The year was 1995 when Chris Zises, a rookie police officer with the Kankakee Police Department SWAT team in Illinois, had a funny idea for team-building. Inspired by baseball cards kids collected and traded, Zises thought it would be fun to design parody baseball cards featuring photos and stats of each member of the SWAT team. He had them printed as a novelty for team members. Little did Zises know at the time his silly idea would spark a viral phenomenon that has now spread across the country.
Zises simply intended the baseball cards as an inside joke and morale booster for his fellow SWAT members. But word quickly spread to other police departments across Illinois about the amusing cards. Soon, SWAT teams from other cities were requesting their own sets of custom baseball cards. Within a couple years, Illinois SWAT teams were regularly creating new baseball card designs each year to showcase their unit.
The concept caught on for a few key reasons. For one, Illinois has a large number of medium to large cities with active SWAT presences due to higher rates of violent crime compared to other states. This meant there was a sizable population of teams interested in the idea. The cards cleverly blended two iconic American pastimes – police work and baseball collecting. They added humor and levity to an otherwise serious and dangerous job. And they fostered healthy competition and rivalry between departments.
A standardized baseball card template emerged that has endured to this day. The front of each card features a portrait photo of the officer, their name, rank, and department logo watermark. Statistics are listed on the back such as years on the force, number of deployments, special skills/certifications, and occasional funny made-up stats like “home runs hit in the field.” Cards were initially printed on basic trading card stock but evolved to premium cardstock and glossy photo-quality prints over the years.
Today, an estimated 80% or more of SWAT teams across Illinois annually produce new sets of custom baseball cards as a staple part of their operations. While the cards are produced primarily as memorabilia for team members, they have gained wider recognition beyond just policing circles. Cards from the largest metro departments in Chicago, Rockford, Springfield and Peoria regularly pop up on eBay and trading card forums online as collectors items. Enthusiasts have even organized regional swap meets for procuring rare older cards.
Some police departments take the baseball card theme very seriously. Wealthier suburban squads have been known to hire professional graphic designers and photographers to ensure high production values matching the glossy sports cards kids collect. One annual tradition is the statewide “SWATderby” tournament where departments compete against each other in team-building exercises and skills challenges, with the winning squad receiving a trophy and title of “SWAT World Series Champions” to tout on future baseball cards.
The idea has also spread outside Illinois to SWAT teams in other Midwestern states inspired by the trend. The majority of customized police baseball card production still remains centered in the Land of Lincoln where the goofy fun concept first got its start over 25 years ago. It’s proven an unexpectedly popular and enduring team-building tradition, adding some levity to a highly stressful job while also building camaraderie between departments. The oddball cards also help demystify police special teams and spread awareness of the dangers officers face to keep communities safe on a daily basis.
In the digital age where physical cards have declined for sports leagues, police baseball cards represent an analog holdout of the collection hobby. In Illinois and beyond, they continue serving as a quirky point of pride and source of friendly competition between special response teams. Even as officers have long since retired, their baseball cards live on as a novelty token commemorating service and sacrifice from the law enforcement “rookies” of yesteryear. And all because one officer had a crazy idea to immortalize his colleagues in card form never dreaming it would take on a life of its own.