The 1935 National Chicle football set is quite possibly the most important football set ever manufactured. Weighing in at just 36 players the checklist features some of the game"s biggest names first-year cards of virtually every key subject in the set and also contains the hobby"s most valuable and treasured card - the legendary #34 Bronko Nagurski (a featured item in this auction).Featuring colorful art deco artwork that was typical of the "modern" style of the day the overall design of the 1935 football cards was in many ways identical to the National Chicle baseball set of 1934-36 and also very similar to their Sky Birds cards of 1933. Despite being printed on heavy stock high-grade examples are difficult to come by particularly in the scarce high-number series. Evidence suggests that the scarcity of the high number series is due to those cards being available only in the cities where that series" players played. We are thrilled to offer an outstanding selection of high-grade National Chicles including a run of scarce high numbers and a Nagurski in our inaugural auction.This card of legendary Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne is considered along with the Nagurski to be one of the set"s two key cards due to Rockne"s popularity. Difficult to find in high grade the card features strong corners and edges for the grade along with excellent L-R centering (T-B centering is slightly off). Despite having had more copies graded than any other card in the set high-grade copies of this condition-sensitive card do not outnumber the others by any means. This is one of the most important and striking football cards ever issued and one of the two most valuable cards in the National Chicle set.Population data:PSA Population: 264 total graded 36 at this level 22 higherSGC Population: 57 total graded 5 at this level 7 higher