This early portfolio showcases Ernie Barnes’s distinctive treatment of the Black athletic body, translating his own experience as a professional football player into elongated, muscular figures caught in exaggerated motion across the field and on the bench. Issued as A Portfolio of Football Art by The Company of Sports Art, the suite gathers five lithographs—often titled “The Bomb,” “Two Linemen,” “The Pulling Guards,” “The Hand‑Off,” and “To Know Defeat”—and includes a text sheet in which Barnes reflects on football, struggle, and grace. One print in your set carries a ballpoint signature and inscription, adding a personal touch to what was otherwise a multiple edition and underscoring Barnes’s later reputation as the creator of “Sugar Shack” and as the 1984 Official Sports Artist for the Los Angeles Olympics. In The Askia Jones Collection, this portfolio anchors your sports‑art holdings, linking mid‑century representations of Black athletes to later popular‑culture visibility in television and music.