{"id":588195,"date":"2026-10-02T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/the-hogs.net\/blogs\/?p=588195"},"modified":"2026-10-02T12:59:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T16:59:06","slug":"hogs-night-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/the-hogs.net\/blogs\/2026\/10\/02\/hogs-night-out\/","title":{"rendered":"The Story Of The Classic Hogs Night Out Poster – Deep Dive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There is a vintage Washington Redskins poster called Hogs Night Out<\/em>, circa 1984. It featured members of the legendary Super Bowl\u2013winning offensive line, The Hogs: Jeff Bostic<\/a>, Russ Grimm, Joe Jacoby<\/a>, George Starke, Mark May,<\/a> Rick “Doc” Walker, Don Warren<\/a> and Fred Dean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all dressed in ill-fitting tuxedos, white gloves, and top hats. They are posing around a table full of champagne and lobsters. A 700-lb award-winning hog named \u201cWorthy<\/strong><\/em>\u201d graces the poster, at a farm in Leesburg, Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is in a word – epic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You’ve likely seen it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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How Hogs Night Out Came About<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The original idea came from a Redskins fan named Walter Reed. He pitched an idea to Doc Walker<\/a> about creating a poster to immortalize the Super Bowl winning Redskins offensive line. The deal was that in return for introducing Reed to Starke – Reed would give Doc a golf lesson. Head Hog George Starke<\/a> would then in turn hopefully help gather the guys for the photo shoot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which he did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starke would also be responsible for them partnering with Peoples Drug<\/em> stores to distribute the poster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The elder statesmen for The Hogs<\/a>, Starke was a very astute businessman. He had each of the members invest and they formed the corporation Super Hogs, Inc.<\/strong> It was one of the first athlete-founded marketing collectives. The first athletes in football history to market themselves outside of the NFL oversight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Super Hogs<\/strong> would go on to create a clothing line, a beer company, and produce two of the most successful football posters of all time, Hogs Night Out<\/em> and The Grave Yard Hogs<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Story Credit Where It’s Due<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The lore of this great story came to pass thanks to a guest post many years ago on a blog called Mr. Irrelevant. That blog was run by the Mottram brothers – Jamie and Chris – two great Redskin fans. You can find the blog on the Wayback Machine. The blog ran a contest to see who could guess the closest score in a 2012 Ravens versus Redskins game. The winner would be allowed to make a guest post on the Mottram’s blog. That winner was Phil Reed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phil Reed is the son of Walter Reed – the man who had the Hogs poster idea in the first place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phil had a tale to tell:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On that day in May, after their morning practice, eight world champions met on a hog farm in Leesburg, Virginia. They dressed in top hats, tails and white gloves and arranged themselves behind a 700-pound, award-winning hog named \u201cWorthy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the crew was assembling the table and arranging the lobster, champagne glasses and candelabra, I noticed that some of the Hogs were missing their bow ties. I scrambled back to the car to search under seats and in the mess of boxes in the trunk. I found the ties in a bag that had fallen on the ground and ran back to the shoot, only to find the crew was done for the day. \u201cWorthy\u201d was done eating her feed and wouldn\u2019t be sticking around for an attempt at another shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With that, the \u201cHogs Night Out\u201d poster was born.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Worthy was indeed a 700-pound, award-winning hog<\/strong>. She was set on doing her own thing and couldn’t care less about being in the photo. All she cared about was getting as much feed as she possibly could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some on-the-spot tailoring had to be done to a few players’ outfits, but when it was all said and done, everyone was fresh and dressed to impress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hogs Night Out Poster Sales<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Reed also relayed the story of how a buyer named Ralph Gittesson from People’s Drug – which was a predecessor to CVS – bought 50,000 posters from Starke on first sight! And placed subsequent further orders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reed remembered fondly staying up late with his dad and helping him roll posters. They stuffed them into tubes as they came off the printing press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As a 13-year-old at the time, I was thrilled to help (and to get to stay up into the wee hours)<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reed also proudly stated that LIFE and Sports Illustrated magazines featured the poster as a \u201cPicture of the Year.\u201d He also said that a photo shoot aired on local stations. It was picked up by Monday Night Football, along with commentary from Howard Cosell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Behind-the-Scenes <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Years later, Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post wrote a DC Sports Bog<\/strong><\/em> about finding a behind the scenes<\/em> shoot of the entire debacle. In it, Steinberg notes Doc Walker’s playful introduction: \u201cWelcome to the productions of Super Hog Inc<\/strong>.\u2026 a major production titled, Hogs Night Out<\/strong><\/em>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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