A Look Back At The Posters Of Our Youth

By Benjy Lipsman in Arts & Entertainment on Feb 24, 2012 4:20PM

As a child of the 80s and 90s, we lived in a glorious time... the golden age of the sports poster. Our childhood bedroom was plastered with glossy 24-inch by 36-inch tributes to our greatest heroes of the day—from the Super Bowl champion Bears to the Jordan-era Bulls—picked up with our allowance money at the mall and, later on, NikeTown.

The Chive has compiled nearly 50 of the best posters from that era. Looking back, however, we're struck by the absolute cheesiness of some of the era's art. Apparently, showing athletes in action, wearing their team unis wasn't good enough... or more likely, it was too costly for the poster producers to pay the royalties to the leagues. So we're pretty sure some jocks got posters simply because of their nickname. Would Eric Davis have been immortalized if not for the .44 magnum play off his jersey number?

Because of Chicago's plethora of larger than life figures during this era, our local heroes are well represented on this list. More than a quarter of the tube art features the likes of Jim McMahon, Andre Dawson and Michael Jordan. We remember having at least four or five of these posters on our walls at some point growing up. How many of these did you have? And what classic from the day are missing? Right off the bat, we're surprised not to see the "Black & Blues Brothers" poster featuring the Bears offensive line.