With 60 years of history, the Super Bowl has provided an endless supply of trivia. For collectors, here’s a quick football card-oriented quiz.
- All 16 correct: First Ballot Hall of Famer
- 13-15 correct: Super Bowl champion
- 10-12 correct: League MVP
- 7-9 correct: Division champ
- 4-6 correct: Popular veteran teammate
- 1-3 correct: Cut in training camp
- None correct: What country are you from?
Answers are at the bottom. Good luck.
Questions
A) Who scored the first touchdown in the first Super Bowl and in which set can you find his rookie card?
B) In which 1970s set did Topps first produce a card for the previous year’s Super Bowl as part of its flagship set?
C) What was the first NFL licensed Fleer set that included cards referencing the Super Bowl?
D) Which 21st century Topps product included pieces of Super Bowl game-used footballs, goal posts and tickets?
E) What orange-colored memorabilia was included on Panini football cards as part of the company’s Black Friday promotion?
F) They’re still the only team to finish an entire season unbeaten and the 1972 Miami Dolphins were featured on Topps’ Super Bowl card the following year.
Who’s the player making the tackle on this card?
G) Who was the first entertainer to appear on a Super Bowl themed trading card and when?
H) One card set from a long defunct manufacturer included a pair of cards showing people watching the Super Bowl in a foreign country during the early 1990s. What was significant about the fans pictured on the cards?
I) Ahead of Super Bowl XXV, Pro Set created a 160-card set to commemorate the game’s silver anniversary. Produced in massive quantities, they’re easy to find and inexpensive today. What was the specific focal point of the first 24 cards in the set?
J) Commemorative team sets for Super Bowl champions became a staple of Panini’s production later on, but Playoff did it in the mid-1990s when a team returned to Super Bowl glory after a long absence. For which team did they produce a boxed set and who was the game’s MVP?
K) The man who delivered more Super Bowl TV play-by-play than any other broadcaster is a former player, teaming with a popular former coach in the booth. Who’s the golden voiced legend, what was his NFL specialty and where can you find his rookie card?
L) Which Hall of Fame player holds the career Super Bowl rushing record with 354 yards and which set holds his rookie card?
M) Which player holds the record for most career points scored in the Super Bowl and which national restaurant company’s in-season promotional giveaway holds a card that arrived the same year as his regular issue Topps card? Hint: It came out in the 1980s and it’s not the only Super Bowl record he holds.
O) Who’s the only Super Bowl MVP quarterback not to have thrown a touchdown pass in the game and what was the insert set that he appeared in that season, when he led his team to an improbable win?
P) Which quarterback holds the record for most touchdown passes in a single Super Bowl, which team did he beat and name the set that holds his first pro football card.
Answers:
A) After a night on the town in Los Angeles prior to Super Bowl I, veteran Max McGee came off the bench to grab two touchdown passes, including the first in Super Bowl history–making a one-handed grab on a pass by Bart Starr.
McGee’s rookie card can be found in the 1959 set, which coincided with Vince Lombardi’s arrival as head coach. The Super Bowl trophy would eventually be named in Lombardi’s honor.
B) 1972 Topps, which showed Roger Staubach on the run in the Dallas Cowboys’ 24-3 win over the Miami Dolphins.
C) 1976 Fleer Teams-in-Action. The NFLPA license was exclusive to Topps, but Fleer had an NFL license and produced sets into the 1980s, although they couldn’t reference specific players. The last card in their inaugural 1976 set commemorates the Steelers’ 21-17 comeback win over the Cowboys the year before, with Terry Bradshaw handing off to Franco Harris in Super Bowl X.
Cards for each of the first ten Super Bowls are included in the ’76 set and they’d become a staple in future years.
D) 2002 Topps, which included autographed cards of Tom Brady and pieces of game-used memorabilia from the first of what became seven Super Bowl wins. One of the cards numbered to 150 sold earlier this week for $42,000.
E) Panini included Super Bowl XLVI pylon cards in its Black Friday card promotions during the 2010s. Nobody asked us, but we think these are among the coolest relic cards around and rare enough to be interesting. Brady Super Bowl pylon card? We’ll take one.
F) Topps’ second Super Bowl card in its 1973 set commemorated the Miami Dolphins’ win over Washington with defensive lineman Manny Fernandez making a stop of the Redskins’ Larry Brown.
G) Whitney Houston, Super Bowl XXV, commemorated on an NFL Newsreel card created by Pro Set as part of its huge 1991 set. Yes, she lip-synched the song but it was recorded in a single take, with orchestra backing just ahead of the big game. Despite that, it’s still considered among the most uplifting and emotional performances of the anthem, coming at the height of the Gulf War.
H) Pro Set’s 1991 set also included images of U.S. military members wearing gas masks and watching the game on a small monitor from Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War.
I) The Super Bowl XXV commemorative set was issued in standard box, fat pack box (with six pieces of bubble gum!) and the very common boxed set form. The first 25 cards showcased tickets to the first 24 Super Bowl games.
It’s the first (and only?) dedicated Super Bowl card set ever packed with gum.
J) The Super Bowl XXXI Green Bay Packers, who went through a 29-year drought after Super Bowl II. Kick returner Desmond Howard was named the game’s MVP. The sets can be had for $20-‘$30 today.
K) That would be Pat Summerall, who was behind the microphone for 16 of them between 1970 and 2002. Summerall’s rookie card is in the 1955 Bowman set, which lists him as an “end” but he’s best known for his kicking with the Chicago Cardinals and, especially, the New York Giants in the late 1950s and early 60s.
L) The “Steel Curtain” Pittsburgh Steelers also had plenty of talent on offense. The late Franco Harris still holds the Super Bowl record for career rushing yards with 354, a total he compiled in four games–all Steeler wins. He scored in all four games and was MVP of Super Bowl IX when he ran for 158 yards and was named MVP.
M) Hall of Fame receiver Jerry Rice scored 48 points on eight touchdowns over four Super Bowl games, winning three of them with the 49ers. In addition to his 1986 Topps rookie card, he was featured in the massive McDonald’s NFL trading card promotion that season (there are four color variations on the tab that could be torn off for free food).
Rice was MVP in Super Bowl XXIII, catching 11 passes for 215 yards. He also holds the Super Bowl record for receiving yards with 589, a total that may be tough to top.
O) Joe Namath backed up his pre-game guarantee that his New York Jets would beat the heavily favored Baltimore Colts. The win came during the 1968 season, when Namath was part of the Topps Stand-Up set in addition to his regular issue card.
P) Steve Young threw six TD passes in the 49ers’ 55-14 rout of the San Diego Chargers in Super Bowl XXIX. Young’s road to a ring was a rocky one. He signed with the LA Express, then joined a woeful Tampa Bay Bucs franchise when the USFL folded. In San Francisco, he faced the ire of fans who were miffed the team had traded Joe Montana to give him the starting job. His Topps debut came in the 1984 USFL boxed set.
