Wednesday, August 13, 2008

1991 Impel U.S Olympic Cards Decathlon Gold

I've gone Olympics crazy over on my blog and I'm going to let the madness creep into A Pack A Day. If you're already sick of Olympiad hoopla, tough luck buster. I have three more Olympic themed packs for you this fortnight and a fourth if I can find it cheap enough. This here is not so much a pack as a set. Impel is known more for non-sports cards, but in 1991 they put out an Olympic issue. This was a preview of that set and featured all 5 living American Gold medal winners in the decathlon. I think there might have been an autographed version of the set too, but I pulled this out of a 25 cent box in anticipation of the Beijing games.

1 Bob Mathias

2 Milt Campbell

3 Rafer Johnson

4 Bill Toomey

5 Bruce Jenner


It's a pretty good looking set of some American Olympic legends. The Hall of Fame set they put out later in 1991 looks nothing like this one though, a shame, because this is a pretty simple clean design. I especially like the backs with the color photo, detailed bio and stats! Career stats on an Olympic card makes me smile. These guys did more than win one medal in one competition. They don't pull punches either as Bruce Jenner's 10th place finish in the 1972 Munich games is listed on his card. It's an interesting little set if you can find it.

5 comments:

madding said...

Seeing Bruce Jenner makes me want to bust out Bruce Jenner's Olympic Decathalon for the Apple ][ again.

Chris Harris said...

FYI: Impel was originally a joint venture of the Lorillard tobacco company and the NBA. Impel marketed NBA cards under the name "Skybox."

Lorillard and the NBA later spun off Impel into and independent company, and was later bought out by Fleer.

John Mrowka said...

What would you say is the value of Jenner's card #5, signed and Olympic Seal embossed? VG condition.

John Mrowka said...

What would be a reasonable value fot the #5 Jenner, signed and stamped by Olympic Comm.?

John Mrowka said...

What is the value of Jenner's #5 card, signed and stamped by Olympic Comm. ?