Product Highlight: 1991 Pennsylvania High School Big 33

Due to a decline in donations and an increasing amount of debt, the Big 33 Scholarship Foundation closed it’s doors after sixty years in 2017.  The annual football game it once sponsored is now under the supervision of the Pennsylvania Scholastic Football Coaches Association.

The Big 33 Football Classic began in 1957.  Its often been referred to as the Super Bowl of High School Football.  Some of the best high school players from Pennsylvania have taken on Ohio, Maryland, and Texas.  In the early years Pennsylvania would just play itself splitting up between east and west or blue and gray.  Between 1957 and 1960 Pennsylvania played against collected talent from around the nation.  Lots of famous football stars have played in the Big 33 game – Herb Adderley, Joe Montana, Dan Marino, and Jim Kelly.

Starting in 1991, they began to make team sets.  The Pennsylvania set contains (36) black and white cards.  Key cards include Ray Zellars, Curtis Martin, and Marvin Harrison.  All of these predate their NFL rookies.  It’s 1991 Maryland counterpart doesn’t really have any major cards worth talking about.  Any Big 33 card can make an interesting addition to your collection.  Later on, some sets included autographs.

During my senior year in high school, I received a Big 33 Academic Scholarship.  That included a trip to the 2004 Big 33 game in Hershey, PA.  A couple of players from that game made it to the NFL – Chad Henne, Brian Hoyer, Darrelle Revis, and Ted Ginn Jr.

Phillies & Steelers Card Show Day!

Today I attended the 34th annual Ephrata Lions Club Sports Card & Memorabilia Show.  The show takes place at the Ephrata Rec Center which is in Ephrata, PA.  I’ve been attending this show ever since my early days of collecting.  How long ago is that?  Well lets just say that when I first started going I would buy older packs (1987 Topps) and hope to pull a valuable card.  Overproduction was not a word in my vocabulary at the time.

The main reason why I go is because they usually have a lot of Phillies stuff.  In addition to that, the Lions Club brings in a good Phillies player from the past to sign autographs.

My pickups include the following:

• Harry Kalas 2012 Reading Phillies talking bobblehead
• Darin Ruf 2010 Bowman Chrome #122
• Veteran Stadium – 1971 – 2003 – Final Season pin
• (1) 2012 Topps Valor Football box – break/review can be seen here

Former Phillies pitcher Steve Bedrosian was signing autographs for fans.  Bedrosian won the N.L. Cy Young Award in 1987 and got a World Series win with the Twins in 1991.

I’ve been wanting to pick one of these Harry Kalas talking bobbleheads up for awhile.  Upon pushing the button, you can hear Harry call the last out of the 2008 World Series.

At the same time the Lions Club Sports Card & Memorabilia Show was going on, over at the Harrisburg Mall the Big 33 was holding their own show.  Since we pass the mall on the way home, it couldn’t hurt to stop in.  When we arrived people were lined up all the way down the entire length of the mall.  Everyone was waiting for Franco Harris.  About five minutes of waiting, Franco Harris came walking by, said “Hello”, and went to work.  There were many other players from the Steelers, Penn State, and Notre Dame scheduled to sign this weekend.

Big 33’s – 2011 Big Memorabilia & Autograph Show

The Big 33 Scholarship Foundation held their Big Memorabilia & Autograph Show this weekend at the Harrisburg Mall.  The autograph guests included former Steelers RB Jerome “The Bus” Bettis, current Steelers WR  Antonio Brown, legendary Steelers RB Rocky Bleier, and former Flyers goalie Bernie Parent.

This was the first time I had attended this event.  I will definitely be going back next year.  It was very well put together and I’ve never seen a more secure setup for an autograph signing.

In addition to the autograph guests, there were a handful of vendors setup selling all kinds of memorabilia, shirts, and cards.  One of the vendors, who I see a lot of the mall shows was there selling boxes.  I purchased (2) boxes of 2011 Leaf Pete Rose Legacy.  I will be reviewing them later.

4x Super Bowl Champion Rocky Bleier – he was very social with everyone and seemed to enjoy interacting with his fans.

All four of Bleier’s Super Bowl rings

Antonio Brown

As you can see, it was well attended.

Card of the Day: Sadaharu Oh 1959 JCM 33

Card of the Day: Darrelle Revis 2004 Big 33 Football Classic #2