Have a Morrie Christmas

Green and red text in the middle of an illustration of a wreath with green leaves and red berries on a white background

This holiday-themed button was most likely a promotional souvenir for the Chicago-based sporting goods store, Morrie Mages Sports. Alongside new and popular sporting goods, the store sold a combination of low-cost irregular sports equipment as well as "soon to be discontinued" merchandise. Apparently quite the character, Mages was known as "Chicago's Mr. Sporting Goods" and began his career at a young age hawking sports equipment alongside his father on Chicago's historical Maxwell Street in the 1930s. In 1968, he opened the first Morrie Mages Sports on Chicago Street, which eventually moved to LaSalle Street to become the flagship store after opening three additional stores in the suburbs of Arlington Heights and Woodridge. The year before his death in 1988, Mages sold his four stores to the larger Grand Rapids-based sporting goods chain, MC Sports. The following link is a holiday commericial for Morrie Mages Sports which ran locally in Chicago in 1986: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrE2EgDh4_I