Now despite the early appearance of the first card that showed basketball, there was then a long time when it fell out of view. It only re-appeared in the early 1930s, as card eight of a set of thirty one "Sports" trade cards by The C.A. Briggs Co. of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Now these were issued with sweets, the curiously named "H.B." - and it gets even more curious because "H.B." actually stood for Hospital Brand, and referred to the part of their range which was cough drops and lozenges.
Each of these cards feature a different sport, with an artists representation of a person playing it. The one that everyone seems to want is the "Baseball" card, because it was modelled on "Babe" Ruth. The cards all have solid backgrounds, and show the sport in play. On the reverse is a split back, the top telling facts about the game (and mentioning the inventor, Mr. Naismith), whilst the bottom tells the collector that on completion of the set, it could be returned in exchange for either "a baseball, bat, or mit (sic), or 1 lb. Assorted Chocolates". It does not look like the cards were returned, which is why they are presumably scarce today.
After that there was another no show, until our set of the day was issued in 1948 by Bowman`s Gum. And this was a real turning point, because the whole set, all seventy-two cards, featured basketball. This was quite a big leap for Bowman`s, considering that the Basketball Association of America was only founded two years before.
Bowman does seem to have taken a bit of inspiration from the Briggs cards, with the same solid background, but their cards show actual stars of the game, not artist`s impressions. Another big claim to fame, though, is that the set, or the second series, anyway, includes George Lawrence Mikan Jr`s" Rookie" card (at number 69). And probably an even bigger fact than that is that it was the only set of basketball cards that Bowman`s issued (before they were sold to Topps).
However after this set was circulated, nobody picked up the ball, as it were, and it would be nearly another decade before basketball was again turned into a set of cards
Our man, Paul Armstrong, only appears on one other card, issued in 1950, which says "Bread For Health" in big letters at the bottom but does not actually give an issuer. However if you count reprints, you will find another card, for our set was reprinted in 1990. At which point we must say do be careful if you are buying any cards or sets of this original Bowman "Basketball", because the only mention of "1990 REPRINT" on those cards are the very small letters at the bottom of the reverses, pretty much always beneath the wording "(C) Bowman Gum"