I ran across this awesome point-of-sale sign featuring halfback Charley Trippi and QB Paul Christman of the Chicago Cardinals in Mastro’s December 2005 catalog; since Christman only played for Chicago until ’49, It must be from the ’40s despite being titled as a ’50s piece.
Here’s Mastro’s complete item description:
Check out this awesome display for “Wilson Sports Equipment!” Wilson has been a worldwide leader in the sports industry for decades due to the quality of their products and the effective promotion of their equipment. Years of using athletes and teams to endorse new product lines elevated Wilson USA into its unique, elite position in the sporting goods industry. Offered here is a football “cradle,” counter sign utilizing images of halfback Charley Trippi and quarterback Paul Christman of the Chicago Cardinals. Entitled “It’s a Wilson,” the 16″ x 14″ x 6-1/2″ display has a working stand-up back showing off the fantastic NM condition of the artifact. This 1940’s-1950’s point-of-sale advertisement possesses beautiful, bold colors and shows only the slightest signs of aging and use. What a spectacular piece!
I’ve been looking for other examples of this piece online or across The Hobby Library but haven’t seen another, so I thought it would be cool to look at the cards of the two “famous stars of the National Football League” instead.
Trippi, a Pro and College Football Hall of Famer, has the slightly more coveted cards and a deeper run of them since he played until 1955. He has two rookie cards from 1948, a Bowman and Leaf.
However, my favorite among his cards is the 1952 Bowman. However, his exhibit is fascinating in the context of the cardboard ad sign since the image is similar.
Christman, a College Football Hall of Famer, also has 1948 Bowman and Leaf rookie cards.
Happy collecting!