1967 BIg Giants and Big Browns
This week’s vintage electric football picks were easy. The Browns are visiting the Giants, and Baltimore is visiting Kansas City. It’s a pretty amazing week, at least for genuine Tudor electric football game match-ups.
This will be the 50th time the Giants and Browns have met. Between 1950-69 the two teams forged one of the greatest rivalries in the NFL, playing each other 41 times while battling for the NFL Eastern Division title. But the Giants-Browns rivalry was one of the unfortunate casualties of the NFL-AFL merger. Since the Browns moved to the AFC in 1970, the two teams have only met 8 times. Sunday will be meeting no. 9.
1967 Tudor NFL No. 620 Electric Football game
The Browns and Giants have another claim to fame – they were the two teams Norman Sas and Lee Payne chose for Tudor’s masterpiece NFL No. 620 game. First sold in 1967, it’s arguably the most recognizable game in all of electric football. It was always the cornerstone of our electric football convention displays, easily generating the most conversation of any game we ever set up. It was also the one electric football model that Miggle decided to go back and remake. If there is a standard-bearer game in electric football the No. 620 is it. It is the classic of classics.
Tudor Colts and Chiefs, both Standard size and Big.
We’re using our imagination a little bit with Baltimore and Kansas City, but for those of us of a certain age, Baltimore will always = Colts. We just can’t help it. In 1970 Tudor put out an AFC No. 510 model with the Chiefs and the Colts. It was a sharp looking game, being part of Tudor’s 2nd generation of post-merger NFL models. It’s an electric football classic in its own right thanks to the single-posted goal posts, and redesigned grandstand.
And if you bought this game in 1970, you ended up with two Super Bowl champions. The Chiefs were the previous seasons champs, while the Colts would beat the Cowboys in January of 1971. Not a bad legacy for the AFC No. 510. (Note: the big players were long out of production by 1970.)
Please stay tuned. The Unforgettable Buzz will unravel Tudor’s many model No.’s this fall.
Earl
The Chiefs vs. Colts was the the second ever Monday Night Football game. The first MNF matchup being the Jets vs. Browns, which was Tudor’s 620 AFC model. My first game was a 1972 model 510 which featured the Jets vs, Raiders who played a MNF game that very same year. It seems that Sas and Payne liked to tie their games to MNF and for good reason. MNF had taken the TV world by storm, the ratings and buzz throughout the country were through the roof.
Great info, Michael. I was looking for some other facts about the games, but missed the MNF connection for the AFC 520. Rozelle worked for a number of years to get the NFL on Monday night. There were lots of skeptics, but as usual, Rozelle’s instincts were on the mark. Much more to come about MNF in the book!
Colts in dark, Packers in white is the match-up I received with my Tudor 620 in 1969. Ironically, this is the matchup playing today (7 Oct) as well. I received brown rub-on #s for the packers, they swapped the teams but forgot to swap the #s so the packers had brown #s I didn’t notice at first. Still have the game and teams, with correct color #s now. The box had a sticker on the front identifying the enclosed teams. The price tag from the Jordan Marsh Dept. Store in Boston is still on the box, cost:$11.88. While we’re on this subject; it was 45 years ago this season that the toy shelves began to fill up with the new Tudor 620, in time for the Christmas season. Thanks.
Ray Fanara
Brookeville, MD
Ray, thanks so much for contributing. I was sitting there watching the scores scroll by today…how did I miss the Colts and Packers??
Yes, Tudor definitely was subbing in teams throughout the late 60’s. I got an AFL game with Dolphins and Bills. At the time I wasn’t thrilled because I wanted those white Jets. But both my Bills and Dolphins turned out to be large teams. So today it’s a great story.
Wow, the Colts won.
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