Rediscovering the World Football League: A Trading Card Tribute

There was just one problem. The set was never produced. For decades, that missing cardboard left a huge void in football history.

But what happens when die hard fans decide to write a historical wrong? Stay tuned to learn more. Hello, my football friends.

This is Darren Hayes of pigskindispatch.com welcome once again to the Pig Pen, your portal to positive football history. And we have a special treat for you.

We have a group of gentlemen that started cards, trading cards that pay tribute to these players in these leagues from long ago. Gentlemen, welcome to the Pig Pen.

Jeez. So. Well, I can tell you how I became a WFL fan, first and foremost.

Sure.

So I grew up in Southern California, right in the shadow of the big A, where Angels played. And when the sun, Southern California sun came to town, my dad took me to a game.

It was closer than going to a Rams game, A little bit more affordable, family friendly, that kind of thing. And I just sort of fell in love with the colors and the logos and just all that excitement of being at a football game and that kind of.

I think I was 10 maybe when that nine or 10. And that just sort of led me down the path.

And here I am all these years later working with these fine gentlemen and kind of honoring and preserving the history of that league.

All right, Richie, how about your story?

I'm Richie Franklin. I was 12 years old when I heard the World Football League was going to begin.

Started reading about it in the newspaper, started getting some interest. I was a Green Bay packers fan and they stunk back then. So I was looking for some.

Something a little more exciting and like Bill just touched on it was the colors, the logos, the football. I love that WFL football.

But I turned 13 in March, and a week after I turned 13 is when the Larry Zonka, Jim Kick and Paul Warfield joined the World Football League. And from there it just kind of snowballed. Calvin Hill, Kenny Stabler, Daryl Lamonica, guys like Edward jumping to the wfl.

And it just got exciting and I just became a big fan and still am to this day.

Yeah, very cool. Greg, how about you?

Well, when the.

The WFL kicked off and when Birmingham got a team, that was the first pro team that I'd ever really thought we would ever see in the state of Alabama and loved college football even as a kid, but there was no professional football in Alabama. So when the Birmingham Americans came to town, that was a big deal because I was less, you know, right about an hour away.

And it was a team I could cheer for. And I thought, you know, get to watch them on tv, hear him on the radio.

Well, what I did not realize at the time was the second home game, my dad came home and announced we were going to the game. And so I went to the Birmingham Memphis game and later went to the Birmingham Florida Blazers game.

And, you know, somebody in, in your formative years of kind of developing who you cheer for and your allegiances and your, your, Your strong memories and that sort of, you know, solidified it for me. So the WFL's always had a big part of, of my, I guess, my football memory, if you will.

That's great. Those are the great comfort places that we all experience when we're young and very comforting to celebrate when we're a little bit older.

So you guys have teamed up together and you've created the WFL trading cards. Is that the correct name?

I'm, I'm saying for them, WFL football cards is what we call them.

Okay, so, so how. How did all of this come about? How did you three get together?

You know, you're coming from different parts of the country and you're celebrating one league, but how did you all team up together and decide to make a trading card set?

Sports Illustrated had an article on the WFL and they mentioned there that Topps was trying to put together some trading cards for the World Football League. And he actually went to camps and took photos and stuff of WFL players.

And that fall when, you know, football cards were coming out, I stopped by our local store every day to check to see if these WFO cars were out. And. And they never came about.

And then when TOPS archives started selling their negatives from the World Football League, we had a Yahoo group called, called the WFL Club. And I was mentioning there, you know, how there was never no WFO cards. I wish there was. And, you know, I'm buying these negatives.

I wish we put together a set. And Bill was kind of. He was in that club as well as Greg. And I don't want to just. We have to talking back and forth.

And we said, let's, let's do this. And there was some interest, and it's just something we looked at and decided to do, and we've done very well with it.

No, no, we may have used a couple of those negatives, but for the most part, we, we used our own pictures and stuff. I mean, we did use a few of the top snakes. We did.

Yeah. We've got pictures from, from Richie's private collection, from Greg's private collection.

We have some other fans and historians that, you know, we can reach out to and they'll help us from time to time with information or with photos and things like that. So it's really been kind of a fun. That's been a fun part of this, just finding some of the photos and finding different photos for different sets.

You would think that after all this time, almost all the photos had been mined. And there are days we think, okay, yeah, there's none left.

And then lo and behold, we'll find a new one here or a collection there or something that was unpublished. And that's always a good thing when you find something new like that.

Yeah, it's like Christmas morning every day when you find stuff like that. I'm sure that's really cool. Why don't you explain what somebody would experience when they go to your site and please give your, your site name out.

Yes. Yeah, sure. So, Darren, we've got. We have two. Two sites that we have set up.

One is called wflfootballcards.com so www.wflfootballcards.com and the other is usflfootballcards.com. Both are set up similarly, but they're a little different look.

One, I think the USFO one has a little more modern look, which makes sense since The USFO was 10 years later. Right, right. When you go there, you can search through all of our different sets.

You can see samples of the cards, you can see checklists to tell you which players or teams are featured in each set. Now, sets are generally player specific. We do have some that are not specific to players and more specific to teams, but we have a total.

I'm just looking at my list here.

And we've got some more like in the wings that we're working on, you know, developing and trying to see when we can get those together and get them out so our, our cards are picture cards. They're front and back, they're standard card stock, they're standard card size.

Typically color photos, we do have some that are black and white that, you know, we just haven't been able to find those, those crisp color photos that we want of players. But. And the cards are most often designed to give the look and feel of a card set from the era.

So we've got card sets that look similar to tops sets from the 70s and 80s. We've got some that look like FLIR sets. We've got a new set that has not quite come out yet, it's coming out later this year.

But it's based on the old Hostess cards that you would cut out of the Twinkie box. Right.

We did a set on the bottom of your box of Ho Hos or something.

Yeah, exactly. We just did a set for the USFL that looked like Kellogg's cards used to come inside of cereal boxes.

So we try to find things from our childhood that resonated with us, that we think will resonate with collectors and historians and put the USFL or WFL into those kind of templates, so to speak.

Okay, well that is great. When you do that and have a familiar form that you know, people love, love does a kid. You're going to love it as an adult and you want it.

When you have a little bit more money to spend and get these things. That's really cool. It resonates with me and I'm sure with the audience too. And folks, just a programming note here.

You know, Bill called out the websites. If you're driving or you don't have a pen and pencil because you're at the gym.

The show notes of both the podcast and the YouTube channel will have those links in there. You can get connected to their cards, the WFL and USFL cards. So take note of that. So yeah, very interesting.

So what is, so what's the process for making a trading card? You know, I, we all look at them, we've all had them in their, our hands and everything. You know, you obtain the pictures and then.

Then what kind of happens after that? Where's the magic happen?

It's kind of a multi phase process. Yeah, it's like, you know, one of us will throw out an idea for, hey, what about a set with, of this group or subgroup or this type of team?

And then we'll sort of banner around a little bit. Then I gotta say, Bill is sort of the template king. You know, he, he can, we can say what About a.

A set that looks like a certain time or era or whatever, and he. And he can. He can just come up with it and he's, you know, I always tip my hat to him. And then once.

Once that is in place, then it's just, you know, we look for photos and then the information and then with proofing and, you know, kind of send back and forth. What do you think about this one? It's a fun process.

Oh, I bet. I bet. So you guys, you have. Have all the, like, stats or the fun. Fun little tidbits on the back of the cards, too. Who. Who does all that research?

I would say all of us.

Yeah.

So you share. Share everything. Okay.

But. But photos are the hardest part. You know, there's. There's players that we'd like to. To make cards of.

We've had players ask to make cards of them, but photos just aren't available. And sometimes the quality of the photo is not great. But that's our biggest issue there is get getting good photos.

All right, well, I guess since you guys have given us that nostalgic feel and the retro feel here a little bit, I gotta ask the question. It's on everybody's mind that's listening right now. Do you have the stale pink gum that tastes like cardboard in there, too, in the cards?

No, you don't. But we did do. We did do a set, and I'm telling which one it was.

We did a set and we did a title card that looked like an old wrapper, and we put on there with no stick of gum. I can't remember what set that was off top of my head, but we have done that just for fun.

Yeah, I don't think anybody ever bought that for the gum. And I think they knew that because.

I don't think so.

The cards probably tasted better than the gum, I'm sure. All right, so you guys have all these different sets. Maybe just go go around the room here and say if you do.

Does anybody have, like, a favorite set of the WFL cards that you like and maybe tell us why.

I would say Series one, the one that we first started. But I like a lot of our subsets, too. The TVS set is the league jumper set, the 50th anniversary set, our WFL All Stars. They're all good cards.

And I would say my favorite card of all of them is. He's in series three. He's Jerry Philbin from the New York Stars. I just. That's good close up of Jerry.

And the good close up of the Stars helmet when they had to fin ny in the middle of the Star Rudy Kuchenberg and Bobby Majors cards in series, I believe. Five or just good colored photos. And those are my favorite of the of our cards.

Okay. Bill, how about you?

So Richie mentioned the TDS set which is, was, is a fun set. We picked that and it's based on. Gosh, what year was it? 66, I think when Topps did the cards, that looked like you were looking at a tv.

So it's based on that set.

That was kind of hard to do and it was different, you know, because we weren't as player focused. So I think that's one of my favorite sets overall in terms of upcoming sets going back to the Ho Hos and the Ding Dongs.

One of those Hostess type card sets that we're putting together might be based on one of those teams from Southern California we talked about earlier. And I do kind of have a leaning towards that set.

Ah, okay. And Greg, how about you?

I think the league Jumpers is my favorite set just because of the fun we had going through all the different photos. And personally my favorite player is former running back from Alabama, Johnny Musso. And, and he was featured in that set.

Another my favorite players is Dennis Holman who played for, for Birmingham and he's in the, the series one.

And it's just been, it's been a, a lot of fun just kind of going through and seeing a lot of these photos, some that you forgot that you had seen 10, 15, 20 years ago. And it's just, it's been a lot of fun just to, to see these things come together.

Yeah. Now I was going through, looking at your site over the last week or Two here, the WFL.com site, trading card site, and you have a gallery there.

And, and at first I, I didn't catch my eye until I started seeing some of the names on there where you have actual players holding up their cards. I'm assuming I couldn't see what they were holding up exactly because I was looking out on a phone.

But that's pretty cool because you guys have like what, a couple dozen or more former players holding up cards from the sets.

We're now up to 45.

I went to a sports card show in Chantilly, Virginia, the CSA show And Jim Kick was there and I took his card there and I got him to sign some and then I showed him the football card and I said, hey, will you do me a favor and hold it up? And he goes, okay, holding up my card and I took a picture of it and I sent it to Greg and Bill. And then a light bulb went off my head.

I said, you know what, I'm going to do this. I'm going to get other players to do this. So I put together a real nice package and I sent it out to players and I'll get them to sign a card for me.

And so far I've got 42 cards signed by players and but 45 is the number we have on our website of players. Well, 44 players. Gary, Gary Davidson, the commissioner, he's holding up his card too. So we made a card of him. So that's been a fun process.

I want to keep adding to it and I'm actually working on a WFL football cards promo for us and I've gotten five players, Paul Miles, Rudy Holmes, Joe Womack, Frank Polito and Dan Callahan who've done videos for us 20 32nd spot wearing their WFL football cars t shirt and holding up their card and talking about our cards. So we're going to be putting that together soon and putting that on the website.

But it's been a lot of fun having the players work with us and they enjoy getting their cars. Some guys only played in the World Football League and never had cards made of themselves.

So they're really happy to get those cards and, and they love helping us out.

Yeah.

Who doesn't want to see something that has your picture on it from, especially when you're younger and you're, you know, at the top, your athleticism, you want to show off to the grandkids or something. That's. That's really cool.

Exactly.

Sure.

So, so was there like any interesting stories of encounters with, you know, some of these former players that were in these leagues that they found out that you're making the cards?

I think we've had a couple of families, I think some players and players, families both that have reached out to us and asked for 40, 50, 100 copies of their cards to give out to family members or for various uses.

I think that's pretty cool when a daughter or a son in law or someone sees a card or reads about it and says, hey, that's my grandfather, that's my uncle, that's my father in law, that's my father. I'd really like to have their card.

And so we've had quite a few folks reach out to us over the years for special orders of cards like that, which we've been able to fill. I think that's kind of nice.

Oh, yeah, that's tremendous. I mean, who wouldn't want. If your, your uncle or your grandfather played in that league, you know, have it up on the wall somewhere.

The conversation piece, just a memory that's really, really spectacular. You guys are doing a great job on that. So let's talk a little about. Let's turn the page a little bit.

We've talked a lot about the wfl and I think that's where a lot of your. Your hearts are, are at, because that's the first league that you're falling in love with. But let's talk a little bit about your USFL sets.

What can you tell us about them?

And I'm trying to remember exactly what got us going on that I think just having chats, you know, as we often did, as we're reviewing, you know, photos and talking about neck sets and things like that.

We started just kind of talking about how much we all enjoyed the USFL as well and remembered that fondly and thought it could have done what it, you know, could have done more and been around a lot longer on the football landscape.

So we just of started digging around for photos and found a few other experts on the USFL that were not necessarily WFL experts, but people that we knew that could help us out with that. And so we've had some other folks, historians, help us gather that information and it's kind of taken off from there.

And we've had our customers from the WFL football cards ask us to do other leagues. And there was a lot of requests for the usfl.

We've had requests for Arena Football, the Continental Football League, which that would virtually be impossible to find out. Who's on that? Yeah, but.

But we, but we've gotten requests over the years to do this, and the USFL was just a natural because it was so pop and the photos were more accessible than it was with world football, or at least color photos.

Yeah, a lot more media in the 80s than there were in the 70s.

And I think we. I don't know about.

I can't speak for Bill and Richie, but I. I've had, I guess in terms of a fan going to games, I had a Lot more experience in the usfl. You know, when I was a kid, the WFL was around.

Well, the USFL came around and, you know, I was graduating college and had a little more disposable income, had a wife that didn't mind going to the games with me. And so we, you know, we, we went to quite a few games. So it was, it was a lot different experience as a fan for me.

And so when we started doing the USFL cards, that to me was a kind of a, a cool transition from one set to another, if that makes sense.

Yeah, yeah, it does. Greg, just a question for you.

Okay, so you got to experience a World Football League team in your town in Birmingham, and you also had a USFL team and you went to games for, for both leagues.

I did, yes.

Okay, so how, how do I want to phrase this? You know, you ended up losing both of those leagues, so you end up losing the franchises.

How were you, you know, after the World Football League folded and you had a USFL team, where was everybody sort of sitting on their hands saying, oh, God, I don't know if this is going to work or. Well, so you became kind of detached or.

No.

Well, you know, when the WFL folded, you know, I was, I was 13 years old, and it was sort of like, oh, geez, that's, that's a bummer. But, you know, you're 13, so the next day you get up, okay, let's go to school, let's do this, do whatever, and you kind of bounce back.

And I think I live. I'm about an hour north of Birmingham, and that's where I grew up.

And I think there were a lot of people that were my age that were really sad about it, but I mean, we're kids, we kind of move on. I can't speak for the adults in the, in, in that equation.

When the USFL came along, there was already this feeling of, well, we got burned once, but this seems like it's going to be okay. And, you know, there were so many comparisons with the WFL and the USFL as it relates to the Birmingham market.

And see, and things in the WFL market in Birmingham. Birmingham had a pretty strong franchise.

They really had some money troubles toward the end, but the usfl, Birmingham was one of the higher echelon teams. They put a good product on the field, had pretty decent attendance.

And so when the, when the USFL folded, it was almost like people, the adults that I knew that were fans and, and went to the games and, and we had a lot of conversations about them. We sort of looked at each other and went, no, no, no, that this can't happen again. This. This is really happening to us again.

You know, and so that's sort of the, you know, the joke now is Birmingham was the city where leagues go to die. So, you know, and it was. It was not a fun experience.

And probably in recent weeks here, it's probably brought up some bad memories with the. The ufo, a lot of.

A lot of Facebook activity, because that.

Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure. Now, how would you guys feel being World Football League fans? You know, the, The USFL is, you know, they tried to. To bring it back with the.

The second generation of usfl, which is now the ufl, and, and they took some of those team names. What if somebody decided in the UFL or maybe the Canadian Football League tries to expand again and they use.

Go to a city and they use an old World Football League name? How would you guys feel about that?

It's already happened a couple of times.

Yeah. And a lot of the names are taken now, right? Charlotte Hornets.

Yeah, yeah.

Grizzlies. Yeah. Although Grizzlies was sort of a, you know, monitor, but. Yeah.

Nickname. Yeah, yeah.

Houston Texans.

Yeah, I was gonna say the NFL's already did that. Use the Texas.

Yeah. There's a Jacksonville Sharks in indoor football. Right. So a lot of them are already taken.

Well, that's true. That's true. Yeah. I didn't even think of that. Okay. All right. All right, so why don't you.

One of you could explain what the process is if somebody wants to. To get some of these sets, you know, how can they get their hands on it and see what they're buying and. And go about purchasing some.

Yeah, so. So I think the best way, Darren, to get a hold of our cards is to go to our website.

Our websites, wflfootballcards.com or usflfootballcards.com Take a look at the gallery, take a look at the photos, take a look at the checklists, see what interests you. Buy one. And I think once you receive it and you see the quality of the cards, I think you're going to want more. And that's.

We get a lot of repeat buyers that'll maybe buy one or two sets and then they'll go, oh, man, let's go. And then they'll.

They'll buy all six of the original sets in the wfl or they'll buy all three seasons of usfl, then they'll get into the subsets that Richie mentioned kind of the more specialty cards and start to start to really enjoy them.

We also have Facebook pages for both sets, too.

Yeah.

If you want to. If you want to do the call outs on those too, we'll put those in the show notes too. So, yeah, yeah.

If you're on Facebook, it's just USFL football cards and WFL football cards.

And you can go and you can see some of the ads we've put together, some of the reviews of our cards we've been reviewed in what, Richie Coffin Corner and Gridiron Grapes.

Yeah.

Magazines. Many of our sets. Not. Not all of them, but many of them have been reviewed so far. I think our newest ones are out there now to be reviewed.

All right. All right, gentlemen, we really appreciate you coming on and. And sharing your products with us.

And most of all, we appreciate you for preserving the football history because the WFL and the USFL were very important parts of professional football history, been in the modern times, and they really did a lot of things to change the game that we still watch today. So thank you very much.

Thank you.

My pleasure.

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