1952 Bowman Large & Small Football ... by Brian Wentz (BMW Sportscards)

A brief history of the early 1950s sports card era.

1952 was a magical and landmark year for gum cards after World War II. The Topps Gum Company produced one of its most attractive and valuable baseball card sets and Bowman countered with what is currently the most valuable football card set of its era. This year was also historically significant because of the debut of larger sized cards, which could now be found neatly sealed in wax wrappers available on store counters and candy shelves across the country. The size difference in the cardboard singles also rapidly spelled the beginning of the end for the Bowman Gum Company as it began its foray into one of the hobby's most popular football series!

A year earlier in 1951, the Bowman Gum Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania had circulated cards that were 2 1/16 by 3 1/8 inches in size. This was a 25% increase over the 2 1/16 by 2 ½ inch issues that were available from 1948 to 1950. By comparison, Topps saw a three-fold increase in size from 1948 (7/8 by 1 ½ inches) to 1951 (2 by 2 5/8 inches). The 1951 Team Cards, Connie Mack All Stars and Current All Stars, which each received limited distribution and were a gigantic 2 1/16 by 5 ¼ inches, all sold remarkably well. Buoyed with the certainty that Bowman would likely repeat the size of its 1951 offerings the following season, Topps concluded that an increase in size was needed to thrill collectors and dominate the bubble gum trading card market.

Therefore, in the spring of 1952, as the United States began to embrace what would become the most significant era of gum card production; Topps Chewing Gum of Brooklyn, New York and later Duryea, Pennsylvania offered collectors a remarkable choice in chicle. Equipped with the sound marketing principle that for the same price everybody would logically choose a big piece of gum and an enlarged card rather than a small piece of gum and a shrunken card, Topps' machinery churned out a new size of 2 7/8 by 3 ¾ inches. These new Topps dimensions, in addition to its enhanced 407-card set, did not bode well for the competition. By October, Topps had gained the lion's share of the market and Bowman was beginning to fade.

Towards the end of the baseball season, Bowman toyed with the idea of increasing the size of its baseball cards, but only managed a few 2 ½ by 3 ¾ inch prototypes (larger versions of the regular 1952 Bowman series). Bowman went back to the gridiron drawing board and made two assumptions that would prove to be financially fatal. First, Bowman assumed that Topps would release a competing football issue, following its collegiate issues of 1950 and 1951. Second, Bowman assumed that if it made bigger, better, and more diversified football cards in 1952, it could lure the bubble gum card collecting public back to its product line.

That year, Bowman was the only gridiron game in town. Topps correctly reasoned that the football card market was very small, especially given the comparative popularity of the college game. Even with some of the greatest cards in the world, producing a football issue in 1952 would prove to be anything but a huge financial success. No less important was the fact that the American public had long since adopted baseball as the National Pastime, making football a secondary sport. It should not have been surprising then that he sale of football cards would be only a tiny fraction of the entire bubble gum card market. Instead of understanding this, Bowman retooled and decided to make two football issues, each consisting of 144 different subjects. The first was the standard 2 1/16 by 3 1/8 inches and the second was 2 ½ by 3 ¾ inches. Both issues were distributed in two 72-card series with the second series being slightly more difficult to find based on later chronological distribution.

According to the Beckett Sports Collectibles Vintage magazine, the larger set (termed 1952 Bowman Large) is valued at $12,500.00 in Near Mint and the smaller set (termed 1952 Bowman Small) is valued at $5,000.00. However, if you assemble the sets card by card and pay the Near Mint high column Beckett, you will have to fork out more than $19,835.00 and $7,565.00 respectively. Both of these issues have exceptional "breakup" value with respect to the price of the complete sets; but the trick is finding these series in their totality since each set is extremely challenging to assemble.

The constitution of the 1952 Bowman Large and Small Series

Both the 1952 Bowman Large and Small sets were available beginning early in the fall of 1952 and the subjects depicted were identical except with respect to size. Bowman had previously offered only NFL players (in 1948, 1950 and 1951), but to counter the competition's college cards (Topps in 1950 & 1951), it invented draft pick cards. Bowman titled the series "College to Pro Football Picture Cards," and among the 144 different subjects, it included 49 players in college uniforms. On the reverse side, the NFL team for each of these college football players was indicated.

Including the draft picks, the 1952 issue featured all 12 NFL teams at the time (Chicago Bears, Chicago Cardinals, Cleveland Browns, Dallas Texans, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, Los Angeles Rams, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers and Washington Redskins) and the number of cards per team ranged from 10 to 13. Surprisingly, the World Champion Detroit Lions only had 10 players while the worst team in the League (Dallas Texans) had 13 (tied with 4 other teams). Coincidentally, the 50th anniversary of this set coincides with the introduction of the expansion Dallas Texans in the NFL.

Bowman also introduced many new players in 1952, notwithstanding the draft picks. One might think that all of the 49 college players are rookies, but only 42 hold that distinction since 6 were covered in the 1951 Topps Magic Set (Bill Reichardt, Babe Parilli, John Karras, Jerrell Price, Ray Beck, and Bert Rechichar) and one was featured in the 1950 Topps Magic Set (Ed Modzelewski). Still, there were an amazing 76 Rookie cards, including the cameo appearance of a thirteen Hall of Famers -- Steve Owen, Paul Brown, Frank Gifford, Gino Marchetti, Hugh McElhenny, Art Donovan, George Halas, Wayne Millner, Andy Robustelli, Joe Stydahar, Ollie Matson, Jack Christiansen and Yale Lary. Five of the Hall of Fame Rookie cards belong to NFL coaches, whom were represented in a football card set for the first time. While Owen, Brown, Halas and Millner are rightfully enshrined in Canton for coaching, Joe Stydahar (Ram's Coach) was elected for his outstanding play as one of the mightiest Monsters of the Midway. In the entire set there are 34 Hall of Famers, the most of any period football set ever made.

1952 Bowman Large examined

If you are able to find all 34 Hall of Famers in the 1952 Bowman Large Series as well as the remaining 110 singles, you have accomplished quite a remarkable feat. This is because 32 cards are, in varying degrees, more difficult to find that the rest. The short print phenomenon occurred because Bowman had difficulty cutting a nonstandard sheet of cards. For two years, the Bowman cutting presses had cut the standard 2 1/16 by 3 1/8 inch baseball and football cards and was poorly tooled for anything that was unusually variant. It has been discovered that this set was printed on 4 sheets with each sheet comprising 4 rows of nine cards. The sheets were numbered consecutively from left to right and then from top to bottom.

Despite a different sized sheet - almost four full inches larger than that for the 1952 Bowman baseball cards -- a similar cutting format was used. Once the larger sheets were received from the printing presses, Bowman was forced to cut off the excess material in order to accommodate the cutting machinery. This was accomplished by alternately destroying the left or right side of the sheet. The miscut cards were thrown away and cards instantly became systematically scarce. Numerically, these Short Prints are cards beginning with 1, those that are divisible by nine, and those numbered one higher than those divisible by nine.

It has also become clear that more of the cards on the right side of the sheet (divisible by 9) were damaged and discarded than those on the left (#1 and those divisible by nine plus one). This procedure accounted for all of the short prints except for 8 of the cards (the far right column bottom cards: 27, 36, 63, 72, 99, 108, 135, and 144) that are by far the most difficult to find. It is currently unknown why these eight cards are less available than the rest. Unless one of the original workers is still around or historical documentation is discovered, an accurate reason for this disparity might never be known.


1952 Bowman Small examined

Although less valuable than their over-sized counterparts, this set can be more difficult to complete due to the difficulty in locating the second series. It has long been my observation that the second series of 1952 Small is the least available of all regular issue Bowman football cards. It has been theorized that once the first series of Large sold well, Bowman cut production of the second series of the Small and focused primarily on the second series of the Large. Additionally, because of lower distribution, the second series of 1952 Bowman Small is very tough to find in Near Mint to Mint condition. Adding up all of the graded populations, there are less than six of each of these singles in NM-MT or better condition. In comparison, there are an average of ten high-grade examples of the each card from the Small first series and more than 10 each of the entire 1952 Large set. Even more telling is the fact that there are less than ten different specimens graded Mint (9 out of 10) in the entire second series of the Small.

Comparing the Series

These two exceptional sets were the best that Bowman ever produced and despite their great appeal and value today, they were just not popular enough to ensure the viability of their manufacturer. The next three issues of cards paled in quality and by January of 1956, Bowman was purchased by Topps. That same fall, Topps issued its first NFL set. In the last half century, no other set has been able to capture the wonderful artwork and include the great number of Hall of Famers and important Rookies cards. If football cards were as popular as baseball cards, it is very likely that the 1952 Bowman Large would be more valuable than the 1952 Topps baseball card set.