Terry Bradshaw
Notable Super Bowl cards highlight the most iconic stars, teams from the biggest game in sports
With the hype, anticipation and a huge TV audience both in the U.S. and globally, the Super Bowl has long been the crown jewel of professional team sports championships.
Super Bowl LIX features the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles in New Orleans on Feb. 9 as the Chiefs attempt to win their third straight championship and fourth in six seasons.
Also See: All-Time Super Bowl winners
This article focuses primarily on cards at least 30 years old with connections to the Super Bowl, the championship game that began in January 1967 when the quickly maturing American Football League first battled the seasoned National Football League in a title game between the rivals.
We start with a few quick nods to some of the first few Super Bowl cards that Topps produced, beginning with the 1972 game. Card #139 in the ’72 issue exhibits a scrambling Roger Staubach as the Dallas Cowboys quarterback led a trouncing of the up-and-coming Miami Dolphins. One of the most popular Super Bowl cards, it stands out partly because of its age and the striking close-up action shot, but mainly due to the featured subject—a classy Pro Football Hall of Famer who played his entire career with Dallas.
Other notable Super Bowl cards from 1970s Topps sets includes: 1975 Topps #528 (the set ender) and 1976 Topps #333 with Pittsburgh Steelers QB Terry Bradshaw; 1978 Topps #168 featuring Cowboys’ running back Tony Dorsett; and 1979 Topps #168 featuring Steelers’ running back Franco Harris.
FLEER TAKES ON TOPPS
From 1960-63 the Fleer Company went head to head against Topps in the pro football card arena, Fleer with the AFL players while Topps rolled out cardboard with the main NFL rosters. In the early 1970s Fleer produced football card-related games with packs of gridiron quizzes and scouting reports and included cloth team patches. In the mid-70s Fleer produced Hall of Fame football cards, with cloth team patches in those packs, too.
Fleer had a major breakthrough in 1976 with football team patches and logos combined in their own card packs, but also a 66-piece “Team Action” set offering regular trading card-size “sticker cards” highlighting both offensive and defensive snapshots of each NFL squad in game play. The last portion of the sticker cards set, however, devotes one slot for each of the first 10 Super Bowls.
Most of the Fleer “Team Action” Super Bowl examples display wider “group” shots of an actual split second from the game. One of the most sought after in this category shows up in the 1976 issue on card #57—Super Bowl 1 where Green Bay beat Kansas City. If you look closely on this card within the cluster of jerseys it appears Packers fullback Jim Taylor is making some headway against the Chiefs. Fleer used the same photo, presented slightly differently, of the Hall of Famer helping his team in the 1977 “Team Action” Super Bowl subset of sorts. Fleer occasionally reused photos over their Super Bowl card sets.
In 1977 Fleer changed their “Team Action” issue from stickers to regular cards, with the Super Bowl moments appearing at the very end of each set, and mostly stayed with that basic format through 1984.
With their 1985 and 1986 “Team Action” collections Fleer limited their Super Bowl coverage to a few cards of only that year’s big contest. In 1987, the card maker’s “Team Action” Super Bowl cards represented a hybrid of previous strategies: one card on each of the first 20 championship games—and four cards about the most recent matchup at the time between the AFC and NFL with the New York Giants besting the Denver Broncos.
For 1988 Fleer highlighted the previous nine Super Bowls, with three cards for Super Bowl XXII when Washington trounced Denver. And with this set, Fleer’s “Team Action” train rolled to a stop.
Additional Fleer “Team Action” Super Bowl cards that spark extra attention include: from their 1978 issue, Super Bowl 1 (featuring Green Bay QB Bart Starr) and Super Bowl IX (with Pittsburgh’s Terry Bradshaw and Franco Harris); via the 1979 offering Super Bowl IX (with Bradshaw and Harris again, but in a different photo from the year before); and various samples of the Miami Dolphins win over Washington in Super Bowl VII to finish the only undefeated and untied season in NFL history.
Another vintage Fleer Super Bowl card of note: the 1990 highlight of Joe Montana and Jerry Rice (#397) showcasing their exploits with the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowls XXIII and XXIV.
PRO SET
Shortly after Fleer ended their Super Bowl “Team Action” cards, the Pro Set Company began in 1989 with their version of sets, of varying degree, related to pro football’s biggest game.
Granted, Pro Set’s first foray in this field on any scale generated a modest issue featuring the game logos for the initial 23 Super Bowls, an insert in the regular issue wax packs. Likely more for the completist collector, this unnumbered logos offering barely budges the hobby interest needle in normal instances.
For the 1990 Super Bowl, another hosted by New Orleans, Pro Set and the GTE Company collaborated with an offering given out to the big game attendees. This 40-card issue came in its own album and featured the San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos. The stars in this set include John Elway, Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and Steve Young.
Pro Set later sold out these sets for $20 each. Pro Set followed a similar path with these Super Bowl card sets in binders the next two years, as well.
For the 1990 season, Pro Set flapped their Super Bowl wings on a grander scale for most collectors as their base football card packs came with inserts: Theme art with Super Bowl game program cover images (Series 1); and MVPs of the gridiron title games (Series 2).
That same 1990-91 season Pro Set rolled out a 160-card “Super Bowl only” set covering the first two dozen contests. The key subsets: game ticket images, Supermen and Super Moments. In 1991 the card maker produced a factory set of one replica ticket of each of the first 25 Super Bowls.
THE SCORE
With the exception of some of the 1970s Topps cards, many of these Super Bowl card issues can easily be tackled in solid and raw condition for a dollar or two at the most—and often a lot cheaper. The low entrance fee translates into collectors easily obtaining glimpses of Super Bowl history, whether it be game photos, replica tickets and program covers, the MVPs, and more and that gives hobbyists a clear lane to excel.
To paraphrase legendary Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi, winner of the first two Super Bowls, “Collect to daylight.”
Also See: More collectible Super Bowl QBs
SUPER BOWL CARD SALES
Recent auction results for vintage Super Bowl cards:
1990 Pro Set Lombardi Trophy Hologram (SGC 7) $200
1990-91 Pro Set Super Bowl Supermen Johnny Unitas #134 (Beckett Authentic Auto) $94
1976 Fleer Team Action Super Bowl 1 #57 (PSA 9) $77
1972 Topps Roger Staubach scrambles Super Bowl VI #139 (PSA 8) $60
1982 Fleer Team Action Super Bowl IX #66 (PSA 10) $51
1980 Topps Super Bowl XIV #494 (PSA 8) $50
1990 Pro Set Jerry Rice Super Bowl XXIII MVP #23 (PSA 10) $40
1981 Fleer Team Action Super Bowl II #58 (PSA 9) $39
1990 Pro Set Super Bowl Supermen Franco Harris #41 (PSA 10) $25
1991 Pro Set Silver Anniversary Commemorative set (in box) $7-$16
1977 Fleer Team Action (Super Bowl V) #61 (EX, raw) $5
— Doug Koztoski is a frequent SCD contributor. He can be reached at dkoz3000@gmail.com
