1961 Topps Football Flocked Stickers

Just as they had done in 1960, Topps once again included team sticker inserts in their packs of 1961 Football cards. This time instead of being metallic, the stickers were cloth, and are referred to as "flocked" stickers because of the texture of the stickers:


The stickers were prominently featured on the wrapper:


Each sticker contained a team logo and a small initial which could be separated from the team sticker. There are 48 different team stickers, but a total of 60 different stickers because 12 teams can be found with 2 different initials.

The NFL teams lead off the set with #s 1 - 15:
















There are no initial variations for the NFL teams.

The AFL teams come next (# 16 - 24), and all of the AFL teams do have initial variations:









Here is an example of an initial variation:



Its interesting to note that the AFL stickers featured team logos, while the NFL stickers used generic images.

The final group of stickers (#25 - #48) featured college teams, with 3 teams having initial variations:










Unlike in 1960 when both Topps and Fleer included team sticker/decal inserts in their packs, in 1961 Topps was the only company that inserted team stickers as Fleer decided to include a "Secret Magic Message" instead as seen on this wrapper:


The magic messages are trivia cards that had to be wet to reveal the answer, so needless to say, not a lot of these survived.

1960 Topps Football Tattoos

In 1960 Topps issued Football Tattoos which were sold separately from their regular football card release.


The tattoo was included on the inside of the wrapper which also contained a piece of gum:

Here is a better look at the front of the wrapper without any marks:



OPC also issued the tattoos in Canada.

The Topps Archive did a great post on this release back in September. According to Dave, there are at least 76 known tattoos, but out of that number there are only 10 NFL logos and 10 NFL players


with the rest of the tattoos featuring College teams



and generic plays:


However, there seems to be some confusion regarding whether all 13 NFL teams that were in the league in 1960 are represented. The Beckett Guide I have (which is a few years old) lists 10 teams on its checklist: Bears, Browns, Cowboys, Lions, Packers, Giants, Steelers, Cardinals, 49ers and Redskins.

However, searching ebay I've come up with a scan of the Eagles, and The Topps Archive shows a picture of a strip with the Colts, which leaves only the Rams as the team that have not been confirmed.

In terms of visual proof, here are the 9 teams that I have been able to find pictures for:










The Topps Vault auctioned two proof sheets a while back which show some players and teams that are not in the Beckett Football Guide I have, but the sheets also do not include some of the teams that I have pictured above:



There must be one other sheet that would contain the other NFL teams not included in the above proof sheets like the Cowboys, Giants, Eagles, Redskins (and probably the Rams as well).

If the 3rd sheet is laid out with the same number of tattoos without any duplication, then that would indicate there may be as many as 96 different tattoos since each of these sheets contains 32 different tattoos, which means there are likely more than 10 NFL players as well (some of the players on the proof sheet are not on the Beckett checklist I have like Ray Matthews and Bobby Joe Conrad)

Given the disposable nature of these temporary tattoos, we may never have a definitive list unless the other proof sheet shows up at some point.