55 New Type 4 Nike Poster Card Identified "Big Guys"

 

You can tell from the complete checklists that there are still a few numbers for which we have not identified the corresponding NIKE poster card. If we look at the type 4 cards (no information on front or back)  we have noted that they appear in 2 numerical groupings 290811 - 290819 where 818 and 819 are unknown and 290870 through 290887 where 872 and 880 are unknown. 

In  a recent EBay auction I have picked up the poster card shown below which is titled "the big guys" on the front lower left. 

The poster depicts some of he track and field members of the Athletics West team. This was a group of athletes that assembled  in 1977 by Bill Bowerman, Phil Knight and Geoff Hollister of Nike. The team also included women athletes during this decade, such as Joan Benoit and Mary Decker —the women's  team won in competition six times: once in 1981 and then five consecutive times, from 1985 to 1989.

In the 1992 book, Swoosh, The Unauthorized Story of Nike and the Men Who Played There, there are alligations that  that Nike  arranged for under-the-table payments to athletes on the Athletics West team, which were forbidden at the time. The book also stated that many athletes on the team used steroids with Nike's knowledge, between 1977 and 1985.

Since we have not found this poster on a Nike catalog YET, we cannot currently assign it a number . Since the missing 4 numbers are all from 1987/88 it is likely that that is the year of issue of this poster card.

 

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02/2021 Further verification comes from the fact that we have found this poster in the 1988 Nike poster catalog. 

Since it is in the 1988 catalog (which did not show NPC #s) it could possibly be  290XXX - 818, 819 or 880

10/2021 just got an update from Nike poster guru Bruce Fischer who identifies the athletes depicted on the "big guys" poster by finding the following ID on the back of the poster itself