Mr. & Mrs. NFL was a promotional game issued by the American Oil Company in 1968. This was a collect-and-win game with prizes of cash or a new car. With each visit to an American Oil gas station, customers received a free game piece. There were multiple elements to this game. Primarily, players tried to collect two matching halves of a game piece to win a prize. 1) Instant Winner. Some game pieces contain two matching halves of a prize ... either a cash amount or a car. If a player received such a game piece, they instantly won the indicated prize. 2) Collect-and-Win. Most game pieces contain halves of two different prizes ... either a cash amount or a car. Players who collected both halves of the same prize won that prize. Cash prizes ranged from 50 cents to $500. Two different cars were offered; either a 1969 Ford Mustang Mach I or a 1969 Ford Country Squire. Some game pieces only contain one 'prize half' as in the example pictured below. 3) Sweepstakes Entry. Every game piece contains a sweepstakes entry form which gave the player a chance to win some (or all) of a $100,000 cash prize pool. 4) Help an American Oil Employee Win a Prize. Some game pieces contain a detachable form titled 'Welcome Service Award.' If a player felt they received 'prompt, courteous service' from an employee at the gas station they could fill out this form and hand it to the employee. Apparently these forms helped the employee win a prize. The 'Welcome Service Award' forms took the place of one of the prize halves in the game piece so, if I had received one, I would be annoyed to find this form. It meant I only received one prize half (instead of two) which lessened my chance of winning a prize. There were thirty-two different player cards printed in the game pieces; sixteen were common and sixteen were the key, prize-winning halves that everyone was hoping to find. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Below: The outside of an unfolded game piece. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Below: The inside of an unfolded game piece. This is a typical game piece with two prize halves. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Below: The inside of an unfolded game piece. This game piece contains one prize half and one 'Welcome Service Award' form. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Below: Game rules printed on each game piece. |
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Below: The sixteen common game halves. |
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The game pieces are loosely regarded as football cards and, as such, are slabbed by major grading companies and collected by sports card collectors. The high-grade game pieces ... even the common ones ... sell at substantial prices. As with many of these promotional games, a complete set may never be obtainable at any price because some of the key game pieces may no longer exist. The sixteen key, prize-winning game cards are as follows:
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