Sugar Daddy

The hobby of collecting sports cards is one that is truly enjoyed by young and old alike.  I've seen guys at card shows who are probably pushing 70, as well as kids in the card aisle at Target who can't be more than 5 years old. 

No matter where you fall on that spectrum of age, you've undoubtedly heard the term "Sugar Daddy".

To an adult, there's one meaning that probably comes to mind.  The image of an old, rich man wooing a much younger (and otherwise out of his league) bride with the spoils of his fortune is nothing new.  Hugh Hefner comes to mind.  Some people might even say we've got a certain Sugar Daddy running for the White House right now.

If you asked that 5 year old in the card aisle at Target what a Sugar Daddy is though, he might have a totally different definition.  These caramel lollipops have been appearing on store shelves, and in Halloween candy bags everywhere, for decades.  I mostly remember them for, like most caramel products, really sticking to your teeth.  Who knows how many dental fillings the Sugar Daddy is responsible for throughout the Western hemisphere.

Well, did you know that for a couple of years in the mid-'70s you could actually get a sports card with your Sugar Daddy?  I had no idea this was the case until researching a really cool card given to me by my dad a while ago now:

Pretty awesome, huh?  Nabisco included these sports cards with Sugar Daddy candies in 1974 and 1975.  Mickey Redmond here is from the '74 release, the '75s have more ornate backgrounds rather than the solid color you see here.  Though I didn't measure it, I'd say the card is roughly as tall as a tobacco card, but slimmer.  This is obviously because Nabisco was bound by the dimensions of the Sugar Daddy pop itself when designing these.

I see some elements of 1938 Goudey baseball here, with the photograph of the head placed on a cartoon body.  Of course, my absolute favorite thing about this one is the fact that it appears to have some authentic Sugar Daddy residue along the lower left edge there.  This is one of those rare cases where I think a little damage actually makes a card more interesting.  Who knows what path this card traveled before it ended up in my Dad's hands back in the early '90s.

Here's a look at the back.  Just 25 cards in the 1974 set, as you can see in the upper left.  To the far left there are some instructions for sticking this on a poster.  I think you could mail away to Nabisco for the poster, which had open areas on it for placing all 25 of these cards.  Probably looked impressive when complete.

This was actually a multi-sport set, featuring some basketball and football players along with the hockey portion of the checklist.  What a great oddball this is for my hockey card collection.  Do any of you have any of these in your collections?  Looking over the checklist, I'd love to track down a Phil Esposito someday!