What was the last Checker? That's complicated

There was the last down the assembly line, and it's at the Gilmore
There was the last one shipped from the factory, and that's complicated, but hey, someone really wanted the last one down the assembly line, you know?
And there was one made from spare parts, from the assembly line, in 1983.
And then, there were two in 1997 ordered by Nike for a special promotion. They were high mileage used cars, but they were reconditioned, and off they went, and here in the factory newsletter, is the story of the Nike Swoosh Checkers

The Final Four was held at Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati on March 28–30, 1997. Tennessee, Old Dominion, Stanford, and Notre Dame qualified to the Final Four. Tennessee and Old Dominion won their semi-final Final Four matchups and continued on to the championship. Tennessee defeated Old Dominion 68-59 for their fifth national title.

http://www.icta.club/3643/

it seems that 1997 was a good year for Checkers to be promo cars for big corporations... Coke had 26 Checkers it gave away in a marketing gimmick for "Surge" soda

It bought 40 from a military base taxi company on Ft L Wood in Missouri, fixed up 26 of them for the summer promo, 13 for the fall promo, painted them green and gave them away.

The Checkers were awarded via many means: raffles at festivals, keys drawn from hats, “driving school” contests, dumpster dives for charities, games and other methods were used for selecting the winners. Each car came with a “trunkful of Surge” (which sometimes led to a sticky disaster when soda cans exploded in the summer heat) and an assortment of other prizes, which varied from market to market. Prizes included CD’s T-shirts, hats, pizza coupons, tickets for concerts and amusements parks and whatever the radio station felt like throwing in to the promotion. The entire promotion cost Coca-Cola was over $250,000.


http://www.icta.club/the-famous-surge-checker-taxicabs-will-brandum/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/145497838799022/permalink/2351598838188900/