NFL / Navy Bumper Stickers from the 1970's?

I came across some bumper stickers that appear to be a promotion by the NFL and the US Navy which feature individual teams and the tagline "go (NFL team) go Navy":


The look of the helmets leads me to believe they were probably from the mid to late 1970s.

They are certainly from before 1982 as the Bengals sticker features their original helmet


The thing I find interesting is that there does not appear to be any NFL Properties trademark on the stickers.

Here are two stickers placed near a ruler so that you can get an idea of the size:




Here are the other teams I was able to find:





I would assume there is a sticker for each team, but so far I've only been able to find pictures of these 8 teams. I'll keep adding pictures to the post if I come across any more teams.

UPDATE:

Steve from the amazing The Cowboys Guide sent me a picture of the Cowboys sticker:

Thanks Steve!

Changing Jobs In the Middle of the World Series

Here is an interesting picture of Seattle Pilots manager Joe Schultz in a Seattle Pilots uniform during the 1968 World Series when he was still a member of the St. Louis Cardinals:

As this picture shows, the Pilots uniform was almost complete before the end of the 1968 post season. I say "almost" as there are a few differences between the prototype that Joe is wearing and the road uniform that they wore in 1969.

The first difference is the cap. Although its partially cut off in the shot above, the "S" on the cap looks more like a reversed "Z" than a "S". Here is a different shot of Joe in the cap:

The second difference is the lettering. First, the prototype has "seattle" straight across the uniform, whereas the 1969 jersey had the name arching across the front.

The second difference is the "s". Just as the cap features a "s" that almost looks like a reversed "z", so too does the jersey. And finally, the "t"s appear to be smaller on the prototype than what they actually wore in 1969. The letters also appear to be tilting to the right on the prototype whereas they appear to be more straight on the 1969 jersey.

I like the shot of Joe with both of his uniforms, and appreciate the fact that since this picture shows him in the Pilots uniform during the World Series, it gives us an idea of when the Pilots had almost finished designing their uniform.

1978 Kellogg's (?) Baseball Stickers

Recently a group of baseball stickers came up for auction on ebay that caught my eye:

I believe these were put out by Kellogg's in the late 1970s as they are very similar to the 1978 Kellogg's Football Stickers that were available in packages of Pop-Tarts:

Unfortunately however, whereas the Football stickers have information on the back with the Kellogg's logo

the baseball stickers have blank backs.

In looking around to see if I could find any other examples of these stickers, I did find a few examples of stickers still in the packaging that they would have originally come in

as well as a few examples of some that had been opened

The seller identifies these individual stickers as 1978 Kellogg's stickers based on the similarity to the football stickers, but indicates Kellogg's is not mentioned on the packaging or on the sticker.

The stickers were packaged individually, so the stickers that were recently up for auction look like parts of a strip that was cut into sections of two stickers.

I remember getting some of these stickers as a kid, and still have the A's sticker stuck on the trunk that is the "Original" Fleer Sticker Project:

That is why I was so glad to come across this group of stickers - I have always thought that the A's sticker had come from a breakfast item, and now I think I have the proof:

1981 Fleer and Sports Photo Association Buttons

After reading Night Owl's great post about the Ron Cey button that he had as a kid, it reminded me of the ad for photo buttons that was on the 1981 Fleer Baseball Wrapper:




Even though it isn't listed on the order form, the Ron Cey button certain looks similar in design


to the Reggie Jackson button that is pictured on the wrapper:


Based on the names on the checklist, I decided to see if I could find some other buttons, and guess what I found. Some of the buttons have the exact same picture as the player's 1981 Fleer card:


(Note the Garvey photo appears to be taken in the same location as the Ron Cey photo and in a similar pose kneeling with a bat)







Other pictures were not exact matches, but were certainly taken at the very same time:








I also found some pictures of proof sheets, which also feature similar shots to the 1981 Fleer cards:

(Note - it also looks like they did some buttons for retired Hall of Famers)

From the proof sheets, we can see the name of the company that was producing the buttons - Sports Photo Association.

I'm guessing that since in 1980 Fleer would have needed pictures for their inaugural set that they were putting together for 1981, it would have made sense for them to work with Sports Photo Association to get images for their cards. That would explain why so many of the pictures on the buttons either match, or are almost identical to the 1981 Fleer set.

It would also help explain why there was an ad for the buttons on Fleer's wrappers. Perhaps as part of the arrangement for providing photos, Sports Photo Association wanted a way to promote their buttons and Fleer agreed to include an ad on the wrapper.

As the Ron Cey button shows, not all buttons feature photos that match or are similar to the 1981 Fleer set. For example, here is the Eddie Murray button


In looking for pictures of examples, I sometimes saw these referred to as being from 1978 and other times from 1981. It could be that SPA also made buttons back in 1978, but with so many of the pictures matching up with 1981 Fleer cards, I would have to say that their biggest set was the 1981 release.