Foot Locker CEO Harold Sells, an important figure in founding the iconic sneaker store in 1974, was looking for a way to intertwine the retail store with basketball and sneaker culture. It was 1988, and Air Jordans were well into revolutionizing the sneaker industry.
Sells understood the cultural phenomena developing before his eyes. So borne out of countless board meetings and marketing brainstorms came an idea called the Foot Locker Slam Fest. The premise was to get non-basketball players in a slam dunk contest, appealing to a broad range of sports fans while keeping the focus on basketball.
In addition, the show pitted top athletes against each other in unfamiliar sports, a format popularized by the Superstars television series. Musical entertainment was provided by LL Cool J, who was on his way to superstardom.
The most prominent athlete was Bo Jackson, but it also included volleyball great Karch Kiraly, boxing hall of famer Thomas Hearns, Olympic high jumper Dwight Stones, and Major League Baseball player Devon White.
The Inaugural Foot Locker Slam Fest
The event was filmed in February in Hilton Head, S.C., and televised on ESPN on May 17, 1988.
As part of its promotional efforts, Foot Locker stores gave out a set of nine trading cards featuring the highest-scoring athletes. According to Beckett, the card of the winning athlete could then be redeemed in-store for a free pair of Wilson athletic shoes and a 50% discount on any purchase.
Stones, who finished in fourth place, remembers feeling out of place in the pickup games the night before filming.
“Some of the guys were so athletic, and I was like, ‘I’m going to get my ass kicked,’” Stones recalled. “The good news is that I was drawn later in the competition and I was just watching. Every one of the guys before me tried to do stuff and the ball would not go in the hoop.
“I just knew that the ball had to go in the hoop. I dunked the ball over my left shoulder and the place suddenly erupts because I was the first person to put it in the hoop.”
Stones, who was happy to get an all-expenses paid trip to Hilton Head in the winter for he and his wife, received a “more than happy” $10,000 in prize money for his fourth-place finish.
But the star of the event was Olympic triple jumper Mike Conley, who had won the silver medal at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Little event footage is available, but a small snippet at the beginning of a compilation video on YouTube shows Conley dunking from the free-throw line.
The event was a success, leading to a yearly rendition until 1996. Conley became a slam dunk pioneer, becoming one of the greatest free-throw dunk artists ever. He would also win the triple jump gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
The Mike Conley Redemption Card
Conley’s trading card proved to be a valuable asset. Free sneakers and a 50% discount wasn’t a bad haul for a free set of promo cards. But the trade-in begs the question of how many 1988 Foot Locker Slam Fest Mike Conley cards remain out there?
According to GemRate, the only cards graded by PSA are those featuring Bo Jackson, with 37 submissions, and what turns out to be Kiraly’s rookie card, with seven submissions. Beckett has received eight submissions from the set – all belonging to Jackson. SGC has only graded two Jackson cards.
Three years ago, what was touted to be an original complete set sold for $30 on eBay according to Mavin.io. None of the cards had been authenticated but the set did appear to have the hallmarks of being authentic. That sale appears to be the last digital trace of a Mike Conley card from the 1988 set. Conley would appear in several more Slam Fests, and by extension, in more card sets. But none of the subsequent releases were tied to a giveaway. While the 1988 cards can be found regularly, the Conley remains elusive.
Jim Akre, a former Foot Locker store manager and card collector, said one Conley card was sent to each Foot Locker store. According to this article, there were about 900 Foot Locker and Lady Foot Locker stores open by the late 1980s. Akre gives a rough estimate that there were between 500 – 800 Foot Locker stores at the time.
“The cards came in a box of maybe 300, and were randomly in the box like you’d find cards from a kid in the 70s,” Akre said. “We were supposed to let anyone who made a purchase randomly draw one card from a box. I believe most managers pulled the Conley and gave it to a favored customer.
“When the Conley card was redeemed it was supposed to be destroyed so it couldn’t be redeemed again. So there were probably 500 – 800 printed and I doubt many survived.”
Searching for the Chase Card
Collector Ben Abrams has been looking for the Conley card for several years.
“I collect rookie cards of GOATs from less popular sports in the United States,” Abrams told SC Daily. “But worldwide, sports like cricket or rugby are huge. I heard about the Conley from a collector at a convention at the same time I found out the set included Kiraly’s true rookie card.
“I’ve had eBay saved searches in place for a few years now and Kiraly pops up semi-regularly. I haven’t seen one Conley for sale. I only know it exists from a picture on the internet.”
While Kiraly’s graded rookie card usually fetches over $100, it’s unknown what price the Conley card can command because it is so rare.
SC Daily contacted one of the hobby’s definitive sources on basketball cards, Steve Taft.
“I’ve only had a few sets of the ’88 Foot Locker,” Taft said. “I still have a big box of ’89 Foot Locker sets buried in storage. There’s definitely a lot more ’89’s than ’88’s.”
Foot Locker also produced cards for Slam Fest in 1991, and both the ’89 and ’91 sets are far more accessible. There aren’t usually more than 20-25 1988 Foot Locker Slam Fest cards on eBay at any time.
How Many Cards Are There?
With the Conley card short-printed and to be destroyed upon redemption, is anyone out there hoarding his card? Akre kept the Conley card sent to his store.
“It wasn’t a promo that was a big deal,” Akre said. “I’m guessing most of the cards were thrown away. There wasn’t any thought of the cards having any value at the time, so I kept the Conley as a novelty. I have the 9-card set in a pocket sheet somewhere but haven’t seen it in 20 years.”
There may have been a few other store managers that kept the Conley cards. Or maybe Foot Locker executives and middle managers were privy to complete sets that they stored away. As for Abrams, his search for a Conley card continues.
“What’s frustrating to me is you know it’s out there,” Abrams said. “It’s one of those things where you write a story about it, and someone turns up with 80 of them.”
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