Celebrating Father's Day in the 1970's with Avon NFL Decanters

With Father's Day coming up, I thought it would be a good time to take a look at something that would have been a great gift idea for Dad back in the late 1970's - Avon NFL Decanters:

I was not aware of these until a reader (Gary) brought these to my attention.  I'd like to say thanks to Gary for letting me know about these as I had never come across these before.

The decanter holds Wild Country After Shave

and comes with an embossed metal label of one of the then 28 NFL teams in the league which is applied to the front of the decanter.

Inside the box was the decanter, a top shaped like a football, and an envelope with the team helmet which contained the metal label to be applied to the bottle:

 

Here is a picture of the envelope with instructions for applying the label

 

As well as a shot of the back of label:

The decanter comes in a black box which contains team names

 

(which remind me of the classic NFL bed sheets from around the same time)

and information about the NFL and the decanter on the back:

 

Since the back of the box mentions the 1975 Super Bowl, these were likely produced starting in 1976.  I'm not sure how many years these were available, but given that I have not come across the Jets helmet that changed in 1978, I'm guessing these were available between 1976 and 1977.

The box indicates the team label is packaged separately, so I'm guessing when you placed your order, you could request which team decal you wanted, and it would be included with the box of aftershave.

Here is a look at all 28 teams:

 

 

  

 

 

 

  

 

  

 

 

 

  

  

 

 

 

 

 

  

  

  

If you don't have an interest in collecting the decanters, the embossed decals themselves still make a nice collectible:

 To wrap up, here is a look at a full set that someone has for sale:

 

Avon also did a set of decanters for the NBA, which I will cover next time.

More Laughlin Cartoons From Sports Collectors News - The Collectors

Here is the 2nd batch of cartoons that Dave from The Topps Archives sent from his research of old issues of Sports Collector's News from the mid 1970's:

Thanks again to Dave for sharing these.

Laughlin Cartoons From Sports Collectors News - The Collectors

I recently received a large amount of material from Dave (from the fantastic blog The Topps Archives and author of The Modern Hobby Guide to Topps Chewing Gum: 1938 - 1956) related to RG (Bob) Laughlin.

David has been going through old issues of Sports Collectors News from the mid 1970s, and has found a number of interesting items, including reviews of some of Laughlin's various card sets, ads for his cards and his newsletter "Inside Pitch", and a cartoon series that he did called "The Collectors."

I'd like to start off sharing some of the cartoons that David sent:

Back in the days when kids still flipped cards

This really brings back memories - How I used to enjoy going to the grocery store and checking out all the Hostess boxes for cards that I didn't have

A nice twist on the story of mom throwing out the baseball cards

I will be sharing more of the items that Dave sent over the next few posts.  I'd like to say Thanks! to Dave for passing along all these great scans.

1972 JC Penney Catalog with NFL Wrapper

I recently came across an interesting item on ebay that I had never seen before - a 1972 JC Penney Fall / Winter catalog with a wrapper featuring an offer for ordering NFL helmets:

 

According to what is written on the wrapper, it appears that this catalog was received on June 18, 1972:

 

It is interesting that the football that came with the helmet was red, white, and blue, as this would be more appropriate for an ABA basketball than an NFL football.

Here is a look at the catalog inside the wrapper:

As I covered in one of my earliest posts on this blog, the NFL did a much better job marketing to kids through merchandising than any of the other major sports, and this wrapper provides a great example.  Knowing that kids would be on the lookout for catalogs to see what kinds of things they could put on their Christmas wish list, including a NFL helmet offer on the wrapper for the catalog was one more way that the NFL was developing brand loyalty with their future customers.

1955 Post Sugar Crisp Cereal Commercial Featuring Ted Williams and Baseball Patches

I recently came across this great commercial for Post Sugar Crisp cereal from 1955 with spokesman Ted Williams talking about the the baseball team logo patches, and demonstrating how you can apply them:

For a detailed look at the 1955 Post Sugar Crisp cereal baseball patches including the never issued Kansas City A's patch, please take a look at my earlier post showing an uncut sheet of the patches.

A Very Busy Day for the Topps Photographer - May 28, 1972

A post on the great blog When Topps Had (Base) Balls! about the 1973 Gerry Moses card got me to thinking about the number of pictures in that set that show the Orioles playing at Memorial Stadium.  After looking through the set, I realized that there are a number of Orioles and Indians cards that appear to have been taken at the same game.  Doing some research on Baseball Reference.com, it looks like 11 different cards in the 1973 set came from a Sunday afternoon game played at Memorial Stadium on May 28, 1972. 

Two of the cards that clearly show this is a game between the Orioles and Indians involve Jack Brohamer.  In fact, I think both of these cards are from the same play:

In the top of the 3rd, Brohamer singled, and then was out on a double play on a ball hit to 2nd.  Jack's card shows him getting tagged out by 2nd baseman Bobby Grich.  I think the Mark Belanger card shows a photo of Brohamer at the conclusion of the play coming into 2nd, and Belanger jumping out of the way.

 

Brohamer did steal 2nd earlier in the game, but given that he isn't sliding, and Belanger isn't trying to make a tag, I don't think this card shows that steal.

In addition to the appearance on Brohamer's card, Grich's card also shows him at Memorial Stadium catching a infield popup.  Frank Duffy hit a popup to 2nd in the 2nd inning, and Tom McGraw popped up to 2nd in the 8th, so this card likely shows one of those 2 plays.

On the Gerry Moses card which started me on my search,  we can see an Oriole sliding in to home behind him.  The Oriole appears to be Mark Belanger, who wore # 7.  Gerry was traded along with Graig Nettles to the Yankees on November 27, 1972, which is why his cap has been airbrushed, and why his card lists him on the Yankees.

Belanger scored on a sac fly by Bobby Grich in the bottom of the 4th.  

Speaking of Graig Nettles, his picture was also taken at this game, and he received a rather poor airbrush job to show him as a Yankee:

These next 3 cards all show the same background as the Gerry Moses and Graig Nettles cards, so presumably they were all taken the same day as well:

 

 

We have one more card showing the Indians and the Orioles from this game.  Frank Duffy's card shows him making a play at 2nd with an unidentifiable Oriole sliding headfirst into the bag.  If I had to guess, I would say the Oriole is Don Baylor who was out at 2nd on a ground ball hit by Boog Powell to the 2nd baseman who threw to the shortstop to get the forceout.

Jim Palmer's 1973 card shows him pitching at Memorial Stadium.  While there is nothing to confirm that this was taken against the Indians, Jim did pitch a complete game against the Indians on May 28, and got the win 5 - 1.  Given all the other pictures that seem to be from this game, I would say the Palmer card is from that game as well.

And finally, we have Brooks Robinson.  While there is nothing in the photo to confirm that this great photo was taken during the same game, given that all of the other Orioles cards that show an action shot appear to be from this game, I think it is a safe bet to say this picture was taken the same day.

I'm not sure what the record might be for number of game used photos from a single game being used in 1 set, but having possibly 11 cards from the 1973 set coming from one game is pretty impressive!