Panini Blog
Panini Blog
Call it the “Houndstooth Hat Trick.†For the third time in the last four seasons, the Alabama Crimson Tide is the BCS national champion, a rare feat that came to fruition Monday night during the Tide’s impressive 42-14 dismantling of previously unbeaten and No. 1-ranked Notre Dame in a game Alabama led in the third quarter, 35-0.
Against a Fighting Irish defense considered to be one of the best in the country coming into the game, Alabama produced two 100-yard rushers, QB AJ McCarron threw four touchdown passes and the Tide rolled up more than 520 yards of total offense.The dominant all-around performance earned the school its ninth AP national title and hearkened back to the houndstooth glory days of Paul “Bear†Bryant and his transcendent Tide teams of the 1960s and 1970s. Clearly, Alabama’s 28-point triumph was a slicing and dicing of epic proportions. And all of us here at Panini America wanted to honor last night’s historic deconstruction by revisiting one of our own.
Almost two years ago, Panini America turned one Bryant-worn houndstooth hat into 100 cherished collectibles for its 2011 Panini Century Collection product.
The finished product resulted in one of the most unique trading cards of the year, a Souvenir Stamps gem that included a piece of the hat once worn by Bryant, a piece of fur coat worn by fellow college coaching legend Knute Rockne and U.S. postage stamps honoring both men.
We flipped our lids at the opportunity to painstakingly follow Bryant’s hallowed headwear through the production process, as one precious collectible became 100. For every sports fan and collector who ever wanted to know how a memorabilia trading card is made, clear your schedules for the next four minutes and watch this time-lapsed video — a houndstooth hat trick, if you will — that’s as truly unique as the trading card it chronicles.
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