2022 ONIT Jacksons Oregon Ducks Football

 

As one of their early NIL efforts, the Oregon Ducks partnered with a group called ONIT Athlete to make a trading card set sold in packs exclusively at Jacksons convenience stores in Oregon. The set contains a whopping 100 cards, featuring 99 different players from the 2022 roster and a certain push-up loving mascot. Unless you bleed green and yellow, this probably isn't for you, but I thought I'd document it nonetheless.

The Oregon Duck - Right out of the gate, we have a mascot card. I totally flipped out when I saw The Duck was included in Prizm sets awhile back, and now I'm starting to build up a few cards (a flock?) of the colorful character now.

Patrick Herbert - Yes, this is Justin's little brother, and he plays tight end.

Von Reames - Oregon always get mentioned in the media for having, like, a thousand different uniform combinations. It's a bit of a misnomer, as there's only a dozen or so games in any given season, and the actual number of different uniforms put to use is a far smaller number. I do like the all green look the best.

Josh Delgado - It took me a really long time to finally come around to the feathers-on-the-helmet look, but I do like it now. My favorite will always be the classic 'O' or the even more traditional interlocking UO. Of course, we'd need a flashback set to bust those out.

Ty Delgado - Yes, there are two Delgados on the team (or were in 2022, at least), but they do not appear to be related.

Josh Simmons - Here's a look at the back of the card. You get a small circle of the same photo from the front, plus a very basic player bio that even makes Panini look wordy.

Camden Lewis - Lewis is one of the handful of key players on the team that was around for meaningful playing time prior to the dastardly COVID season.

Max Wysocki - All yellow is cool once in awhile, but I wish it wasn't what a lot of people think of when they are talking about Ducks uniforms.

Jeffrey Bassa - The player names are very, very large and probably take up too much real estate here, and the positions are tiny. I wish there was a little more balance to it. I know this company is putting out an Oregon State set this year and it will be interesting to see how the design differs from this one.

Chase Cota - The son of Ducks star and former pro Chad Cota, Chase started out at UCLA before spending his final season in Eugene.

Troy Franklin - Franklin is a guy who I expect to see playing on Sundays one day. Here he shows off the Ducks "eggshell" jersey. I swear I wasn't going to turn this isn't a post about uniforms, but here we are.

Trikweze Bridges - Going through the whole set uncovered some interesting names for me, and Trikweze takes the award for this pack.

Bo Nix - Here's the big current star and Heisman hopeful. Nix resurrected his career after transferring from Auburn and while he still seems like the prototypical college player to me, there have been a number of scouts at the team's early games this season. Maybe some of them are there for ol' Bo.

Christian Gonzalez - We end things with a guy who is playing on Sundays right now. Gonzalez was New England's top draft pick in the most recent draft after transferring to Oregon from lowly Colorado.

2002 Fleer Tradition

 

2002 was a time of intense patriotism in this country, and people were still pretty excited about the New York Yankees. The year's Fleer Tradition pack wrappers take both of these into account. This contains five MLB trading cards and no more.

340 - Jeff Kent - Kent is often discussed as a should-be Hall of Famer, but I seem to recall his attitude towards the media not making him a lot of long term friends among the voting ranks.

217 - Jesus Colome - I always thought the Devil Rays uniforms were pretty hideous, but we're already at the point where nostalgia has crept in and people really want to talk about the Devil Rays days. I wonder if they'll change their name back once they open their new stadium.

226 - Jack Wilson - Does anyone recall what that star patch on Wilson's uniform was all about?

124 - Michael Tucker - This continues the theme of names you kinda remember.

299 - Tony Clark - Clark is best known these days as an MLBPA head, but early in his career he put up some pretty impressive offensive numbers.

Here's a look at the back for all of you card back nerds (like me.)

1989 Action Packed Test

 

A year before their first official release, Action Packed distributed a test set featuring cards from just three NFL teams: the Giants, the Bears and the Washington team. I'm not sure that I ever knew that these were released in pack form, but when I saw one at a card show over the summer for just a buck, I figured I needed one for "research purposes".

29 - Mark Rypien - The card design is nearly indistinguishable from the full fledged 1990 set. The player photos and gold frame are embossed more of a 3D feel.

25 - Wilber Marshall - This is hardly an "action packed" photo, but it's probably a bit tough to figure out what to do with a lineman.

- Washington Team Logo hologram sticker - A couple of years before Upper Deck's first NFL set sees a different company producing hologram stickers as an insert. I don't know what caused these to be dropped from the first official set, but they look nice in person as holograms usually do. There's a 1-900 number on it as well, which purported to connect the caller with the "Exclusive Sports Collectors' Hotline" for just $1.00 for the first minute and 50 cents for each additional minute. Did anyone try this?

16 - Leonard Marshall - Here's another lineman, just waiting for some action.

13 - Mark Bavaro - Supposedly this set was notorious for cards being seriously damaged straight out of the pack, and Bavaro's card is in the worst shape of the lot, with several creases running through it.

7 - Jay Hilgenberg - To prove that American football is a team sport and not just a solo venture featuring people in ridiculous looking gear, we get to see Hilgenberg actually doing his job and holding off his opponent to presumably protect the quarterback.

5 - Dennis Gentry - Here's a look at the back, which should look very familiar to those of you who have seen a bunch of the 1990 set.

1995 Fleer Football Retail

As anyone who has seen the baseball cards from this year knows, Fleer got a little wild in 1995. There's a lot to digest here, starting with the wrapper. Insert cards became the main selling point at this point, and Fleer made all of the information prominent on the cover of each pack wrapper.

112 - Glyn Milburn - Again, if you know '95 Fleer baseball, you're probably already expecting this. If not, well, buckle up! This is one of several base designs within the set. The colors all match the Broncos uniform, so it does have that going for it.

207 - Jimmie Jones - Here's another design, and it's a lot. I've seen this idea used a bunch of times during the mid-'90s on sports cards where they repeat the same photo but put some weird colored shading on it, to make it look extreme or something. Why were the '90s so extreme? Not everything is the X Games, pal.

176 - Kimble Anders - Here's a look at the back. All of the backs do look the same.

261 - Derek Brown - Here's another one from that same design, where the background photo is just the foreground photo and a shade of color.

137 - John Jurkovic - This is the third base card design that we've seen so far. The player name in gold foil has sort of a Friends look to it, or maybe Friends meets Frasier?

4 - Drew Bledsoe Pro Visions - Here's our first insert card. Pro Visions were pretty popular as I recall, so I'm a bit surprised there were only 6 of them in this set. I actually kind of like this one, and sports card art isn't usually my thing (and neither are the Patriots, for that matter.)

357 - Steve Young - Young is always going to be the second answer to the question: "Name a 49ers Hall of Fame quarterback." Er, I guess that wasn't really a question.

398 - Checklist - It's a checklist. You get it. They couldn't even make these look normal, of course.

381 - Charles Wilson - It's another classy Friends card. I'm noticing the NFL 75th Anniversary patch that all of the players are wearing from the 1995 season. This must mean that Fleer's set was produced late in the year, or possibly even early in 1996.

32 - Matt Darby - Here's a fourth distinct base card design. I'm not sure if there was a fifth. I think they were trying to make the player name as difficult to read as possible.

19 - Cris Carter '95 Flair Preview - Lastly, we have something completely different. Each pack contains a Flair preview card that looks like, well, a 1995 Flair card. If you read all of the info on the pack wrapper, you wouldn't have been surprised about this like I was.

1987 O-Pee-Chee Hockey Stickers

 

Recently I came across an auction on ebay that I had to bid on: Three packs of 1987 O-Pee-Chee hockey stickers. The starting bid was low, and I went for it. Thankfully, no one else even placed a bid, and within a couple of weeks (shipping from Canada to the US), I had the packs in hand. Here's a scan of the front and back of a pack.

 

 

 

 

These stickers provided an instant dose of nostalgia for me, as they were the first hockey packs I opened back in my childhood days. If only I still had those original stickers, and the album. (Here's an image of the album I found online.)

 

 

 

Let's get to the contents of the pack I opened. (I'm keeping the other two sealed for now.)

 

 

First up, we have Capitals all-star Larry Murphy sharing a gold foil sticker with Islanders rookie Ken Leiter. I'm a native New Yorker, but have no recollection of Ken Leiter. It turns out he had a brief NHL career, but posted an important assist on Pat LaFontaine's memorable "Easter Epic" overtime goal in the playoffs against that very same Larry Murphy and the Washington Capitals.

 

 

 

Next up is Mark Howe, brother of Marty, son of Gordie. Mark had an excellent NHL career, and is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. He was a veteran in the league by this time, so it's no surprise he got a sticker all to himself in this set.

 

 

Another two popular names here, with Esa Tikkanen of the Oilers and Dave Taylor of the Kings. Tikkanen helped the Oilers to four Stanley Cups, and then went to New York where he played a part in the Rangers' Cup victory in 1994. Dave Taylor was part of a big scoring line with the Kings in the 1980s, along with Charlie Simmer and Marcel Dionne. All three of them scored more than 100 points during the 1980-81 season, making them the first line combination to accomplish the feat.

 

 

 

There's Oilers goalie Andy Moog on the left, and Doug Shedden of the Nordiques on the right. Moog was part of three Stanley Cup–winning teams with the Oilers, while Shedden was a journeyman NHLer who played for four different teams across eight seasons. He put up some good numbers with Pittsburgh early on in his career.

 

 

 

 

And last up in the pack, we've got a big name with Denis Potvin. Couldn't have found a much more important piece of the Islanders' dynasty teams than him.

 

All in all, not bad. Three Hall-of-Fame defenemen in Larry Murphy, Mark Howe, and Potvin.

But wait — there's more!

Part of the appeal of of this set was the offer for super-fun NHL products that appeared on the sticker backs. Here are three from my pack:

 

 

Snazzy Velcro wallet.

 

 

 Mini hockey sticks were always a favorite back when we were kids.

 

 

 

 

And you can't go wrong with an NHL team puck.

 

 

 

 

So there you have it. A pack of 1987 O-Pee-Chee hockey stickers, for what looks like the first time ever on APTBNL!

 

Did any of you readers collect hockey stickers back then? Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading.