Collecting Dallas Cowboys Football Cards

NFL Uniform Sets, Card manufacturers were producing trading cards long before the Dallas Cowboys joined the NFL in 1960. In the 1950\'s Topps began packaging their signature product, bubblegum, with baseball and football cards. From there, as football grew in popularity, players could find their likeness on items such as milk cartons, soft drink caps, cereal boxes and plastic cups. The emergence of the AFL in 1960 allowed Topps competitors, beginning with Fleer, to make inroads in the business. The 1961 Fleer set featured both leagues, and then they focused on the AFL alone. Philadelphia Gum secured the NFL rights for 1964, forcing Topps to go for the AFL which left Fleer with no product in either baseball or football. Philadelphia Gum produced football card sets featuring Cowboys from 1964 through 1967. In 1982 Topps was licensed by NFL Properties for the first time. Previously, team logos on helmets were removed by airbrush. In the 70\'s Fleer rejoined the ranks by producing sets of cards called Fleer Team Action and FTA Stickers. They focused on NFL teams not individual players and were able to use team logos. The \"card explosion\" started around 1989 with new companies joining the fold like Pro Set and Score. By 1992 there were more than NFL Uniform Sets 30 brands of football cards. It was a new era NFL Uniform Sets for the hobby. You could all but forget about collecting all the cards of your favorite team, but now focus on a favorite player or two. Just to put it all in perspective - with all the parallel, inserts, and variations - in 1995 there were over 250 different cards produced of Troy Aikman.

The Cowboys were an expansion team in 1960. Their first roster was created by choosing 36 players from the 12 existing franchises (three per team). In the first set of cards featuring Dallas Cowboys players, 1960 Topps, all the players were pictured in the uniforms of the teams they departed. The next year they took part in the NFL draft and acquired Bob Lilly with their first ever draft pick. There have been many outstanding players through the years that have donned the blue star on their helmet, several of which are members of the Pro NFL Uniform Sets Football Hall of Fame. Only one man held the position of head coach for the first 29 years of the organization - Tom Landry. Coach Landry led the Cowboys to two Super Bowl titles, five NFC Championships, 13 NFC East titles, 18 trips to the playoffs and 20 winning seasons.

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