Hi all!

Sorry to be so slow to respond to the kind words and questions about Nebraska's Hometown Teams trading cards.  

Trading cards just seemed like a natural when we started talking about Hometown Teams.  I think it first came up at the national MoMS meeting.  

I'll be honest, I loved the idea but knew I wouldn't have the time to take it on.  

Fortuitously our council hired a full time communications manager about this time.  She went to national conference and got to talking with Kansas (I think) about the idea.  I have to give credit to SheriLynne and Tim, our communications intern, for actually pulling it off.  

We started with athletes listed in Nationally Distinguished Nebraskans From 1854 to 2012.  Tim added to the list from other resources.  Based on cost and manageability we decided to do 99 athletes and selected from the list with a goal of covering as many hometowns in the state and different sports as possible.  I think we ended up with 70 towns and 34 sports represented.  We also sought gender and ethnic diversity.

We printed 250 of each card at a cost of about $1,000.  We got an especially good deal from a local printer who prints trading cards for our minor league baseball team.

We provided each site with about 3,000 of the cards to distribute as they wish.  One site spread them out on a table and let visitors pick and choose as they wished.  Another site gave each visitor 3 random cards.

We've given sets of the cards to funders and to the Nebraska High School Sports Hall of Fame.


Mary Yager
Associate Director
215 Centennial Mall South, Ste 330
Lincoln, NE  68508
402-474-2131 ext 103
FAX 402-474-4852


HOMETOWN TEAMS: How Sports Shape America, a Smithsonian Institution travelling exhibition, is at El Museo Latino/The Latino Museum in Omaha through July 5.  More Information


On Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 9:33 AM, Davis, Robbie <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Everyone,

 

We get the best mail here at MoMS.

 

A great example of that is a collection of about 100 Hometown Teams trading cards from our friends at Humanities Nebraska featuring Nebraska athletes and coaches representing a diversity of sports and from all over the state. It’s a great way to let people know about their local sports history.

 

Mary Yager, I’m sorry to call you out, but we love this project. Thanks for the cards. And, could you tell us more (and share with the listserv) about how the trading cards came to be? How many did you print? How are you distributing them? How did you decide which athletes to feature?

 

Great work!

 

Many thanks,

Robbie

 

Robbie Davis

Project Director, Museum on Main Street

Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service

PO Box 37012 MRC 941

Washington, DC 20013-7012

202-633-5335

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