The Prize Patrol Celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the PCH Sweepstakes!
Wow! Yes, you read that correctly. The Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes is now 50 Years Old! This what you call a golden anniversary, and it’s certainly been golden for all of our winners! Just imagine all of the winners the Prize Patrol has awarded in that timeframe, and how many millionaires have had their lives changed for the better!
It’s important to note that PCH has been around a little longer than our world famous sweepstakes. Harold and LuEster Mertz started Publishers Clearing House out of their Long Island garage way back in 1953. But it wasn’t until 1967 that they decided to start promoting their fantastic deals alongside an amazing sweepstakes! Well, things started to really pick up, and we haven’t lost momentum since!
We’ll be sharing a lot more over the next year about our Sweepstakes’ golden anniversary, but for now we thought we’d ask for some thoughts from the founding members of the Publishers Clearing House Prize Patrol! Here’s what they had to say!
I’m thrilled that the PCH Sweepstakes is turning 50 this year, and even more thrilled that I’ve been a part of this iconic company for over 30 years! The sweepstakes was around for 21 years before we started the Prize Patrol (that’s right, the Prize Patrol turns 29 this year), and my favorite sweepstakes moment is still the very first Prize Patrol visit to John and Julie Yancy in August of 1988. Julie’s reaction was priceless, and provided PCH with an entirely new way to create our TV commercials. – Todd Sloane
That was Todd Sloane, and now here’s the other Prize Patrol co-founder, Dave Sayer!
When I joined PCH in 1981 our Sweepstakes was only 14 years old — just a “teenager!” — and there were many other sweepstakes out there for folks to play. Since then, most of those other contests have fallen by the wayside and we’ve definitely become the “granddaddy of sweepstakes,” having awarded prizes worth over a quarter billion dollars to thousands of happy winners. What a privilege it has been for me, as a founder of the PCH Prize Patrol, to meet hundreds and hundreds of winners in person, and hand over Big Checks each worth thousands, even millions of dollars. And what a thrill it is to re-watch our vast collection of “winning moment” videos and realize anew the tremendous blessings these prizes have represented. – Dave Sayer
I couldn’t have said it any better myself!
Do you want to join in the celebration? Well, there’s no better way to remember Publishers Clearing House than to enter our contests today! Remember, unlike the state lotteries, our sweepstakes are always 100% FREE, and our winners are always 100% REAL!
This is only the beginning of our 50th Anniversary celebration! In the coming months, we’ll have even more coverage of our 50th Anniversary plans, so keep watching the blog and our other social media channels for more info. We have a lot of exciting things planned, and you won’t want to miss them!
Enter now…you have to be “in it to win it!”
Matt K.
PCH Creative
