Old football, or soccer if you prefer

When I'm at a card show, many things catch my eye. I'll buy all sorts of things if they catch my eye, and the price is right.

A while ago, I was at my local card show, at a mostly non-sport dealer that I often buy things from, when another collector that I knew stopped by. The dealer greeted him, and pulled out a whole bunch of old tobacco type card sets for him to look through.

The other collector is mostly a military collector, but other history type card sets also catch his eye. He generally isn't interested in sports cards though.

As he was looking through the sets, certain sports card sets caught my attention, but I didn't think I would want to pay what I thought they would sell for.

The dealer then told the other collector that he got a very good deal on the whole box of sets that he had, and would be willing to sell them for $8.00 per set. (And that is Canadian dollars, so just over $5.00 US dollars a set.)

I asked if I could look through and grab some sets at that price, and the dealer had no problem with that.

Here is one of the sets that I bought: 1958 Football Clubs and Badges

The card on the left, with its black writing on dark green is West Bromwich Albion.

I really like the look of these cards. Most have partial looks of jerseys in the background, along with the team badge and colours in the foreground of the card.

I have casually followed English Football since I was in high school in the 1980s. A good friend's family was from Birmingham, and he was an Aston Villa fan. I decided to start following them as my team as well.

Aston Villa was one of three clubs to be founding members of the original Football League in 1888, and the Premier League in 1992.

Villa also has a commonality with the Cleveland Browns. Former Browns owner Randy Lerner purchased Aston Villa in 2006. Unfortunately, both teams had similar levels of success during his ownership.

Lerner sold the Browns in 2012, and Aston Villa in 2016 following their relegation from the Premier League.

The back of the Manchester United card makes reference to the Munich air disaster in February 1958. Eight United players and three team staff were among the 23 people to die in the crash. Two other players were severely injured and never played again.

Sir Bobby Charlton, a survivor of the crash, and one of the greatest players of all time, passed away a couple of weeks ago at the age of 86.

I find it interesting to see Burnley's colours listed as Dark Red & White. Their home colours now are claret and blue, and at a quick glance, I get them confused with Aston Villa.

I wasn't aware that Burnley had a stretch of thirty matches without defeat in their history. Pretty cool.

Seeing Arsenal's card here, I'm always reminded of a friend who would comment that you can't spell Arsenal without Arse.

Another good friend is an Arsenal fan. It is fun to hang out with the two of them when they start discussing football.

After over 20 years out of the Premier League, Nottingham Forest was promoted after winning the 2022 Championship final. Last season, they collected 11 points in their last six games to avoid relegation.

I will be cheering against Nottingham Forest this weekend when they host Aston Villa.

Aston Villa's last game was a 3-0 victory over Luton Town.

Luton Town was promoted to the Premier League this season, becoming the first football team to return to the top tier of English football after falling to the fifth tier of English football.

A number of years ago, I got to work with an elderly gentleman that grew up in London as a Tottenham fan. He told me many stories of attending games.

Even though he's lived in Canada for decades now, part of his life still revolves around the Hotspurs. I know he's happy seeing them on top of the table right now.

I can't say that I am really familiar with them other than seeing their name in the scores over the years, but Sheffield Wednesday was promoted back to the Championship League at the end of last season. And, yes, their nickname is The Owls.

Is it bad that when I see Blackpool, I now think of AEW's wrestling stable, The Blackpool Combat Club?

Looking for information on these teams, I saw in Wikipedia that Preston North End has been based at Deepdale since 1875. This makes Deepdale football's oldest ground in terms of continuous use by a league club.

The Wolverhampton badge on this card is the coat of arms of Wolverhampton City Council. Their current badge has a single wolf head design, and the team is commonly known as the Wolves.

I don't think I really need to say anything about Manchester City, after they've won the Premier League the last three seasons.

Colours: Blue & White x2

It's funny reading the back of these cards and then being stunned that Chelsea's card says that they were formed in 1905. That seems so new compared to the other clubs.

Chelsea is one of six football clubs that have never been relegated from the Premier Leagues since it was founded in 1992. (Along with Arsenal, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.)

Colours: Blue & White x2 (Hmmm, that looks familiar.)

Of course, after pointing out that Chelsea seemed almost new, along comes Colchester United, founded in 1937. They currently play in League Two.

Leicester City was relegated from the Premier League at the end of last season. They currently top the table in The Championship division.

What? Only one Blue & White here.

Looking at the Everton back, it mentions how they were one of the original members of the Football League. They are another team that was also an original member of the Premier League.

I guess that I haven't pointed out the bottom of these cards. Unlike the tobacco cards, these ones appear to be from packages of tea.

From what I could find in a quick Google search, F. Lambert and Son Ltd, were tea merchants, tobacconists and confectioners in Norwich, Norfolk from 1762-1965.

Many different card sets seem to have been included with Lamberts of Norwich tea over the years.

Their team nickname is the Canaries. I love it!

And I guess they would be the home team of the card set sponsors.

Wikipedia mentions that Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio was appointed a director of the club in September 2022, and is expected to buy a stake in the club. 

I'm thrilled to have found this set, and hope that you enjoyed this look at it.