The History of Antenna Balls - 39 years and still going strong!
Written by: CoolBalls.com - The Antenna Ball Superstore

1967- The first record of automobile antenna balls (toppers) being produced were to promote awareness of the Union 76 Gas Station. The first balls were spray painted orange by hand, dried, then screen printed, again by hand, with the blue 76 image.

1968 - Approximately 350,000 balls were produced and distributed.


1975 - In 1975 balls are being printed using rubber stamp pads and the white outline of the 76.

1977 - The globe painting process was semi-automated with a machine. With these manufacturing advances production of 750,000 balls per year was reached.

1985 - Popularity of the antenna balls continued to grow with consumption increasing to approximately 1,500,000 balls per year.

1991 - Disney World creates the very first "Mickey" antenna topper to celebrate "Walt Disney World's 20th Anniversary". Disney now has over 100 different antenna toppers.

1993 - A major brand promotion of a new fuel for Union 76 resulted in the production and distribution of 2,500,000 antenna balls in a six month period.

1995 - Four new antenna ball design shapes, baseball, basketball, football, soccer ball, were developed to support marketing efforts. These new shapes developed in support of Union 76 gasoline marketing efforts are now industry standard designs being imprinted with various company’s brand in support of their marketing and brand awareness initiatives.

1995 - Jack in the Box launches their infamous antenna ball. According to the official Jack in the Box corporate web site (www.jackinthebox.com), the company claims more than 17 million Jack in the Box ball antennas have been handed out to their “guests” since 1995.

1996 - Production of the Union 76 Ball reached 3,250,000 balls.

1997 - AntennaBalls.com was started and revolutionizes the antenna ball industry.

1998 - Union 76 produces over 4 million balls each year.

1999 - CoolBalls.com launches a retail store selling antenna balls.

2000 - The movie, Cast Away with Tom Hanks creates a best-selling antenna ball (Wilson - the VolleyBall Antenna Topper). Wilson sells for over $50 on ebay.com. CoolBalls.com sells 200 Wilson Antenna Toppers within 5 days.

2001 - CoolBalls.com sells its 150,000th ball online and launches the very popular Cool Balls Quarterly newsletter. We have over 2,000 newsletter members within the first year.

2002 - AntennaBalls.com has sold over 15 Million Antenna Balls to date! CoolBalls.com sells its 300,000th ball and has over 4,000 members on the newsletter.

2008 - CoolBalls.com is sold to new owners. They create a new website and reinvent customer service for the Cool Balls brand.

View All Products | Product Search