Whether you are the fan of a certain team, player or college, it is always fun to track down that card that you have been looking for. Did you know that the first football card appeared over 100 years ago? The first known cards depicting football players are the 1894 Mayo cards. This set contained 35 cards of the top Ivy League players. One card has no specific identification of the player but it is believed to be John Dunlop from Harvard. This card is one of the most sought after cards and is rarely seen. There are less than 10 known copies of this card.

The 1933 multi-sport Goudy Sport Kings issue included cards of Red Grange, Knute Rockne and Jim Thorpe. It was not until 1948 that the next set of football cards hit the corner drug store. In 1948, both Bowman and Leaf issued football card sets that came with bubble gum in packs. Since then there has been at least one football card set issued per year until today.