Collecting Toys magazine October 1994.
Electric Football has come a long way in the 20 years since Roddy and I first discussed the idea that became The Unforgettable Buzz.
You see, it was in October 1994 that a magazine called Collecting Toys published my article “First And Goal.” Although it was a very basic and bare bones piece, I must have done something right because the editor was pretty happy about the amount of mail that Electric Football generated.
The kind of mail that arrived in the offices of Collecting Toys was mostly handwritten and came in an envelope with a stamp on it (these were the days of dial-up internet through AOL and Compuserve).
One of letters forwarded to me was from someone named Roddy Garcia. I responded to him — cautiously, to be honest — and within a couple of weeks we were talking about a book on Electric Football.
How little we knew about Electric Football at the time is stunning, really. If we actually knew how little we knew, we may have never even bothered to start the project. And if we knew it would take us 18 years to actually publish an Electric Football book – again, we may have never bothered.
But in the fall of 1994, our enthusiasm, thankfully, knew no bounds. Miggle’s NFL Electric Football games were just starting to appear, their “In The Huddle” newsletter was in the mail, and thanks to the Collecting Toys article numerous letters and introductions were circulating throughout a newfound and growing Electric Football community. For many of us, simply finding out that we weren’t “alone” was one of the most amazing things we could ever discover.
In those heady moments 20 years ago Roddy and I decided to embark upon the journey that turned out to be The Unforgettable Buzz. That four unassuming pages would turn into 600+ pages of Electric Football history…there are no words.
And the places that this journey has taken us, and all the amazing friendships we’ve forged along the way — we wouldn’t trade a thing. Thanks so much for hanging around for all these years!
Earl