Imagine winning two brand-new cars – a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro and a 1969 Chevrolet Corvette – in a sweepstakes. That was a very real opportunity in late 1968 as a grand prize award at a Texas dealership. While our high-level internal research didn’t uncover the names of those who won the cars, hopefully one of our savvy readers will have information – or at least a recollection.
The inquiry came about because I was reviewing some artifacts left behind by a family member who passed away some years ago. One of them was a yellowed old newspaper – the Fort Wolters Trumpet, dated Friday, September 27, 1968. Jack Ferrill, of Jack Ferrill Chevrolet in Weatherford, about 30 miles west of Fort Worth, had reserved the entire page 8A for an advertisement about the “Super Sport Sweepstakes.” The prizes were laid out as follows:
- Grand Prize: 1969 Corvette Coupe + 1969 Camaro SS Rally Sport Coupe + $1,000 cash
- 2nd Prize: 1969 Impala SS 427 Sports Coupe + $500 cash
- 3rd Prize: 1969 Chevelle Malibu SS 396 Sports Coupe + $500 cash
- 4th Prize (50 Winners): Magnavox Townsman portable color TV
- 5th Prize (6,500 Winners): Kodak Instamatic Hawkeye R-4 camera
At the time, Ferrill’s dealerships were offering a $1,500 discount on all 1968 Chevrolets – the newer models were landing, after all. The fine print said that entries (for which no purchase was required) were due November 9, 1968, and winners would be notified by December 15, 1968.
I did find out that other dealerships had the same promotion, so this was a bigger event than just a Jack Ferrill marketing tactic. One was W&J Chevrolet in North Canton, Ohio, which ran an ad in the Sun on September 25, 1968. Another was House Chevrolet Co in Silverton, Texas, which ran an ad in the Briscoe County News on September 19, 1968. They were collectively pushing this promotion pretty hard at various dealerships around the country.
Being a numbers geek, I had to crunch the values of the prizes at stake. As we would have expected, the cars ranked in values from high to low in order of prize hierarchy. The grand prize winner received about $8,209 worth of vehicles and $1,000 in cash. The Magnavox televisions (quantity of 50) and the Kodak cameras (quantity of 6,500) were big-ticket items at $79 and $40 each respectively. The cameras alone came out to $260,000 in prize winnings.
So, the total? $280,828 in January 1969 dollars, which comes out to $2,530,567 in 2025 dollars.
Yeah, this was a pretty big deal – which makes me wonder if any such giveaway has been attempted prior or since. Incidentally, I did come across a website that mentioned something about Jack Ferrill’s dealership going bankrupt by 1970. Oh, and along the way, I learned that the word Magnavox is Latin for “great voice.” I love these little investigations.
So, where are those sweet Super Sports today?
