1961 Gotham G-880 Professional Electric Football game: Canadian version.
Tudor and Gotham both began selling electric football games in Canada in the mid-1950’s. There was a little bit of profit to be made there, but demand for electric football in Canada wasn’t really that strong. Neither Tudor nor Gotham had any reason to make games that were actually Canadian – that is, with a 55-yard line and 12 player teams.
The dynamics of the Canadian market changed in 1960 when Toronto-based Munro Games began making electric football games with distinctly Canadian features. In the U.S., Tudor continued to focus on the American market. Norman Sas, at the moment, just wasn’t all that worried about Canadian sales. Gotham, however, took Munro’s foray into electric football as a challenge.
The frame of the 1961 Canadian Gotham G-880 electric football game
For 1961 Gotham produced an electric football game aimed specifically at the Canadian toy market. It was called Gotham Professional Electric Football – which happened to also be what the American version was called. But when you looked closely at the frame of the game, instead of American cities with NFL teams, Gotham had lithographed Canadian cities with CFL teams.
The model number was the G-880 – the same as the U.S. version of the game. And the game came with the same box, the same players, and same field as the American version. The only difference was the frame. In using city names instead of team names, Gotham was able to avoid any licensing issues with the CFL, or with the NFL in the U.S. But Gotham still made enough connection with each league to cleverly call the game “Professional.”
Gotham’s Canadian G-880 game in the 1962 Eaton’s Christmas Catalog
Gotham sold the Canadian version of the G-880 again in 1962, overlapping with Montreal-based Eagle Toys’ foray into Canadian electric football. A Professional Electric Football G-880 with 3-D players was sold in Canada starting in 1963. The U.S. equivalent in 1963 had become the G-890 Gotham Official NFL Electric Football game.
More to come about Gotham in The Unforgettable Buzz.
Earl & Roddy