I'll Ace Any Trivia Quiz You Bring On

Whenever I stop in one of my local thrift stores or secondhand shops, I'm always on the prowl for something "new" and unique to add to my collections - be it baseball cards, records, jerseys, et al.  One of the sections of said stores that I always make sure to stop by is the board game shelves, for a few reasons:

1. My wife and I love board games and are always on the look out for a different one to torture our friends with at our gatherings.
2. A lot of board games use cards and, if these board games are sports related, there's a good chance that some oddball cards will be up for grabs.
3. A lot of card games get stuck with the board games and, if these card games are sports related, there's a good chance that some oddball cards will be up for grabs.

I'm a cardboard fiend and I have a problem.

A few days ago, I strolled into Pass It On in nearby Crestwood, IL, in search of some cheap, used furniture to help furnish our new apartment (our bookshelves broke on transit and we could use another couple tables).  Unfortunately, I didn't have any luck with my true motivation - though there were enough dining room table to furnish Windsor Castle.  To assuage my disappointment, I convinced myself that it wouldn't hurt to take a gander and see if there was anything else that caught my fancy - I did drive all the way there, after all.

Spoiler alert - there was (I mean, there almost always is) and it came from that aforementioned board game section:

A trivia challenge, eh?  My main is chock full o' useless knowledge - accept your challenge!

Honestly, I picked it up because of the picture of the football player on the front (any idea as to who that might be?).  Flickback Media, Inc., the company behind this plastic clam shell of "trivialized" playing cards, produces this series of these graphically enhanced cards and has an deck for just about each and every year since 1935.  The consumer can use these cards to show off their big brains or for use in Blackjack, War, or what have you.  Apparently, Flickback also has a series of books, DVD's, and all sort of other media built around this concept, as this advertisement card found within touts:

Sooooo... sports figure on the deck, pictures on the cards.... perhaps I could find myself a neat oddball for my Cubs/Bears/Blackhawks/Bulls collections?  That was the hope.

For a dollar I was willing to take that risk. Worst case scenario, I end up with a plastic holder for future storage considerations and an opportunity to show off my useless knowledge in front of friends.  Unfortunately for me, the sports content for the 1955 edition of Flickback's Trivia Challenge was lacking.

A baseball card pictured on a "baseball card" - we have some full-blown cardboard inception going on here!  Someone call Leo.

At any rate, this was the only card which featured any one specific baseball player or personality.  Do you know the answer?

Seeing as they are still a deck of playing cards, good for any game of Poker, Texas Hold'em, Egyptian Ratscrew, or Go Fish, all of the backs are the same.  The image chosen for the back was the same as the compilation image that stared back at me through the plastic.  "Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier!..."  Although, thanks to Harry Caray, I can't help but hear the lyrics to that tune as "Jody, Jody Davis, catcher without fear!"

While Cy Young (oops, I spilled the beans) was the only specific baseball player who made an appearance, there were a couple of other cameos from our nation's pastime:

"The Boys of Summer" stunned the nation as they triumphed over the dynastic New York Yankees in the World Series.  Seeing as that may very well have been the biggest sports story in the nation in 1955, it's no surprise that "Dem Bums" show up in Flickback.  Although, it would have been nice to see more than a hat; but, I suppose MLB guards their image licensing rights like Fort Knox.

Also, the face cards in a playing card deck don't leave a lot of extra room; therefore, the questions on these cards go unadorned, without a visual cue.  Sticking with that  historic baseball championship, do you know "What is unique about the televised World Series this year?"

This is opening game, World Series 1955, in color, Dodgers vs @Yankees:    #Sport pic.twitter.com/WBGgMImSGb

— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) July 20, 2013

It was the very first World Series to be broadcast in full color!  Did you answer correctly?

That did it for the baseball content, but there was still some more "sportsing" to be done:

Pierre Levegh was a European Formula One and sports car racer and one of the many lives lost in the tragic crash at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, an incident which single-handedly changed motorsport safety and which caused AAA to drop out of sanctioning races altogether.  I won't post them here, but a quick Google image search will show you just how terrifying this accident truly was.

Meanwhile, I've never been a big fan of boxing and I don't know much about the sport beyond the Rocky movies; however, I do know that the answer to the question found on the two of diamonds is none other than Rocky Marciano.  Why do I know that?  I honestly could not tell you.

There were no more sporting references after those two, but there were some questions about notable rock and roll acts too, which is music to the ears of this record collector.  These two should be fairly easy answers to come up with, so I'll let you figure these out for yourselves.

With that, the rest of these trivia cards were filled up with references to actor/actress birthdays, notable movies, political occurrences, and other pop culture trends from 1955.  If Marty McFly had this deck of cards in his pocket when he traveled back to that same year in his DeLorean, he would have had a much easier time fitting in - they'd make an excellent reference source!

Oh hey - they covered that!

So, no useful furniture and no cards which obviously fit into my collection - however, this Flickback Trivia Challenge still made for a unique and fun "rip" anyway.  It was certainly something different, after all.  Perhaps one of our countless Dodger collectors would be interested in the cards which make reference to the '55 Series?  Do we have a Cy Young super collector on the blogosphere?  Let me know and I'll make sure to forward the respective cards in those directions.

I'll take a coffee table in trade (just kidding... a little bit).