No. 9 – the 1967 Ward Christmas Catalog

Our Electric Football Christmas Catalog Page Countdown continues! Coming in at No. 9 is page 275 of the 1967 Montgomery Ward Christmas Catalog. 1967 was Tudor’s first year with the NFL license, and this is the FIRST catalog appearance of the company’s brand new NFL No. 620 game with the Browns and Giants. This wasn’t the standard issue No. 620, as the Ward version came with an exclusive accordion-like grandstand (existence confirmed by Electric Football archeologist extraordinaire Brian Nixon).

Another interesting part of the Ward page is a Tudor No. 500 photo that’s labeled “Super Bowl electric football.” This was two years before the first Sears’ Tudor Super Bowl appeared, so for years we chalked this up to ambitious advertising on Ward’s part. But then at TudorCON 14 René Smith showed up with this little beauty.

René Smith with his 1968 Otasco Tudor No. 500 Super Bowl – a game the we didn’t know existed!

So maybe Ward did have a small generic Super Bowl No. 500 in 1967. One of the reasons we love Electric Football. You just never know what will turn up.

No matter the variation of the No. 620 that showed up under your tree in 1967, you were completely captivated by Tudor’s miniature NFL. And Tudor was off to a decade of NFL Electric Football heights that would change the toy, and how it was perceived, forever.

More to come from our Countdown — it’s already December!