hormel Cooked Ham in tins that came with these fantastic NFL lids:


In 1965 Hormel issued a series of lids (sometimes referred to as trays) on their cans of cooked ham featuring all 14 NFL teams that were in the league at the time. The lids measure 4 1/2" by 4 1/2" square. Here is a picture of what the packaging looked like with the note indicating the NFL team helmet picture on the back of the lid:



As you can see, the lid has a raised edge that goes all the way around the rim which makes it look like a small tray.

Even though the sticker says to collect all 14 teams in the league, there are actually more than 14 lids as some teams can be found with a colored background in addition to a white background.

Here is a look at all 14 teams:

The Baltimore Colts are one of the teams with a colored background variation:




The Cleveland Browns lid features the "CB" logo that NFL Properties was using at the time which the players never actually wore:


The Dallas Cowboys tray also features a colored background variation:



As do the Detroit Lions:




















There may be other teams with colored background variations, but all I've been able to find are the Colts, Cowboys, and Lions.

Here is what the other side of the lid looks like:


These lids are sometimes referred to as coasters as they are actually the ideal size for holding a drink, although given that these are now 44 years old (which coincidentally is also how old the Super Bowl is this year), I wouldn't recommend using them for that purpose today (although they really would look impressive at your party!)

Stay tuned all week as we've got more food tie-ins each day leading up to Super Bowl XLIV.