Classic 80s/90s Sports Posters: New Weekly Feature, Volume I "The Reign Man" (and request for entries)
By Cecilio's Scribe on Jan 08, 2008 with Comments 16
I’ll Make it Rain Babies Up in this Piece!
In all seriousness, it was a lot more innocent time to be a sports fan (right?). So, we’re going to pay homage to those decades a bit more regularly here at The Legend…times before we had Web-enabled phones and when blogging had yet to reach even an embryonic stage. After posting a few weeks back on my awful 90s hat collection/obsession, and illiciting some emotional recollections from more than a few readers, it got us to thinking of other 90s classics — like the sports poster. Long before any of this corporate-fueled Fathead-type nonsense, the sports poster was a staple of the young fan. We didn’t find them online at allposters.com or call into an 800 number based on some funny commercial we saw on TV. No, we went to good, ole’ fashioned poster racks like this and thumbed through them one at a time. They were either in the back of a sporting goods store, local grocery or comic book place. You know, one of these guys:
We’d spend an absurd amount of time thumbing making our way through the “gallery” and compartments looking for the perfect poster to adorn the back of our bedroom doors, the walls or in the basement or some other tasteful location. We’d look longingly at the swimsuit models whom our mothers (ok, mine at least) wouldn’t let us take home.
1. The majority of the poster was a large-scale image of a single player or small group, frequently dressed in garb other than their team uniform
2. They were accompanied by one simple word or phrase to describe the player and/or group that was either extremely kitschy, completely over-the-top (think: The Annihilator) or both
“The Reign Man” example at the top of this post is one that I remember adorning a wall in the house of one of my childhood buddies. He would be ashamed today that one of the most notorious babymakers in professional sports had once served to inspire him.
Another ironic example is below. Personally, I recall a Knicks “Bomb Squad” poster I had featuring three studs in leather flight jackets that I can’t seem to find anywhere on the Web…anyway, we want yours. We’ll look to post one every Friday. These are treasured works of arts. Dig ‘em up and share an image along with a quick related anecdote (preferably, fairly “clean”). If we like, we’ll post with credit to you and throw some love to your blog (if ya got one) and all dat. Send to legendofcecilioguante@gmail.com. The plan is to post every Friday, starting Jan. 11. 
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My favorite Old School Poster was the one with Bo Jackson in shoulder pads, holding a baseball bat. The Bash Bros poster is classic.
Bo Jackson in shoulder pads was the one I thought of too. Although I had two others that I sent to the editor. I think they will add to the flavor of the Reign Man poster.
I had a Chicago Vice poster with Jim McMahon and Walter Payton dressed like Tubbs and Crocket. Oh, they also were carrying Uzis.
it looked like this
http://blogs.menupages.com/chicago/chicago%20vice.jpg
A friend of mine had a poster of the offense of the early 90′s Buffalo Bills: “Kelly’s Heroes” all in military garb (with Jim Kelly in the tank.)
I loved ‘em because you could even get shi**y players. I remember a Robert Pack poster I had. Can’t remmeber what name they gave him but there was a trail of fire left on the ground behind him. Killer
I’ve got a Christian Okoye: Nigerian Nightmare poster somewhere in the far recesses of my closet back home. He’s in a little kid’s bedroom wearing half Chiefs, half Freddy Krueger attire. Awesomely terrible stuff.
Keep ‘em coming. if you send in an image/write-up be sure to share blog url if you want us to mention.
it’s clear from response already that bo and spread winged jordan were THE iconic posters of our generation
I remember having a Griffey poster with Senior and Junior titled “The Family Business”.
They were decked out like 1930′s mobsters (complete with the car) in front of “Griffey & Son Lumber Company” or something like that.
Great memories there.
I don’t have a particular poster in mind, but it seems like the X-Man, Xavier McDaniel, would have had some posters of this nature…
I remember Xavier McDaniel “The X Man” posters; I also remember his brilliant cameo in the movie “Singles.” I still have my Gary Payton “The Glove” poster — I won’t let my wife throw it out. She just cannot understand why.
Just remembered that my little brother had this bad boy hanging up in the room we shared as kids.
Here’s a link to the pic of the Griffey poster:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v68/modowski/poster%20promos/3e54392e.bmp
For some reason, my cousin had a Karl Malone “Mail Man” poster with Karl dressed as a postman, stuffing a basketball into a mailbox
I have the Griffey poster framed.
"The Family Business". Any idea of how to find out if it's worth anything? Also have "Space the final frontier" with Michael Jordan on it framed too. Also, the Griffey one has smaller versions of other posters arcoss the top of it and both have different colored blocks down the sides. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
great stuff, kenny. i think there's a place called sportsposter warehouse that sells old costacos bros. stuff. they might be able to give a quote