Electric Football. It was the most awesome-est game ever.
My brother John was the king of EF. When we lived on Essex Ave. behind the high school, he and Tom Fedregon made up an EF league. One night a week our dining room table would be transformed into a stadium where these two teenage neighbors would pit one of their many NFL teams against each other. They kept detailed stats. They had all star teams and certain "bases" that were guarded with tight security. In my brother's collection, Earl Cambell was the king fish. He was the stud base that destroyed any defense and he "ran" as straight as an arrow.
I had a few teams but because John and Tom played so much and changed teams so much, I would get killed by whoever they put against me. I later learned it was because of the extra 3 pounds of paint layer over layer that they had applied to the little men. John was detailed and meticulous using a toothpick as a paintbrush. The paintjobs and my inability to ever complete a pass led to my demise.
Maybe I didn't practice enough with my guys? I'm sure if you were down in their little huddle this was my teams' strategy.
1. Start in the right direction until you find someone that matches your pose and promptly do a squaredance twirl with them.
2. Turn and go to the stands to talk to your mother.
Anyway, I say all this for a reason. Last weekend I was shopping patiently with my wife and while trying to kill time as she was trying on clothes I stumbled onto this at J.C. Penney.
It's back! Wohooooo!
It sounds like the next time we are all back in 'toon town we might need to find a venue big enough to hold our NFL ELECTRIC FOOTBALL ALL STARS tournament. John's painted warriors, Larry's Studs, J.O.'s Steelers, etc.
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I think Jeff owens witnessed this spectacle too. Sometime the games would go 3 or 4 hours. I wish we had instant reply for some of the pass attempts and field goal attempts. We did modify the rules to include dice for passing. The offense called odd or even and the defense called a number. If the number hit it was an interception. If the odd or even hit and the number did not, it was a completed pass. We also used the dice for the ocassional punt, to determine the yards. As some may know the punter would sometimes punt 3 or 4 yards, or more often he would punt 460 yards into the living room over the sofa.
I do still have the field in my attic. It is the largest electric football field ever made. It makes the new ones look like a postage stamp. I also have 20 plus teams including Earl Campbell and Refrigerator Perry. I still have Tom's favorite player...Billy "white shoes" Johnson. Everyone in that day wore black shoes, except Billy!!
Paul, I am sorry you were always left to play the loser of our games, but you had so much more potential than playing with 2 inch tall plastic vibrating football players. You had Evil Knevel and his Harley Davidson motorcycle. You lucky man!!!!!! I think we jumped everything in Mattoon except Snake River Canyon!!!!! Thanks for the memory bro!!!!!!!!!!!!! John
Great memories there. We had one at our house as well. I used to get shocked from time to time flipping the switch. It would take so long to set the teams up for each play and we would lose all the little footballs and have to use spitwads or whatever we could find.
Thanks Paul for triggering this one.
I remember taking my box of "little plastic studs" to the Crutcher estate on 19th to face John. Don't remember who won, but it must of been me, since I was never invited back! Larry O
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