The ultimate “Lost” Electric Football game – Tudor’s 1968 NFL Ice Bowl prototype.
Electric Football’s greatness lies in its ability to create reality in miniature. Tudor was the unquestioned champion of this concept, as we have seen over and over in our Top 20 Countdown. And the best of Tudor’s work always links us to a specific event in NFL history.
So with the Cowboys set this weekend to make their first post-season visit to Lambeau Field since the 1967 Ice Bowl, it’s fitting that we talk about a game that didn’t make our Top 20, but if we had a list of “Lost” Electric Football games, it would be on top…by a mile.
That would be Tudor’s 1968 Ice Bowl prototype.
Tudor’s legendary designer Lee Payne created the game in early 1968, just weeks after the Ice Bowl was played in Green Bay. On the field are the Packers and Cowboys…a special No. 620-size field with “frozen” white end zones. Sitting at mid-field, just like on the actual Ice Bowl field, is an NFL shield. This is the first NFL shield ever to be seen on a Tudor field.
The frame of the game makes no mistake about what this model is — “NFL Championship” is lithographed in large white letters. There is also a special grandstand that wraps over the frame and down onto to field. And, of course, the players are of the 1967 Big variety. Each one carefully painted and numbered by Payne to match a Packer or Cowboy who was on Lambeau’s “Frozen Tundra” during the Ice Bowl.
Would this game have been a big seller if put it into production in 1968? Without a doubt. But ultimately Tudor decided that they didn’t need a fourth game in their NFL line — at least not yet. It’s clear to see that the Ice Bowl was used as the template for the 1969 Sears Super Bowl game.
We used the Tudor Ice Bowl to open Chapter 20 of The Unforgettable Buzz.
The Tudor Ice Bowl opens Chapter 20 in The Unforgettable Buzz, and we talk about the game early on in that chapter. But all we can do is talk, because nobody knows what happened to the prototype. Lee Payne shared this photo with us, but he did not have the game. Neither did Norman Sas, who told us that Tudor Games was sold “lock, stock, and barrel” to Superior Toy in 1988.
So did some lucky Tudor employee take it home during the 1970’s, or maybe the final Brooklyn days in the 1980’s? Or did it end up in a dumpster when Superior Toy was liquidated in the early 1990’s? The fate of this game is probably the greatest mystery in all of Electric Football. But the splendor of the Tudor Ice Bowl will live on, and finally get the treatment it long deserves.
Sample of the Tudor Ice Bowl photo that will appear in Full Color Electric Football.
That would be full color treatment in our upcoming book Full Color Electric Football.
Earl, Roddy, & MK
P.S. Don’t forget that our Top 20 Countdown hits game No. 3 on Friday!!