Electric Football Game"As any sports-loving male over 40 can attest, electric football may be the worst board game ever invented. Imagine the real 49ers playing the real Raiders after each side got off the Tilt-A-Whirl."--Joel Davis, Sacramento Business Journal, October 25, 2004 
Electric football games were popular toys for boys in the 1950s and 1960s. They could set up the linebackers, make the quarterback pass the football, and watch as the green metal field vibrated and caused the plastic athletes to move around. Unfortunately, much of the time the players moved in the wrong direction! Phillip Smart received this game (view a close-up of the field) as a Christmas present in the mid-1960s. He was about 8 or 9 at the time and enjoyed playing it with his brother. The two boys would often get the game out on Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Apparently electric football had appeal for adults as well as children. The boys would play until their father and uncle pushed them aside for a turn. Electric football games were readily available in the 1960s. The 1965 Sears catalog offered five different versions. This particular game was manufactured by the Tudor Metal Products Corporation of Brooklyn, New York (view the box lid), and probably dates from 1965 or 1966. It is in the collections of the Kansas Museum of History Cool Things Podcast
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