1989 PRO SET

While the baseball card sector of the trading card hobby was experiencing a surge in popularity by the early 1980s, football was lagging behind. Even with superstars like Joe Montana, John Elway, Dan Marino, Jerry Rice, and Herschel Walker, Topps would remain the lone licensed producer of licensed football cards during the 1970s and ‘80s. Fleer did produce a series of cards from 1976 through 1988 called Fleer Action Football, but they weren’t player cards. They featured only action shots of plays from NFL games that completely skirted player licensing.

All of that would change in 1989. After Score introduced its first baseball card set in 1988, they joined football with its classic 1989 Score release. Another inaugural release that year was that of Pro Set, a company founded by Ludwell “Lud” Denny, who at the time was making a name for himself in the NFL memorabilia industry.