1992 USA Olympic Team Sponsor Pin ~ Oscar Mayer ~ Diving ~ Louis Rich

A 1992 U.S. Olympic Team sponsor pin from Oscar Mayer. A teal green enamel panel in a gold frame carries "USA" above the Olympic rings in gold, with a gold diver folded into a pike in mid-dive, and "OSCAR MAYER" on a tan bar along the bottom. Gold tone metal, rectangular, with a single post and butterfly clutch.

About Oscar Mayer: Oscar F. Mayer and his brother Gottfried opened Oscar Mayer as a retail meat market on Chicago's near north side in 1883, and on their first day they took in $59. They built it into a national meat company, and in 1936 it launched its most famous promotion, the Wienermobile, a hot dog on wheels that toured the streets of Chicago. The company moved its headquarters to Madison, Wisconsin, in 1957 and by the early 1960s was the leading U.S. maker of processed meats. It bought Claussen pickles in 1970 and the Louis Rich Company, an Iowa turkey processor, in 1979, and in 1988 it introduced Lunchables, its packaged "lunch combinations." Oscar Mayer was bought by General Foods in 1981; General Foods was bought by Philip Morris in 1985, which added Kraft in 1988 and merged the two into Kraft General Foods in 1989 (renamed Kraft Foods in 1995).

An Olympic sponsor: Oscar Mayer Foods and its Louis Rich turkey company were sponsors of the U.S. Olympic Committee in the run-up to the 1992 Games, and Oscar Mayer also issued pins marked "Official Sponsor 1992 U.S. Olympic Team." The Oscar Mayer family of brands shared one matching series of USA Olympic sport pins, covering both summer and winter sports, each with an athlete on an enamel panel and a brand name on the bottom bar: Oscar Mayer, Louis Rich, Claussen, Lunch Combinations or Louis Kemp. This pin is part of the Oscar Mayer family USA Olympic sport series made for the 1992 U.S. Olympic Team.

The Diving design: The diver is caught in a pike, bent sharply at the hips with the legs straight, the shape divers hold before opening up for a clean entry. Diving first came to the Olympics at the 1904 St. Louis Games with a single men's event off a springboard, won by Dr. George Sheldon of St. Louis. Separate springboard and platform events followed in London in 1908, women began competing in 1912, and by 1992 the program had four events: springboard and platform for both men and women. Diving has been on the program of every Summer Games since 1904.

The "36 USC 380" stamp: The back is stamped "36 USC 380," the section of the U.S. Code created by the Amateur Sports Act of 1978. It gave the U.S. Olympic Committee the exclusive right in the United States to the Olympic rings and the word "Olympic," so a company needed the USOC's permission to use them on merchandise. The stamp turns up on the backs of many licensed U.S. Olympic sponsor pins from the 1980s and 1990s. In 1998 the law was renumbered as 36 U.S.C. 220506, so the old "380" stamp is a sign of a pin made before then.

• Year: 1992 U.S. Olympic Team
• Sponsor: Oscar Mayer, U.S. Olympic Committee sponsor
• Series: Oscar Mayer family USA Olympic sport series, summer and winter sports (Oscar Mayer, Louis Rich, Claussen, Lunch Combinations, Louis Kemp)
• Sport: Diving
• Design: "USA" and the Olympic rings above a gold diver in a pike position, "OSCAR MAYER" on the bottom bar
• Style: Teal green enamel panel, gold tone frame, rectangle
• Size: approx. 5/8" x 1"
• Back: Gold tone, stamped "36 USC 380," single post with butterfly clutch

Packaging: All orders shipped in corrugated box for extra protection, we don't use bubble mailers.

Shipping: U.S. shipping is $4.95 flat per order, and free on orders of $35 or more.