A Blast from the Past: 2012 Score Football’s Rookie Card Flashback Insert (Gallery)

Score Football exploded into the collecting conscious back in 1989 with a monumental maiden voyage still considered by experts to be one of the most influential trading card sets of all time. More than 20 years later, Score remains one of the most widely-broken, warmly-embraced football sets every year with a proud history of landmark designs, key Rookie Cards and fond memories to prove it.

Score Football exploded into the collecting conscious back in 1989 with a monumental maiden voyage still considered by experts to be one of the most influential trading card sets of all time. More than 20 years later, Score remains one of the most widely-broken, warmly-embraced football sets every year with a proud history of landmark designs, key Rookie Cards and fond memories to prove it.

In a colorful, fitting celebration of the set’s undeniable place in history, the upcoming 2012 Score Football will include Rookie Card Flashback, a spectacular 50-card tribute to Score’s storied past that remembers some of the set’s greatest Rookie Cards with updated photography, original designs and more than two decades worth of splendid recollections.

The following gallery detailing each of the 50 cards in the insert is sure to take you blissfully down memory lane, appreciating the evolution of the NFL, its best players and one of its favorite football card franchises. Enjoy.

And after you’ve checked out the images, be sure to share your favorite Score Football memories with us as a comment to this post. Those with some of the best memories will win a box of 2012 Score Football.

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31 Replies to “A Blast from the Past: 2012 Score Football’s Rookie Card Flashback Insert (Gallery)”

  1. This is awesome! Love the idea! Love the gallery and thanks for it. Brings back some great collecting memories. I started collecting in early 90’s so I remember having a ton of Score. I have 2 of the 1990 sets.

    I don’t know if people will agree with me or not..but I loved Score 95. Had a great design and was fun. I bought a ton of it. Loved the parallels that year too.

  2. I remember taking a trip to Cooperstown, NY to visit the baseball Hall of Fame. I was only 9 years old. I’ll never forget that I would roll quarters and dimes to save up for hobby boxes, only they weren’t “hobby” boxes then, just boxes. I would go to the local general store and buy a box of cards for $18. Anyway, after visiting the HOF we went to check out the card shops in town. My parents let me pick 1 box of cards to buy at one of the card stores and I had to pick between 1989 Pro Set and 1989 Score. I picked the Score and it resulted in cards I’ve cherished for over 20 years. Most notably, my Barry Sanders rookie card. He was, and still is, my all time favorite player and I’ll never forget opening that box of 1989 Score.

  3. I remember just growing up opening these score packs with my dad. It was a great way to introduce me to players and stats as well as introducing me to what card collecting has expanded to today. I guess the memories are more of a family thing with my dad and I.

  4. I’ll never forget…in 2005 my grandfather was moving towards the bad stages of alzheimers. He was basically my father figure. He was a HUGE Packers fan and he bought me a couple boxes of 05 Score football. I ended up pulling an Aaron Rodgers final score Rc. He was thrilled and it’s honestly it’s the last time I can remember him smiling and knowing exactly why he was smiling. I’ve pulled many cards but knowing how excited he was and what was to come honestly was the greatest feeling I’ve ever had in card collecting.

  5. The year was 1989 when the legendary Barry Sanders entered into the NFL. I was 10 years old and saved the money I made from a month of mowing lawns to purchase the classic 1989 Score Barry Sanders from a card show in Enid, Oklahoma. Almost a decade later, I had the chance to have Barry sign it at a meet n greet in Stillwater, Oklahoma. This card alone has inspired 23 years of sports card collecting for myself and countless others I’m sure.

  6. 1990 Score was the first box I bought as a kid (with my own money) but I probably bought it in 96 or 97 from a shop where I grew up in Buffalo, NY. I was so excited I started opening packs in the car on the way home! I remember thinking how cool the cards looked and not caring that I only got a few of my hometown Bills, but being super excited about the Barry Sanders all pro card I got and the Deion Sanders in the awesome old red falcons helmet! I can almost still feel the cards as I write this! Still have the Barry Sanders card too!

  7. I love score in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. My passion has grown over the years now, as its about relics, auto cards, and game used. But my idea is still the regular cards. Score has had the best pieces of cardboard out there. I remember when upper deck emerged in 91. Score has had the clearest pictures on cardboard. My only flaw was I never pulled a Score Bo Jackson football rookie. So have a great day and stay collecting friends.

  8. I remember buying the packs and wanting to pull any of the rookies. Looked at the borders for the red/yellow coloring and being excited at the new names. Man those were the days!! Thanks guys i feel older thanks to this.

  9. I don’t remember how old I was but I was pretty young and collected some football not hardcore and picking up a Michael Irvin 89 score rookie for cheap but passing up on a Barry Sanders rookie It kinda haunts me to this day like what was I thinking. Oh being so young and naive haha!!

  10. Takes me back to when collecting was about completing a set and having fun.

  11. One of my favorite collecting memories! I saw that the 2008 Score football packs had come out. I had to try a few at only 99 cents. I couldn’t believe it when I pulled a Larry Fitzgerald, NUMBERED out of only THIRTY-TWO!!

  12. I love collecting the Men of Autumn insert set in 1993. It was a large set with about 40 players or so. It was cool because it also included Defensive Players. I love the 1993 Score set because of its great design. This up above set looks great to chase and collect. What is the insertion rate.

    I love Score football because it is the last nostaligic set out there. Keep it coming.

  13. awesome– there are tons of them! So glad you didn’t take the easy route and used new photos instead. The Warner one reminded me of pulling his auto out of the little boxed set during his rookie year.

  14. My favorite Score memory would be seeing boxes and boxes of the 1989 product sitting at one Ben Franklin store and never buying a pack. It taught me to branch out a bit and buy other stuff in the future.

  15. My greatest memory has to be when my grandmother surprised me with a pack of Score 96 Football. My grandmother didn’t know much about sports cards and didn’t know much about what I collected or how deep I was actually into collecting. She was shopping in a local grocery store and saw a rack of cards. She went and randomly picked one out to surprise me as an award for helping her around the house. I did some serious cleaning. Such as dishes, vacuuming and the worst job…cleaning her toilet. That wasn’t much fun.

    So I went to her apartment not much longer after that since I visited her just about every weekend and out of her pocket book she handed me the pack of cards and smiled. Being a young boy, I jumped for joy and gave her a huge hug saying thank you multiple times and I believe got a grandma red lipstick kiss in return. i slowly opened the pack up (I have always opened packs up slow to savor every moment) hoping to hit a favorite player or cool insert. I got a few Giants players, a Marvin Harrison rookie card and my favorite hit…a Numbers Game of Drew Bledsoe. I really dug the design. I still to this day have the cards and keep them close to my heart. My grandma has since passed on and every once in awhile I come across them and it reminds me of that day.

  16. My best memories I have of 1889 Score football is collecting them with my cousin,Jason, who is no longer with us. He was like a big brother to me, seeing as how I didn’t have a brother. He and I would walk to the card shop when we had a little extra money and would buy a pack or two. One day as we were walking home opening our packs, he yells in excitement when he opened his pack because he had just gotten the Barry Sanders rookie card. That was a huge card back then, and still is a really nice one to this day. After he passed from heart failure in 2011, I was given all his old cards and comic books by his dad, because he remembers what it meant to us when we were kids. I still have of his cards and will always have them. It is a reminder of all the great times we had as kids.

    1. 1889 Score? Nice! Haha
      Would LOVE to have seen an on-card auto subset of these.. That would hae been amazing and HUGE in/for the hobby. Guess it wasn’t really feasible though.

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  18. My favorite Score set is the recent 2009 (20th Anniversary) green-bordered insert rookie cards that feature Matthew Stafford, Percy Harvin, Josh Freeman, Mark Sanchez Hakeem Nicks, & Beanie Wells just to name a few. This set really got me back into collecting!

  19. Being new to collecting..all I remember is trading off my first blaster box of Score to my uncle for 2 cards. He got some good rookies out of it. I was kinda jealous.

    These cards look great. Big Titans fan.

  20. I’ll never forget going to the local card shop in 1989 just stoked out of my mind for the new Score Football. I loved the first Score baseball set and I could not wait to get my hands on the football cards. The owner of the shop called me to let me know that they had arrived (he was probably sick of me stopping in and calling about them) and I literally sneaked away from my job at a grocery store to go the card shop, which was about five or six miles away. I picked up 2 boxes and started opening the pack sin my car, putting the Giants aside as I ripped. After about half a box, it dawned on me that I needed to get back to work! I arrived back and got chewed out a bit but I also had some packs tucked into my pockets to open when I could get a few minutes alone.

    Since then I have been a big Score brand collector. It’s something about the brand where once you have a story behind it, you never forget it and you stay loyal for life.

  21. Thanks to everyone who participated in our Score RC Flashback contest and for taking us all down memory lane. Great stuff all around. Congratulations to the three winners for this contest:

    Derek C.
    blevins26
    Bill Strong

    Winners, be on the lookout for an email from us. To everyone else, thanks again.

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