Soccer? I Hardly Even Know Her

Well, one thing we strive for here at the ol' Archive is completeness, although it can take a while to achieve . Alan Jenkins of Wales added a comment recently to an old post on the 1979 Topps Soccer Stickers, a bizarre little set that is largely unknown to the outside world. As you will recall, these very orange stickers were pretty blah, even for Topps in 1979:



Alan has sussed out a full checklist, which is presented below. If you add the six 4-on-1 stickers, there are 33 stickers in the set, although there may be different backs for each. As Topps would use iterations of 33 four times on a 132 card half sheet, I would think up to four backs styles are possible for each front but that has yet to be determined as there may be no variation on the backs at all.'

Many thanks to Alan for providing this checklist.

1979 Topps Soccer Stickers Checklist

1. NASL logo
2. Star Ball symbol
3. Atlanta Chiefs
4. California Surf
5. Chicago Sting
6. Dallas Tornado
7. Detroit Express
8. San Diego Sockers
9. Strikers
10. Hurricane
11. Los Angelkes Aztecs
12. Rogues
13. Minnesota Kick
14. New England Tea Men
15. New York Cosmos
16. Philadelphia Fury
17. Portland Timbers
18. Rochester Lancers
19. Toronto Blizzard
20. Edmonton Drillers
21. Seattle Sounders
22. Tampa Bay Rowdies
23. San Jose Earthquakes
24. Tulsa Roughnecks
25. Vancouver Whitecaps
26. Washinton Diplomats
27. Soccer is a Kick in the Grass
NN. Hurricane / Strikers / Kicks / Chiefs
NN. Aztecs / Sounders / Whitecaps / Lancers
NN. Diplomats / Cosmos / Earthquakes / Surf
NN. Tornado / Rogues / Blizzard / Drillers
NN. Sockers / Express / Sting / Rowdies
NN. Timbers / Roughnecks / Fury / Tea Men

A Kick In The Grass

Sometimes a set just falls through the cracks. In 1979 Topps issued an obscure set called Soccer Stickers. 33 in number, the set memorializes the logos and in puzzle form on the backs, three North American Soccer League Players. As far as I can tell this set does not appear in any of the major price guide books. It's not really a non-sports set and it's not really a multi-sport issue and soccer never was considered big enough to appear in the early hybrid (Football, Basketball, Hockey & Boxing) guides. You can buy a full 36 count wax box on Ebay at this very minute for a pittance so there is minimal collector interest. But it's a Topps issue and you would think somewhere a checklist exists but I just can't find one.

The NASL seemed poised for the big time in 1979 and in addition to a full schedule of outdoor games contested within six divisions, a ten team indoor league was about to be introduced. But instead of issuing a traditional set of players, Topps elected to create a sticker set that consisted of team logos and a few 4-in-1 "names" all featured on a hideous mustard colored background.

The cards came in a colorful wrapper though:



The packaging indicates 33 stickers are in the set. We know this because it appears in text for a premium poster that would allow all of the stickers to be displayed:



As I said before, the background color is fugly. Here's a large size logo:



And a 4-on-1:



If all 24 logos are in the set, then there would be nine 4-on-1 stickers (36 mini stickers) in all.

There are two (and a half) backs. Here is the "How To" instructional version:



There are also puzzle piece backs:



This scan I nabbed from an Ebay Store (Ernie's Cards) shows a full puzzle of Werner Roth (star defender for the New York Cosmos) and has very interesting companions as two cards show the completed puzzle on their reverses:



My yellow bordered back above is from the other puzzle, which had 12 pieces oddly enough:



Ernie's store indicates there are nine "How To cards" so there must only be one sticker back showing the yellow bordered poster.



I don't know if all stickers were available with all backs or not (possibly not) but a full box would likely yield all the answers. Anyone out there have a few more details? If so, drop me a line.

Incidentally, I found a great NASL website here while researching this post. Perhaps the Memorabilia section will get filled in soon.