Hartland Football Statues Collector Guide

Editor’s Note: A statue checklist and gallery are included below. There may be some errors or omissions in this guide. Feel free to contact us with any information you think would be helpful.

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In 1959, with the initial success of their baseball line, Hartland ventured into football statues, a line that would continue until 1963. Their first offering was a no-brainer: Johnny Unitas, quarterback of the Baltimore Colts and the most popular player in the league.

Unitas won the NFL Championship in 1958, and in 1959 he would lead the Colts to another championship and win the NFL Most Valuable Player Award. The statue was sold in a white cardboard box, with a detachable front panel that would reveal a cellophane window and the statue within. The box design would be used on all future football statues.

Hartland also produced a statue of Los Angeles Rams running back Jon Arnett, most likely to capture the L.A. consumer base.

Rather than making more specific players, Hartland took the running back mold used for the Arnett statue and a new lineman mold to create generic players for each of the 14 teams in the NFL at the time. The lineman and running back statues included jersey number stickers, so kids could customize them to any player they wanted.

The statues sold well enough that Hartland made a small expansion to college statues. In 1962, they released the running back and lineman statues in Louisiana State University (LSU) uniforms. LSU had won the National Championship in 1958, and halfback Billy Cannon won the Heisman Trophy in 1959, so Hartland was keen to capitalize on their popularity.

A reported 10,000 statues were sold at the last LSU home game of the 1962 season. Even with such a high number having been made, however, the LSU statues are extremely rare today, due to the limited distribution area..

Other college teams were planned, but never released. Reportedly, a prototype was sent to the University of Wisconsin, but they declined to do the statue. Another prototype was sent to Notre Dame, but they never responded to Hartland, and the idea was abandoned.

After Hartland was bought out by Revlon in 1963, production on all statues ended, and it would be more than 25 years before Hartland football statues would be made again.

In the subsequent decades after the Revlon buyout, ownership of the company changed hands several times. Hartland saw its first major rebirth in 1988, when Dallas attorney Bill Alley brought back the brand and reissued the original 18 baseball statues from 1958-1963.

In 1992, after Hartland was sold once again and moved to Hermann, Missouri, the Johnny Unitas statue was reissued, using the original mold and paint scheme and sold in a box marked “The Hartland Collection.” The jersey was a dark blue, to differentiate from the light blue jersey of the original statue. 10,000 statues were reportedly made, with the statue numbered on the foot, but the actual production number may be much less. In 1993, a flood heavily damaged the Hermann factory, and Hartland closed its doors soon after.

When the company reorganized in 2001 as Hartland Collectibles in Shreveport, they shifted their focus from baseball and widened their offerings. Among their first products were statues of players from the 2003 National Champions, the LSU Tigers.

In subsequent years, ownership changed again, but more statues of college football players were made, particularly of Heisman Trophy winners. The statues, which had shifted in design to more modern stylings and detailed paint jobs, focused more on smaller production runs and exclusives in specialized subjects.

There are no records of any Hartland products being made after 2013.

*Assorted modern Hartlands, including the Heisman winners and LSU National Champion statues*

Checklist

1959

Johnny Unitas, Baltimore Colts (5,000 statues made)

Jon Arnett, Los Angeles Rams (5,000 statues made)

NFL Running Back – Generic Player with Jersey Number Stickers

Baltimore Colts

Chicago Bears

Cleveland Browns

Detroit Lions

Dallas Cowboys

Green Bay Packers

Los Angeles Rams

Minnesota Vikings

New York Giants

New York Giants Variant – A statue sporting Giants colors, but without a helmet logo and standing on a generic base, was reportedly made and is very rare.

Philadelphia Eagles

Pittsburgh Steelers

San Francisco 49ers

St. Louis Cardinals

Washington Redskins