The one-of-a-kind Dundalk “find.”

Electric football collecting in the pre-eBay era was very much a “prospector’s” type of existence. Instead of a single click bringing up an online collectibles’ cornucopia, there were lots of long drives to toy shows that didn’t offer up a single dealer with an electric football game.

Large regional shows were your best bet, as dealers would often bring as much inventory as they could carry. And on the bonus side, when you did find a toy dealer with an electric football game, especially a big game, they were eager to get rid of it. You could even “bundle” other things because you were relieving the dealer of a large item that wasn’t in great demand.

You also ran print ads that seemed to be ignored by the entire population of North America. One of the “best” ads I ever ran was in the Dundalk Eagle in suburban Baltimore. During the post-war period of the 50’s and 60’s the community of Dundalk had a massive steel mill, a GM plant, as well as a number of shipyards and heavy manufacturers to keep the populace shopping at Sears and Ward. And it even had Johnny Unitas Colt Lanes, a bowling alley with a large Colts’ horseshoe in its façade. I was pretty sure that Santa left a lot of electric football games in Dundalk through the years. 

I’d had some nibbles and minor finds, and then I got a call from somebody who claimed to have 28 Tudor NFL teams. We established that they were all black shoe teams, so I was pretty excited, but also trying to temper my hopes. One thing I’d learned in my detective work was that things weren’t always as described.

And things weren’t as described this time…they were much better! I couldn’t believe what I was looking at on the dining room table. It took my breath away – a 28 drawer storage container filled with Tudor teams. Some of the teams even had 15-18 players. My normal rate then was $5 per team (it was 1994), but when I saw what they had, I offered a flat $160. Which they gladly took.

There were no large teams, but they were all black shoe, Hong Kong and Haiti in variety. They had been display teams — all of the players stood on TTC bases that had the directional dials removed. It was a find like no other, and one I would never equal. eBay would soon see to that.

I still have most of the teams, and they’re sitting in the exact same drawers they came in. Anytime I pull them out I still remember the excitement of the day I put them in the back of my car and drove home from Dundalk.

Earl