The First Football Cards ever 1894 Mayo

      The first set ever to feature only football players was in 1894 by the brand P. H. Mayo tobacco company. The set of 35 cards had only the "Big 3" schools of Yale, Harvard, and Princeton. The cards were 1 5/8 x 2 7/8. On the card it shows an image of the player. At the bottom of the card it has the player's last name, the name of the college the player goes to, the Mayo logo, and a"for chewing and smoking" slogan with a black frame around the card. The card was also half the size of cards today.The cards were not numbered a certain number on it. One of the cards didn't identify the player who was on the card. Later people found out that the player was John Dunlap of Harvard.
   
         More than 100 years later in 2002 a newer card brand Donruss Grindon Kings brought back Mayo cards except they had many differences. First off the players were different, the original Mayo logo was changed the NFL team logo, and the name of the NFL player had both first and last name instead of just their last name. Another difference was the slogan, instead of the original slogan "for chewing and smoking" it was changed to "for trading and collecting and trading". Also instead of the college name they had the position of the player on the card plays.
     
                Six years later in 2008 Topps did the same thing except there weren't as many changes this time. The Mayo logo was the same. The name of the player was the same because they only have there last name. The slogan was different from "for chewing and smoking" it was changed to "for collecting and trading". Instead of having the college name at the bottom of the card they had the NFL team name at the bottom of the card. The cards also came in the regular size of the card or the 1894 card size.

        So the very first  football cards ever made was by the company Mayo. I can't believe that football came as early as 1894. Basically football cards has been here from 1894 - 2013 and probably will go longer. Football cards have been here for 119 years.

John Dunlap 1894 Mayo card without the name.

Dick Butkus 2002 Donruss Gridon Kings card. 

Lendale White 2008 Topps football cards.

                                                            Source: First and Goal