1966 Topps Baseball Wantlist

Sunday, April 23, 2017

1961 Essex Meats St. Louis Hawks

Not sure how many readers know that the Atlanta Hawks were relocated from St. Louis and before then relocated from Milwaukee. I haven’t picked up any Hawks cards simply because they are not cheap-and/or I have started trying. Recently I picked up three cards from the 1961 Essex Meats set. There are 14 standard sized white stock cards in the set with a posed shot on the front and player bio and stats on the back-pretty straight forward. These are unnumbered and the key cards are Cliff Hagen and Bob Pettit. However, the most expensive is the very short printed Sihugo Green. Beckett doesn’t indicate why it was short printed. Sihugo was number one overall in he 1956 NBA draft-ahead of Bill Russell! Only one of the 1961 Essex Meats’ Green has been submitted to PSA.  Beckett also doesn’t indicate how distributed. I assume either with packages of some meat products or as a mail in offer. They were however distributed by Bonnie Brands. A simple Google search failed to turn up anything on either of the two.

The three cards I picked up were Fred LaCour, John McCarthy, and Bobby Sims.

Fred LaCour was drafted by the Hawks in the 1960 NBA Draft and his carrier spanned 1960-1964 (Hawks and San Francisco Warriors). He averaged 6.5 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game for his career.

John McCarthy was an All-American at Canisius College. Drafted by the Rochester Royals in the 1956 NBA draft. He ended up playing six seasons between the Royals (two), Hawks (three), and the Celtics (one).


Bobby Sims played in both the NBA and ABA. Drafted by the Hawks in the 1960 NBA Draft. He averaged 7.7 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game for his career.

2 comments:

  1. These are pretty rare and expensive. Maybe just expensive. Only one I've been able to hunt down was McCarthy. I don't think they were packed in with the meats like some regional promos because you rarely see them with stains.

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    1. I think you are correct on both accounts. I think they were not packed with product-doubtful. Though the Mayrose 1960 Football Cardinals issue was wrapped in plastic and pretty stain free.

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