The Set: Before there was consistency in basketball card production, there were three early sets before things got going smoothly. There was the 1948 Bowman, the 1957 Topps, and this 1961 Fleer set. The set consists of a concise 66 cards, a low quantity. With such a limited number of cards, the set was easily run off in equal numbers. No short prints here. Low quantity, but very important for the hobby. Very important! Rookies include the #3 Elgin Baylor, #8 Wilt Chamberlain, #36 Oscar Robertson, #43 Jerry West, Lenny Wilkens… You have the only cards of K.C. Jones and Sam Jones during their playing years. There’s Bob Pettit, Bill Russell, Bob Cousy… What a shame that Fleer decided to leave the basketball card market until 1986-87. But thank goodness Fleer came in or there would’ve been a twelve-year gap in collecting between the 1957 and 1969 Topps sets. It just would’ve been nice to have more cards of such great players between 1961-1969.
Design and More History: The team name and logo take up about a quarter of the card at the top in a colored box. More of the card is then taken up by the player’s position and name. Fleer was also entering the football and baseball market in 1961, so it made sense to try a basketball set too. On the reverse, the copyright says “Frank H. Fleer Corp.” It’s important to remember that Frank Fleer basically invented bubble gum. He was tinkering with a formula as early as 1919 and it was refined by his accountant in 1928 and marketed as Dubble Bubble. The company jumped into the trading card business as early as 1923. Check out the Dubble Bubble logo and compare it to the well-known 1986-87 Fleer company logo. The similarities are so much more than coincidental. Many collectors are unaware of this connection, but seeing Fleer’s full name in the copyright helps bring this link to mind.
The Card: It’s worth noting that Dolph Schayes is featured twice in this set. Schayes was a dominant scorer during his time. He was not only inducted into the Hall of Fame, but he was named one of the fifty greatest basketball players ever by the NBA in 1996. Being so popular, in addition to this #39, he is present on card #63, part of the “In Action” subset, as well. When this card was printed, Schayes was starting his 14th season and the reverse features some very formidable highlights. He made the All-Star team every year except one due to an injury. Other highlights at the time of printing include being the first player to reach 15,000 points and holding records for highest foul shooting percentage, most rebounds and most minutes.
The Team: Because of the lack of basketball cards before the late ’60’s, this is also one of the few chances to have a Syracuse Nationals card. There was a lot of shuffling of teams between locations and even leagues in the 1950’s, and the Syracuse Nationals were actually the last team that transitioned from the NBL to the NBA that still played in their city of origin (1960-61). Another fact, during the 1961-62 season, there were only nine teams in the NBA. But basketball was gaining in popularity and Syracuse was the last medium-sized city hosting an NBA team. Central New York just wouldn’t support it anymore. And the Warriors had just left Philadelphia for San Francisco. So the Syracuse Nationals were moved to Philadelphia and a contest was held for a new name, thus the Philadelphia 76ers were born.
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