The top felt is from 1962. The bottom two are from the 1964-72 period.

Electric football has many great “pieces” to find when collecting old games. We talked in an earlier post about one of our favorite finds, Tudor’s original rub-on number sheets. But one of our ultimate finds is a “felt” of footballs – that is, a complete unused felt of footballs.

Tudor’s earliest electric football games came with felt footballs, although the footballs were already loose and in the storage containers that with the games. The first strips of felt footballs appeared in 1962, the same year that Tudor’s first 3-D electric football players appeared. That was also the first year for Tudor’s 3-D kicker-passer figures — the felt footballs now needed a small split for the quarterback’s throwing arm and for the kicking “tee.” (The top felt in the photo is from 1962.)

Foam footballs in the 1973 Tudor rule book.

In 1964 the felt was enlarged to include a washer for Tudor’s new on-field timer. This was Tudor’s standard electric football felt until Tudor, unfortunately, began making foam rubber footballs in the early 1970’s. (Foam footballs appear in the 1973 Tudor electric football rulebook, both in the instructions and in the replacement parts list.)

This change made the felts we had all the more valuable — raise your hand if you were ever guilty of stuffing a used football back into the felt for “safekeeping.”  And today, after decades of foam football production, discovering a felt with just a single football can make us feel like the electric football version of Indiana Jones. 

Much more to come in The Unforgettable Buzz.

Earl & Roddy