Artist/Maker
General Mills
(American, founded 1856)
Team Cheerios cereal box signed by the Butler Runnin' Rebels
1998
Cardboard
Overall: 11 1/2 × 8 × 2 1/2 in. (29.2 × 20.3 × 6.4 cm)
The Women’s Sports Foundation Records
2019.75.8
General Mills first featured athletes on the boxes of its Wheaties brand in the 1930s. Over time the company began using athletes to promote other its brands. It launched a new flavor, Team USA Cheerios, to coincide with the 1996 Summer Olympics. The following year, the cereal was simply renamed Team Cheerios and began a “Team of the Year” promotion, which focused on middle and high school athletes. The promotion stressed the values of teamwork and academic excellence. It also showed the cereal industry moving beyond portrayals of professional, older, and college-aged players to telling the stories and relating the successes of younger athletes and high school-level sports.
This limited-edition Team Cheerios cereal box featured the Runnin’ Rebels girls’ basketball team at Butler High School in Huntsville, Alabama. The squad captured Alabama Class 6A state championships in 1997-98 and again in 1998-99. Even more impressive: every senior from the 1998-99 team made the honor roll and garnered Division I scholarships to continue their basketball careers.
Description13.7-ounce Team Cheerios cereal box; front printed with white General Mills logo in top left corner; front printed with yellow Team Cheerios logo with photographs of male football player, female basketball player, and male soccer player above it; background design references U.S. flag with red and white stripes and field of blue; yellow banner with blue text: “TEAM OF THE YEAR! / FEATURED ON BACK” and “BUTLER / RUNNIN’ REBELS / HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA”; text on lower right: “YOUR PURCHASE / SUPPORTS / MADD /Mothers Against Drunk Driving / YOUTH PROGRAMS”; photograph of bowl of cereal in bottom left corner. Back of box has yellow Team Cheerios logo at top; yellow banner with blue text: “TEAM OF THE YEAR” above team photo; lower left has headline “BUTLER RUNNIN’ REBELS!” and white body text that discusses the team’s achievements; bottom, right corner has heading text: “FINALISTS” with captioned team photos for Canton McKinley Bulldogs high school football team, Canton, Ohio, and Cretin Derham Hall Raiders baseball team, St. Paul, Minnesota.ClassificationsEPHEMERA
