A 16-card issue
A surviving 1983-84 uncut sheet contains sixteen Trail Blazers cards, including Drexler. The cards are not sequentially numbered on the front; “#22” identifies Drexler's jersey number.
The 1983 Clyde Drexler Police Card Project
Project 22
Some cards become collectibles. Others become lifelong pursuits.
One overlooked rookie-season card, a twenty-copy collection, and an ongoing effort to understand the story behind it.
20 copies and counting10+ years collecting
P22-018P22-018The Card
1983 Portland Trail Blazers Police
Clyde Drexler #22
A regional issue from Clyde Drexler's rookie season, years before the 1986 Fleer card most collectors associate with his cardboard legacy.
Season 1983-84Set 16 cardsPhoto Bill ZavinBack “Blazer Tips”
The complete uncut sheet shows the card in its original context: a 16-card crime-prevention issue featuring Trail Blazers players and staff, with public-safety messages on the backs.
What We Know
The card makes more sense when you see the whole set.
Built around “Blazer Tips”
The backs pair each player or staff member with a crime-prevention or safety message. The 1983-84 sheet directly credits the Portland Exchange Club, the Trail Blazers, the NBA, and the Portland Police Bureau.
Uncut sheets exist
Both the 1983-84 and 1984-85 issues are known in uncut-sheet form. That matters because the sheets preserve how the cards were originally arranged before being cut into individual examples.
The next year was numbered
The 1984-85 follow-up again contains sixteen cards, this time numbered 1 of 16 through 16 of 16. Drexler appears as 7 of 16.
A numbered uncut presentation
A documented 1984-85 certificate identifies an uncut 16-card set as number 0171 of 1000, and the matching uncut sheet carries 0171 on the back. Loose cut cards examined from the same set do not carry that serial number.
What that probably means
The evidence suggests the 1,000-copy designation applied to the numbered uncut presentation, not necessarily to the total production of individual cut cards. Project 22 treats that as a working conclusion, not a confirmed total print run.
Research note: Project 22 separates what surviving cards, sheets, and certificates directly show from conclusions that are still being tested.
Why This Card
One card became a pursuit.
Most basketball collectors know Clyde Drexler's 1986 Fleer rookie card. It is one of the defining basketball cards of the 1980s and the card most often associated with the beginning of Drexler's collecting legacy.
My favorite Drexler card is something much less familiar: a small, regional issue produced during his rookie season with the Portland Trail Blazers, the 1983 Trail Blazers Police card.
For more than a decade, I have searched for every copy I could find. They do not surface often, and when one appears at a reasonable price, I usually buy it.
What began as an appreciation for one card eventually became a collection, and now, Project 22.
The Collection
20 copies. One card.
This is the heart of Project 22: the same rookie-season card, preserved across twenty different surviving examples. Some are clean, some are worn, one is signed, and several are in or headed toward grading. The individual purchase history stays in the background; the cards themselves come first.
Raw collection
18 copies currently representedPhoto coming soon
Photo coming soon
Graded collection
2 returned slabs, with 3 more currently at CGCThree additional copies are currently out for CGC grading. When they return, they can move into this section without changing the overall collection total.
The Story Continued
The next year.
The 1984-85 follow-up kept the crime-prevention concept but formalized the set: sixteen numbered cards, with Drexler appearing as 7 of 16. Seven copies of his follow-up card have made their way into the collection too.
A useful clue: a surviving 1984-85 uncut sheet and matching certificate share serial number 0171 of 1000. Individual cut cards examined from the set do not carry that number, suggesting the serial was tied specifically to the uncut presentation.
The Hunt
A collection that changed shape over time.
Before 2018
The early years
The card had already been part of the collection for years. Several copies were later graded or sold, but the earliest acquisition history was not recorded.
2018
A surviving anchor
The PSA 9 that now serves as P22-001 was graded and remained in the collection.
2019–2021
Grading and selling
Two PSA 5s, an SGC 8.5, and an SGC 8 were graded from raw copies and later sold.
2021
The current collection takes shape
Purchase records begin to align with the copies that remain in the collection today.
2024
An autographed copy
A signed example joined the collection and is now cataloged as P22-012.
2026
Project 22 takes shape
The collection reaches 20 current copies, three are sent to CGC, and the project shifts toward telling the story of the card itself.
Project 22
The search continues.
20 copies and counting.