The cover of our 1996 “teaser.”

We are in the home stretch of finishing up The Unforgettable Buzz right now. Our best images are all locked in place, the text is “final,” and advance copies will soon be in the hands of some very special commentators. Hopefully we’ll get some pithy quotes for our back cover and web site.

It’s been difficult and thrilling at the same time. And it seems like a long time since we started this final push last summer. But really, this period is just a blip compared to the colossal journey the book has proved to be.

We can trace it back to the first letters we exchanged, or the first phone calls we exchanged, but really the first overt proclamation to write a book came in the four page “teaser” we took to Chicago in 1996.

Page 1

Looking at it today it seems so incredibly crude. Long forgotten is how much hard work went into getting things to look that “crude.” Graphics packages themselves were crude, and even getting photos scanned was a costly and elaborate endeavor. A friend of ours who worked in graphics designed it, and we spent hours at a terminal in Kinkos completing it. (Only the Kinkos computers had graphics packages…DOS was still on the home computer.)

Regardless of how it looks today, this was the first deliberate statement of our intention to write a book about electric football. We didn’t think it would take this long, but the final realization of our dream is not for away now. We’re excited and proud, and so grateful that Michael Kronenberg found his way to us. Even though he’s the “new guy,” we now can’t imagine this book without him.

Thanks to everyone who’s stayed along for the ride. We can’t wait for you to see it and read it!

Earl & Roddy