Before Leon Sandcastle, there was Johnny Kilroy
By Susan Lulgjuraj | Beckett Football Editor
Leon Sandcastle is not the first fictional character to appear on a card.
In 1993, Michael Jordan abruptly retired from basketball, but the man wasn’t done playing – at least that was the message Nike put out with its own commercial that featured Johnny Kilroy, Jordan disguised as a different basketball player.
Steve Martin was featured in a commercial in a television news tabloid format and followed rumors of mysterious basketball players who popped up around the country under different names. These players were the best every single time.
Finally, a fan had evidence in the “popcorn tape” of Johnny Kilroy. He dunked right over Alonzo Mourning. Conclusion: It had to be Jordan.
Upper Deck made a card of Kilroy in its 1993-94 set. The card isn’t worth much and could be picked up on eBay for a few dollars.
Collectors are recalling the card as they see mock Sandcastle cards pop up.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhbaScIgrBE[/youtube]
Susan Lulgjuraj is an editor of Beckett Football. You can email her here with questions, comments or ideas. Follow her on Twitter here. Follow Beckett Media on Facebook and Twitter.
oh man, i forgot about that, too funny.
And in between Kilroy and Sandcastle there was Kazuo Uzuki.
Don’t forget Topps’s Kaz Uzuki prank baseball card.
2010-11 Score Rookie & Traded # 659 Taro Tsujimoto Short Print SP RC. the fictional japanesse selection of the buffalo sabers I think we deserve a prize suz because these cards were not meantioned in the article.
2010-11 Score Rookie & Traded # 659 Taro Tsujimoto Short Print SP RC don’t forget this fictional card
what about the taro prank buffalo saber draft pick in panani score traded
The thing with Tsujimoto is that while fictional, he was actually drafted! If you look in NHL records, the 1974 draft, round 11 goes pick #182 Randy Montgomery then #184 Jacques Locas, only because it was removed later on, after Clarence Campbell found out he wasn’t real.
I wish Sid Finch had a card.
Susan – please check into what is going on with these cards. There were hundreds of ungraded on eBay earlier this week when I bought 1 and now they are all gone except for a half dozen and all the graded are 10-20x Beckett value?