Sports card giant teams with The Collegiate Licensing Company to deliver nothing but net with newest basketball card release
Carlsbad, CA (April 8, 2010) – Hot on the heels of Duke’s thrilling 61-59 triumph over Butler in Monday night’s NCAA® Men’s Basketball title game, the Upper Deck Company is proud to announce the release of its first collegiate-focused sports trading card set: 2010 Greats of the Game Basketball. With its recently inked exclusive contract with The Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC), Upper Deck pulled out all the stops with its slam-dunk launch featuring some of the greatest collegiate roundball stars in history.
“Our 2010 Greats of the Game Basketball release represents one of our most popular basketball brands from years past and now it’s making its return as a stand-alone product,” said Brandon Miller, Upper Deck’s CLC brand manager. “It is well positioned to thrill hoops fans with strong collegiate content featuring autographs from the likes of Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.
The 200-card base set is chock full of the biggest names who have ever played collegiate basketball, as well as a few standouts who bypassed college all together before joining the ranks of professional basketball, and includes four 25-card subsets spotlighting the best of the best. The four subsets include “Big Man on Campus” featuring names such as Hakeem Olajuwon (Houston), Danny Manning (Kansas) and Bill Laimbeer (Notre Dame); “Banner Season,” which celebrates winning campaigns posted by the likes of UNLV, Duke and UCLA; “Old School,” which pays tribute to college stars like Larry Bird (Indiana State), John Stockton (Gonzaga) and Bill Walton (UCLA); and “Glory Days,” a compilation of stellar moments coming from Alonzo Mourning (Georgetown), Derrick Rose (Memphis) and Calbert Cheaney (Indiana). Some of the players featured who made the leap to pro ball without ever attending college include Moses Malone, Vlade Divac and LeBron James.
Beyond the aforementioned base-level cards, Upper Deck’s Greats of the Game Basketball brings collectors some of the most sought-after insert cards ever assembled. The memorabilia insert card lineup is entitled “Old School Swatches” (one per box, on average) and highlights players like George Gervin (Eastern Michigan) and David Robinson (Navy), while the autographed inserts boast varied numbering across an assortment of lineups including “Memorable Monikers,” “School Pride” and “Legends of the Hall.” Autographed parallels of the regular base cards are also sprinkled in with one version numbered to 199 and the other numbered to 50.
“Fans and collectors have been asking for comprehensive collegiate trading card sets for a long time,” said David Kirkpatrick, Vice President of Non-Apparel Marketing for The Collegiate Licensing Company. “The team at Upper Deck has assembled this tremendous collection of many of the best players in college basketball history. The 2010 Greats of the Game set is the first collective project in our new partnership. The collegiate institutions and CLC are looking forward to working closely with Upper Deck to maximize the tremendous opportunities that exist for licensed collegiate trading cards.”
The product, currently on store shelves, includes eight cards per pack, 16 packs per box.
About Upper Deck
Upper Deck is the leading sports and entertainment trading card and collectibles company. For more information on Upper Deck and its products please visit www.upperdeck.com.
About The Collegiate Licensing Company
CLC is a division of global sports and entertainment company IMG. Founded in 1981, CLC is the oldest and largest collegiate licensing agency in the U.S. and currently represents nearly 200 colleges, universities, bowl games, athletic conferences, The Heisman Trophy and the NCAA. The mission of CLC is to be the guiding force in collegiate trademark licensing and one of the top sports licensing firms in the country. CLC is dedicated to being a center of excellence in providing licensing services of the highest quality to its member institutions, licensees, retailers and consumers. Headquartered in Atlanta (Ga.), CLC is a full-service licensing representative, which employs a staff of more than 80 licensing professionals who provide full-service capabilities in brand protection, brand management, and brand development. For more information on CLC, visit: www.clc.com or www.imgworld.com.
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CONTACTS:
Terry Melia
Public Relations Manager, Upper Deck
760-929-3055; or terry_melia@upperdeck.com
Tricia Hornsby
Media Relations Manager, The Collegiate Licensing Company
770-618-8418 (office); or thornsby@clc.com |