Quote: honeyslideslim "
Did anyone else used to collect the cards the coppers used to give out? I've still got mine.'"
The British Gas cards ?
I always went to home games in the 80s with my mate and his dad and his dads mate, they were in their 70s and I gave them a lift and dropped them off home, both had played for Leeds prior to WW2. Unbeknown to me and my mate both the old lads were collecting the British Gas cards for us right through that season because at that time my mate and I both had very young children.
At the end of the season you could get a book from the ground and stick your cards in it - both of the old lads did this (they used to queue up with all the kids to get the cards every home game), and after the last game they gave them to us both for our kids, nice gesture - but there's more.
They also entered both of our childrens names into a draw for a childrens "meet the players" evening and my eldest who was about three at the time was one of the kids who got an invite, so along we all went to an event that was held in what became the "Rhinos 2000" bar along with about 20 other kids and their parents, all the kids got a British Gas kitbag full of British Gas junk but the main prize for most of the young kids there was to meet their hero's and have their photos taken with them.
I'll add here that this was the Schofield clique era and prior to the idea that PR work would be part of a players contract and quite frankly the "meet the players" part was a complete farce and an embarrassment to the club and the poor fool who was running around trying to organise things. After numerous promises that "they've been training but they are on their way now" and a delay of around an hour (try explaining that to kids who are bored now) the first team players finally turned up and without stopping to say hello just strode to the bar and congregated there with their backs to the audience, when asked if one of them would come and award prizes to the kids they (almost literally) threw John Gallagher out of the huddle and then proceeded to laugh at him the whole time he stood in total embarrassment handing out prizes to 20 kids and having his photo taken.
Only two players came out of that evening with any sort of kudos from me - Roy Powell and Colin Maskill, only those two actually made an effort to go around the crowd and do the "meet and greet" bit and get down on the floor and talk to the young kids, there was a board game in the kitbag (a British Gas boardgame) and Roy ended up laying on the floor with my daughter and half a dozen other kids playing with the game for 20 mins or so, when he turned around the rest of the team had buggered off to a pub somewhere leaving the organiser to let everyone know that the evening was over.
If you had been there and then been in the Long Room after a game these days you'll appreciate what a bit of PR awareness and training has done for the game.
