1960's Wilson Thorp Sporting Goods Football..."The Duke"

[miracleonice80]

Hi all.....I have a few Wilson "The Duke" Thorp Sporting Goods game balls from the 1960's. Is there any way to get the exact year made on these? I know the Wilson football company used a code system for the footballs in the late '60's and '70's, but did they have any codes for the early to mid '60's? I do not see anything on the balls as far as letter codes......Thanks in advance! Tony

[RaiderNationPDX]

Earliest I can see a date code on Getty photo is 1968 (minus one of a posed Don Merideth "circa 1967"), so this ball would date between 1960 and 1967 by my calculation. If anyone knows of any info that'd further narrow this down, I'd be happy to hear it too; I also have a Duke without a date code. Mine's not even close to as nice as that one, though - that's an AMAZING football! Congrats.

[miracleonice80]

Thanks....Tony

[miracleonice80]

Hi...anyone know what the "ER" stamping would be on a 1990's-present NFL game ball? Thanks

[BrianK]

When did Wilson start selling retail NFL balls? I assume it's WAY after these. Somewhere in the Rozelle days maybe.

[miracleonice80]

Hey.....I heard something about 1971 as far as retail for NFL balls. Someone on this forum had a few Rozelle footballs that were retail, not assigned to the NFL.....those were not the Thorp ball above, but the smaller NFL font like the balls used from 1971-1975.......DD, EE, FF, GG and HH stamped. The only way as far as I know to get a Thorp, was to catch one at a game or be given one.

[miracleonice80]

Also, if the Thorp's were in stores in the '60's, they had Pro League Pattern written on them, and not the Thorp Sporting Goods stamp.