[Editor’s note: Welcome back to the return of “Collector’s Corner” to Uni Watch. Although no longer run by Brinke Guthrie, it has been ably resurrected by Chris Weir. Chris approached me about restarting CC, vowing to uphold the old look and style, but with one new twist: he will make each edition timely with what is going on currently in the sports world (i.e. rivalry games, big events, anniversary of events). Enjoy and please give Chris some feedback about the new (old) feature. — PH]
by Chris Weir
This week’s Collector’s Corner will be a hodgepodge of items from College Football National Champions, the Robert Edward Auctions closing this week, and an item sent in from a reader.
I’d like to feature a reader’s item once a week so feel free to email me at collectorscorneruniwatch@aol.
• There’s a little damage to the case but the pen looks to be in good shape from this BYU Ink Pen Set commemorating the Cougars’ 1984 championship.
• 1990 was a great year in Colorado for college football with the Buffs winning the national title, the Falcons beating Ohio State in the Liberty Bowl, and the Rams beating Oregon in the Freedom Bowl. Here is a Shirt with an interesting depiction of all three mascots.
• Pittsburgh was the center of the sports universe in the late ’70s with the Steelers, Pirates, and Panthers all winning titles. This Pitt Schedule Poster from their National Championship season features a retro Sun Bowl logo and the U.S. Bicentennial logo. Looks like the autographs are reproductions.
• TCU claimed National Championships in 1935 and 1938. In 1935, TCU led by Sammy Baugh won the Sugar Bowl over LSU by a score of 3-2. Here is a Program from the Fort Worth Lions Club, “Frog Day” held a few days before the Sugar Bowl. In 1938 Davey O’Brien was at QB for the Horned Frogs when they beat Carnegie Tech in the Sugar Bowl. Not sure what the context of this Uniform O’Brien is shown wearing here but if it’s real it’s pretty awesome.
• Moving onto Robert Edward Auctions, before the days when shirts with your team’s logo were commonplace, you had to iron one of These onto a plain t-shirt.
• I don’t know how to play the game but I’ve always loved the aesthetics of the 1968 Topps Game.
• Johnny Unitas is sporting a haircut you can set your watch to in this 1958 Topps Card.
• Quite the insurance ad campaign featured on this Photo of the 1951 New York Giants.
• Reader David, a Dodgers fan, sent in this Shirt featuring the nonexistent Dodgers’ 2017 World Series Championship. I suggested he get members of the 2017 Astros to sign it but they’d probably steal it and throw it in a trash can.
O’Brien is wearing the College All-Star Game uniform. The Chicago Tribune was the major sponsor, so it promoted the game heavily each year in the days leading up to the game:
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Yeah, the ebay listing says “1938 newspaper.” TCU won the championship in 1938, but the newspaper is from August 27, 1939. Because the College ASG is played before the following season. O”Brien is wearing the newly designed for 39 CAS uniform, which they basically stuck with until the end of the series.
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Colorado for college football with the Buffs winning the national title, the Falcons beating Ohio State in the Liberty Bowl, and the Rams beating Oregon in the Freedom Bowl.
For those not well-versed with Colorado colleges, you might clarify by referring to them as the “Colorado Buffs,” the “Air Force Falcons,” and the “Colorado State Rams.”
/takes off pedant’s hat
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1990, 10 year old me just sick watching the Buckeyes lose to Air Force. But that’s a sick shirt.
Great “Simpsons” callback!
We all know Georgia Tech was the national champion in 1990. Colorado had some help from the refs in the Orange Bowl.
Georgia Tech gets rewarded with a share of the 1990 National Championship ONLY to punish University of Colorado (CU) for the 5th Down Game vs MIzzou . . .
I have some fantastic buttons from TCU’s national championship. Three of them cam in a box I watched on eBay for years – finally offered enough to get them. This is a collage I made for their bowl game this year. I make collages with my collectibles for every old SWC matchup that happens these days.
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That’s awesome. TCU always seems to create great stuff with their Horned Frog mascot. Kinda wish they gave the Horned Frog (who doesn’t have a name???) Hypno Toad’s eyes when that was popular.
The back of the 1958 Topps Unitas card lists his college incorrectly as Pittsburgh! Unitas attended the University of Louisville all 4 years he played college football. He was born in Pittsburgh and went to high school there.
He was also drafted by the Steelers but was released & ended up playing semi pro football and working in construction before being signed by the Colts.
That’s one of my favorite Abe Simpson lines, I quote it often, that and the elderly strikebreaker rant. “We can’t bust heads like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to tell them stories that don’t go anywhere, like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they call Shelbyville in those days, so I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. So, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on ‘em. Give me five bees for a quarter you’d say. Now where were we? Oh yeah! The important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn’t have white onions, because of the war. The only thing you could was those big yellow ones.”
Mr. Burns, who is older than Abe, is even bored by his story.
I feel like I must have had the 1968 Topps Game as many of those poses look familiar. Would be interesting to see a modern-day recreation – who would be the 33 players featured today?
Kenny Maybe & Topps collaborated to produce this a few years back.
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CORRECTION:
The auction house featured in the article is now known as “REA Auctions” and can be found at this website.
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