At No. 14 on our Electric Football Top Countdown is the 1967-69 Tudor NFL No. 510 model with the Colts and Packers.
How significant was the NFL No. 510 in Electric Football history? Tudor put the game on the cover of their 1967 sales catalog to introduce the toy world to the NFL. Tudor also gave the No. 510 the responsibility of introducing boys to Tudor’s NFL, as it was the first color photo you came across in Tudor’s 1967-69 rule books.
The Tudor NFL No. 510 page in Full Color Electric Football.
And that Lee Payne photo of the No. 510 sucked you right into the action. The players were numbered after real players! Even if you had just received a Tudor NFL No. 620 or an NFL No. 613…when you came across the color photo of the No. 510 in Tudor’s catalog you wanted one!!
The work Lee did with a basic Tudor No. 500 model to make it NFL-worthy was truly genius. There was the diamond end zone pattern with three all-white diamonds containing “N-F-L,” the grandstand “flags” of every NFL team, and the 16 removable NFL nameplates for the scoreboard.
But what he had done with frame made all the difference. On a standard No. 500 the frame was entirely white. On the No. 510, Lee made the outside edge of the frame blue. The only white was in the left hand corner where a Tudor logo and the letters “N-F-L” stood side-by-side. It sounds subtle, and when compared with a No. 620 or a No. 613, the No. 510 frame is quite sparse. Yet the effect is dramatic. The white against the blue works like a magnet to draw your eyes right to the NFL on the frame. The NFL is imprinted into your brain without a conscious thought – you just “know” that your looking at an NFL Electric Football game.
And on the border of the frame Lee made another subtle yet significant change. While three sides of the border framed the field in white, Lee made the back border that lead to Tudor’s clip-on NFL scoreboard the same green color as the field. This created a seamless transition from the field to the grandstand — it feels like a “stadium.” The game was absolutely beautiful.
And we haven’t even mentioned Tudor’s brand new NFL players. Norman Sas and Lee Payne picked the Colts and the Packers for the No 510. In 1967 these teams were Western Conference rivals, and two the best teams in the NFL. The Packers were the defending Super Bowl champs, having won four NFL Championships since 1961. Bart Starr, Johnny Unitas, Jim Taylor, Tom Matte, Willie Davis, Jim Parker. Ray Nitschke, John Mackey, Paul Horning, Forrest Gregg, Elijah Pitts, Bob Vogel, Bobby Boyd, Raymond Berry, Lenny Moore….there were just so many great players on both teams.
What we “saw” on the Tudor NFL No. 510. A beautiful Neil Leifer photo.(©Neil Leifer)
The Packers and Colts had played some epic games through the years. One of their legendary battles was 1965 Western Conference playoff game. With Unitas and backup QB Gary Cuozzo both injured, Colts’ running back Tom Matte played valiantly at quarterback that day. And the Colts were leading 10-7 before Green Bay’s Don Chandler kicked a controversial game-tying field goal with 1:58 left regulation. The ball soared high over the H-shaped goal post, and appeared to go wide left — but the kick was ruled good by the single official standing under the crossbar. Chandler then kicked a field goal in overtime to give the Packers a 13-10 victory.
The NFL never acknowledged a blown call on Chandler’s kick, but before the 1966 season started the league mandated that goal post uprights be at least 20 feet high. And on all future field goal attempts there would be an official standing under each upright.
Besides getting teams that generated immediate NFL excitement, if you got a No. 510 during the 1967-68 period, the Packers and Colts were likely to be Tudor’s big/large teams. An extra special bonus on an already special game.
It’s no accident that we used the No. 510 for cover of The Unforgettable Buzz and also put it on our opening page. Truly one of our all-time favorites at No. 14.
Earl, Roddy, and Michael
From the 2017 Full Color Electric Football Calendar
