The 1960 Munro Electric Football game.

By the mid-1950’s electric football games were showing up in Canada. Tudor’s games became “Canadian Approved” in 1955, and Tudor’s rival Gotham Pressed Steel had gotten its games into the 1956 Simpson-Sears Christmas catalog (the Canadian equivalent of the Sears Christmas Book.) But these were American games – the fields were only 100 yards long, and there were only 11 players per team.

The first true Canadian electric football game was produced by Munro Games of Burlington, Ontario. Munro, at the time, was known for its table hockey games, and was the main supplier of hockey games to Sears. They also supplied table hockey parts to Gotham. Then in 1959 Munro bought electric football parts from Gotham – players, goal posts, footballs, yard markers, and vibrator coils – and put their own electric football game on the Canadian market in 1960.

Munro produced the game board, which had a very hockey-like design. At 36” in length it had the distinction of being the longest electric football game ever made. But it was only 16” wide, which made it just barely wider than a Tudor No. 500. The Masonite field, being long and narrow, had an unfortunate “scale” issue.

1961 Munro Electric Football w/scoreboard.

Another electric football “first” was the game’s 110-yard field. But there were only 22 players in all, leaving it two players short of being truly Canadian. (Considering how narrow the field was, it was probably better not to have 12-player teams.) Not surprisingly, the game had rounded corners like a hockey game. The metal frame was solidly built, and finished off with colorful frame graphics.

Simpson-Sears featured the game – in full-color – in its 1960 and 1961 Christmas catalogs. Despite this help from Simpson-Sears, Munro’s ambitions in electric football proved to be ahead of its time. Even after adding an overhead scoreboard in 1961 – a very hockey-like scoreboard – the game was not a big seller. It was left out of the Munro game lineup for 1962 and put into permanent retirement.

Yet it would not be Munro’s last hurrah in electric football. The Unforgettable Buzz has the “inside story” of Munro’s flamboyant reentry into electric football just a decade later. Be sure not to miss it.

Earl & Roddy