1935 National Chicle Bronko Nagurski #34 RC

A set that promised 240 cards and stopped at 36

In 1935 the National Chicle Co. of Cambridge, Massachusetts, already making the Art Deco 'Diamond Stars' baseball cards, took a chance on a sport whose professional league was barely a decade old. Its 'Football Stars' cards measured 2 3/8 by 2 7/8 inches. The images were artist renderings set against Deco patterns, adapted from oil paintings about 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 inches. Backs carried a biography written by Boston Redskins coach Eddie Casey, with his facsimile signature, and the player's position, college, age, height and weight.

Each back also announced that the card was 'One of 240 football players with playing tips.' Only 36 were ever made. National Chicle first released 24 cards, then added a dozen more, numbers 25 to 36. Nagurski is #34, in that second group. Why the set stopped is not known; one explanation offered is that the company was in financial trouble, in part because of the cost of its artwork. After it ended, more than a decade passed before another company issued football cards.

The cards were reportedly sold in one-cent packs with gum, and they were not overwhelmingly popular. Collectors could send in 20 wrappers for a 17-card set of larger 6-by-8-inch premium photos, now catalogued as R311.

The Bronk

Bronislau 'Bronko' Nagurski was born November 3, 1908, in Rainy River, Ontario, to Ukrainian and Polish immigrant parents from Galicia. The family moved across the border to International Falls, Minnesota, when he was five. He grew up working on the family farm and sawmill, delivering groceries for his father's store and laboring at timber operations.

Minnesota coach Clarence Spears signed him, and later admitted inventing the famous story that he found Nagurski plowing a field and that the boy pointed directions with the plow. From 1927 to 1929 Nagurski played fullback on offense and tackle on defense; the Gophers went 18-4-2. In 1929 he was a consensus All-American at fullback and was named at tackle on some teams too, including Grantland Rice's.

He joined the Chicago Bears in 1930. He was listed at 6 feet 2 and 235 pounds in his playing days (one modern reference lists him at 226), larger than most linemen of the time, and wore a size 8 helmet and the largest NFL championship ring on record, size 19 1/2. Giants coach Steve Owen said the only way to stop him was 'to shoot him before he leaves the dressing room.'

In the 1932 playoff against Portsmouth, played indoors at Chicago Stadium, Nagurski took a handoff, pulled up and threw a touchdown pass to Red Grange; the Spartans argued he had not dropped back five yards, but the score stood and the Bears won 9-0. The game was so popular that the league split into two divisions the next year with a scheduled championship game. The Bears won again in 1933.

Chicago, 1935

The card came out in a year when Nagurski was already living two careers. Promoter Tony Stecher had introduced him to professional wrestling in 1933, and he became a major box-office draw. On the field, 1935 was his quietest season: he appeared in only five games, starting three, and ran 50 times for 170 yards and one touchdown. The year before, he had run for 586 yards and seven touchdowns and was a first-team All-Pro.

The country around him was in the middle of the Depression. The Works Progress Administration was created in May 1935, the Social Security Act was signed in August, and dust storms swept the Plains in April. A penny for a card and a piece of gum was a real expense for many families.

Nagurski retired from football after 1937 and won wrestling's world title in several versions, including the National Wrestling Association title from Lou Thesz on June 23, 1939. When World War II thinned the Bears' roster in 1943, he came back to play tackle, returned to fullback for the game the Bears had to win to reach the title game, scored a touchdown in it, and scored again in the 41-21 championship win over Washington.

From $125 to six figures

For decades the card was simply a scarce prewar issue. A 1981 hobby price guide listed it at $125. Its standing changed in 2006, when the lone PSA 9 copy sold privately; most reports put the price at $240,000, while one 2006-era account said it was rumored to have sold for $275,000. About five years later the same card sold privately again for $350,000, a sale reported as a record for any football card.

Lower grades followed. A PSA 8 sold for $58,417.50 at auction in December 2006 and the same certificate brought $66,354 in July 2008. A PSA 7 brought $105,000 in August 2022, and in 2025 the only copy graded NM/MT 8 by SGC, with none higher at that service, sold for $111,000.

At the PSA 6 grade tracked here, prices climbed from $10,144 in 2007 to the $50,000 range in 2019 and above $66,000 twice in 2021. The most recent PSA 6 sale shown by the grader is $66,709, on December 5, 2021. A PSA 5.5 sold for $81,000 in October 2024 after 45 bids.

Why high grades barely exist

Every National Chicle football card is considered scarce, and all are condition sensitive: the stock tones with age, corners wear easily, and focus and centering problems are common. Most Nagurski cards are off-center from left to right, some top to bottom too. The first and last cards, #1 Dutch Clark and #36 Bernie Masterson, suffer most from rubber bands and light, because collectors kept stacks in numerical order.

The high numbers are the hardest. One dealer has suggested that the first series was distributed nationally while #25-36 reached only the cities whose teams appear in the set; others point out that shops often did not reorder a gum product until the first box sold. Neither theory is proven.

PSA's census shows one PSA 9, one PSA 8.5 and six PSA 8s as the finest examples, with 16 at PSA 7. At PSA 6 the population is 13, with 25 graded higher. The card shows Nagurski charging like a bull; collectors call it the grail of football cards, and it anchors one of the most widely collected prewar sets in any sport.

The fullback in the Hall's first class

Nagurski was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a charter member on September 7, 1963, after entering the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951. He was a four-time first-team All-Pro and won three NFL championships (1932, 1933, 1943).

After wrestling he ran a service station in International Falls until 1978 and lived on Rainy Lake on the Canada-U.S. border. He tossed the coin at Super Bowl XVIII in 1984 and died in International Falls on January 7, 1990, at 81. In 1993 the Football Writers Association of America created the Bronko Nagurski Trophy for college football's best defensive player.

His career rushing totals differ by source because 1930s records are incomplete: the most widely used modern statistical record credits him with 3,510 yards on 775 carries, while other summaries give figures from about 2,778 to 3,947 yards.

The numbers

1934 season

13 G, 11 GS, 123 rushes, 586 yds, 4.8 avg, 7 TD; 3 receptions, 32 yds. First-team All-Pro

1935 season (card year)

5 G, 3 GS, 50 rushes, 170 yds, 3.4 avg, 1 TD; 0 of 3 passing

1932 season

14 G, 121 rushes, 533 yds, 4 TD; 11 of 26 passing, 150 yds, 3 TD. First-team All-Pro; NFL champion

1933 season

13 G, 128 rushes, 533 yds, 1 TD; 14 of 27 passing, 233 yds. First-team All-Pro; NFL champion

1933 championship game

13 rushes, 64 yds; 2 of 2 passing, 42 yds, 2 TD

Career (1930-37, 1943)

97 G, 775 rushes, 3,510 yds, 4.5 avg, 25 TD; 34 of 79 passing, 506 yds, 7 TD

Honors

4x first-team All-Pro, 3 NFL titles (1932, 1933, 1943), All-1930s Team

Hall of Fame

Pro Football, charter class of 1963; College Football, 1951

Timeline

1. Nov 3, 1908

   Bronko Nagurski is born in Rainy River, Ontario.

2. 1927

   Nagurski begins three varsity seasons at Minnesota.

3. 1929

   Nagurski is a consensus All-American at fullback.

4. 1930

   Nagurski joins the Chicago Bears.

5. 1932

   His jump pass to Red Grange decides the NFL's first playoff game, a 9-0 Bears win.

6. 1933

   Nagurski begins wrestling professionally; the Bears win a second straight title.

7. 1935

   National Chicle issues its 'Football Stars' set; Nagurski appears as #34 in the second group of 12 cards.

8. Jun 23, 1939

   Nagurski beats Lou Thesz for the National Wrestling Association world title.

9. 1943

   Nagurski comes out of retirement and scores in the Bears' 41-21 championship win.

10. Sep 7, 1963

    Nagurski is elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a charter member.

11. 1981

    A hobby price guide lists the card at $125.

12. Jan 7, 1990

    Nagurski dies in International Falls, Minnesota, at 81.

13. 2006

    The only PSA 9 copy sells privately, most often reported at $240,000.

14. Dec 15, 2006

    A PSA 8 sells at auction for $58,417.50.

15. Jan 2011

    The PSA 9 copy sells privately again for $350,000, a record for a football card.

16. Dec 5, 2021

    A PSA 6 sells at auction for $66,709.

17. Aug 15, 2022

    A PSA 7 sells at auction for $105,000.

18. 2025

    The only SGC 8 copy sells at auction for $111,000.

The world in 1935

• Jan 3, 1935

  The trial of Richard Hauptmann for the Lindbergh kidnapping begins in New Jersey.

• Apr 14, 1935

  The 'Black Sunday' dust storm hits the southern Plains.

• May 6, 1935

  An executive order creates the Works Progress Administration.

• May 24, 1935

  Cincinnati hosts the first night game in Major League Baseball history.

• May 30, 1935

  Babe Ruth plays his last major league game.

• Aug 14, 1935

  President Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act.

• Sep 2, 1935

  The Labor Day Hurricane strikes the Florida Keys, killing 423.

• Sep 30, 1935

  Roosevelt dedicates Hoover Dam.

Daily price data

FLOAT reprices this card every day from completed sales. Last updated November 12, 2026.

No completed sale at PSA 6 is on record yet. The same card at other grades:

Every grade and recorded sale for this card

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, 1935 National Chicle Bronko Nagurski #34 RC is number 27 of 100 in the trading cards entries of the FLOAT 100. 97 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (53 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The back of every card promised 'One of 240 football players'; National Chicle made only 36.
• The card art was adapted from small oil paintings, not photographs.
• Nagurski's NFL championship ring, size 19 1/2, is the largest on record.
• The story that Nagurski pointed directions with a plow was invented by the coach who recruited him, on the drive home.
• Nagurski won wrestling's National Wrestling Association world title from Lou Thesz in 1939.
• In 1944 the Army examined him for three days at Fort Snelling and ruled him medically unfit because of football injuries.
• A 1981 hobby price guide listed the card at $125.