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.