In 1948, the Exhibit Supply Company of Chicago issued a set of 32 multi-sport athletes in black and white. This
set was called "Sports Champions". Later that year, this same set
was reissued with a green tint.
In 1949 some of the
athletes were
replaced with other athletes and Ben Hogan was one of those
replacements, due to his terrific 1948 season. This 1949 set was
printed with a blue tint.
Therefore, you will only find the Hogan card in the blue tint.
However due to darkness of the blue tint, the card often looks like a black and white card.
There were "Proof Sheets"
produced on both a thin paper stock and on the usual thicker card
stock. Usually these sheets were cut into smaller groups for
display and selling purposes. These sheets demand a
high price whenever they come up at auction.
There
is some question as to which card is the "real" Ben Hogan Rookie card.
I consider this 1949 Exbibit card to the Ben Hogan's Rookie card
for the following reasons (1) this is the first card issued for
Ben Hogan (2) this card is from a recognized set of
cards. |
