There are few professional athletes more interesting than Reggie Jackson. He hit 563 HRs, won an MVP, is a 5x champion, and is forever Mr. October as a World Series hero. He also fought with teammates, fought with management, and is the MLB all-time strikeout leader. To say he’s both loved and hated is an understatement. I don’t care about any of that today. I’m here to tell you about the REGGIE! Bar, the signature candy “bar” of the 1978 New York Yankees slugger.
The story apparently starts back in 1974 when the Oh Henry! people decided to market their candy bar with baseball star Henry Aaron. Despite that chocolate delight dating back to the 1920’s, it made Jackson jealous that Hank had a candy bar and he didn’t. After receiving more All-Star game votes that year, Reggie said “Now maybe somebody will name a candy bar after me, too.” That’s a pretty funny dig and no one would think twice about it had Reggie not gone back to the candy well the following year when his situation with Athletics started to boil over.
The A’s won three straight World Series titles from 1972-74 thanks to Jackson, Vida Blue, Rollie Fingers, and the Reserve Clause that didn’t allow players to reach free agency. Well Reggie wasn’t too happy about his worth being minimalized by A’s owner Charlie O. Finley and made it clear that he wanted to be traded if he wasn’t going to be paid. He even repeatedly made the odd claim that if he played in New York, they would name a candy bar after him. What an odd thing to say. Oakland traded him to Baltimore instead.
Jackson and others hit the first real wave of MLB Free Agency in 1976 with the Re-Entry Draft.1 In his first chance to show baseball what he was about, George Steinbrenner bought Jackson for the then unheard-of price of 5/$3m. It worked. Despite an incredibly strange up and down season, Reggie came to play in the World Series and became Mr. October. It was now officially Candy Bar Time!!!
The Curtiss Candy Company had this rather ugly looking chocolate circle thing called a Bun Bar (I’ve seen Wayne Bar too (it was manufactured in Fort Wayne, Indiana)). Why they called it a bar is beyond me because the thing was round and looked like something that had been left in the sun all day. Well despite being a mix of chocolate, peanuts, and a creamy filling, people weren’t buying the thing. It was time to rebrand.
The Curtiss people came to Reggie with an idea. They knew the guy had been pining for his own candy bar and he was one of the most prominent figures in baseball thanks to his free agency, power, and postseason heroics. They decided that an orange wrapper, Reggie slugging on the cover, and a baseball card inside would get everyone to ignore how unappetizing the thing looked and just give it a try. The REGGIE! Bar was born and hit the market right before the 1978 season, complete with all caps and exclamation point.2
For the Yankees home opener that year, everyone who passed through the turnstiles received a complimentary REGGIE! Bar. Perfect, right? Everyone would get a free taste and get hooked on the ugly snack. Well, maybe I’ll have my hot dog and beer first, then enjoy some REGGIE! in my mouth. That’s fair. Except, in his first at bat of the season, Jackson hit a homerun to right field and the fans showered him and the field with his uneaten complimentary candy bars.3 He was probably the happiest man alive in that moment.
The Reggie Bar lasted as long as Reggie was in NYC and was pulled from shelves in 1981. It comes back every once in a while and as recently as 2024. I even got my hopes up for buying one at Target before realizing they were sold out and just never took down the product placement.
He isn’t the only athlete to endorse a snack, but only Reggie Jackson would and could manifest his name onto a candy bar out of sheer jealousy and spite, no matter that it wasn’t actually a bar. He’s one of the best.
Inspiration and Info: Big Hair and Plastic Grass and Reggie! Bar (History, Pictures & Commercials)
- Going to write about this in a few weeks ↩︎
- You just know that Reggie was aware that the Oh Henry! Bar had an exclamation point so his candy bar not only needed one too but had to beat it by being in all caps ↩︎
- I’m pretty sure this is where the Simpsons skit with Marge giving out free pretzels at the Isotopes game came from. “And here come the pretzels…” ↩︎
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