who introduced you to this hobby?
 

whether as a kid, or recently, who ORIGINALLY introduced you to this hobby? my dad use to paint college teams when i was a kid, then finally (after a couple years of badgering), he bought me my first set, i must have been 7 or 8 or 9. it was a superbowl set with the steelers and the rams. so, i give credit to my dad for introducing me, how about you?

I must've been about 6 or 7
 

My older brother and our cousin, who were about 15 at the time. I think the year was around 1971. They had a Tudor model 500 with the big 1-piece men (figure and base was all 1 molded unit). I think the figures were white and yellow.

Credit
 

I give credit to a friend who had this game and everyone was fasinated when we saw his game. I too,begged my mom to get me my game, and I also got the superbowl game,but only mine was in 1977. I recieved the Cowboys and Broncos when I was nine and played it with all my friends around the neighborhood. I was lucky to have a great neighborhood to grow up in with many athletic kids. Many were a few years older than myself.
Frank

Coach Kevin Thrower of the Mount Washington EFL.

a casual friend
 

I remember going over to a friends house when I was about 5 or 6 years old. He had a Falcons/Cowboys electric football game in his room. I thought it was the neatest thing I'd ever seen. I remember playing for a couple of hours and my mom having to pull me away from it. I asked for an electric football game that year for Christmas and about every Christmas after that for about 10 years!

beenutt

I was 10 I think
 

The older kids that use to stay on my parents block had a league and we would watch them play every week. I saved and saved til I had enough to get my first board it had the gaints and broncos in it..I still got the board

the addiction started when...
 

I was only about 5 or 6 years old - I watched my older brothers play Super Bowl III - Jets vs Colts. It was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. A few years later, I had saved up all my money, filled out an order form, and sent away for some teams of my own. The only problem was that an 8 year old didn't know you can't put silver dollars, quarters, and several pounds of miscellaneous coins in an envelope and mail it with a single stamp. When it was returned, I got in big trouble, and was not allowed to play the game for some time. I have been hoarding boards and teams ever since......

A friend of mine had the Steelers/Rams and Cowboys/Broncos fields. He got me started playing and my first field was really small. I found it at a yard sale with white and silver teams. My teams had rookie bases and two qb bases, which were really fast.

My friend couldn't stand me playing on that small board so he gave me the Cowboys/Broncos field and teams. We have been best friends ever since.

My Cousin introduced me to the game of EF in either 1976 ot 1977. I was hooked ever since. Not sure of the first team he let me play with (maybe the Vikings), but I remember he let me use the Buccs quite a bit. Ricky Bell was one unstoppable cat.

I think my first set was some college set which included all yellow and red or blue men. I never really knew what to do or how to play, so I would always treasur the chance to spend the night or the weekend at my cousin's house.

:) :) :D :) :)

hooked
 

it was 1971...my friend i went to JR high school with lived a block away....his name was duane pfund...and he got an chiefs vikings board..and then right away orderd 8 other teams......and 2 other friends rich st benard and jeff kaiser...we all had the first time i was in a leauge...i was the cleveland browns
and made it all the way to the championship game vs duanes packers...i lost that game but was hooked from then on

My dad brought home a box of stuff from an auction as he almost always did every Saturday. In the box was an old 500 field with the flat silver and blue metal men. My nephew and I played with it for ever. We used markers to make arrows on the men so we knew which direction they ran since we had no idea at 8 years old how to tweak the metal (yes metal) prongs (actually strips clear across) to make them go any other direction.
It was my first introduction to ANYTHING that had to do with football.

For 4 years I kept asking Santa for a "Slot car" track.....Raiderman received that instead of me, still don't know why? LOL
1978, Vikings/Raiders appeared under the tree. I was sooooo ********ed, I payed more attention to my clothes and I "boycotted" that game. The next morning, curiosity got the best of me. Ever since then, I wondered, what would've happened if I actually received the slot cars......
Mike

Introduced
 

I was introduced to the game by a cousin at the age of 7 or 8. We played with guys that just went around and sometimes some went straight. I think that was around '78 or '79. Now to the hobby we play now. I'd have to say Coaches S. Carter, and Smitty. Without ever seeing a DVD I was introduced to this new world order of EF. Thank you gentlemen for the hobby!

My dad was the one who introduced me to the hobby. I was at my grandpas (my dads dad) and we found his old electric football board. I thought it looked awesome and my dad ended up buying me a super bowl set. I still have my dads old board and my first super bowl board even tho niether of them work any more.

Who, you ask? Why, it was that bosomy, blonde, floozy they used to have on Saturday afternoon wrestling, that's who! :mad: There I was, sitting in front of the TV watching Pat Patterson, Pepper Gomez, Mr. Saieto, Kenji Shabuya and the rest of those guys when she pops on the screen and says "We'll be back right after this" and then the next thing you know, there's a commercial for an electric football game. :eek: That was nearly 40 years ago, and even today I'm still getting hornswaggled by a pretty face with cleavage.:rolleyes: :o

re
 

Great topic! I learned from my next door neighbors. My parents must seen how much I liked ef that they bought me a set for Christmas , I ws around 10 at the time. Next thing I knew the whole neighborhood was caught up in the fever . We had 15 coaches in our first league, and every season after that we had atleast 10 coaches. We never finished a season , but sure had some good times.

i remember....my best friend and i were looking at the sears catologue for something as a gift and saw the superbowl game and thought it would be cool.. we got it and shortly after had purchased all the teams from tudor and played every weekend for 3 yrs before we graduated and moved on

My Boy/Brother MC
 

In the beginining:
 

It was a cold blustery day,

A young boy goes downstairs to savour a bowl of Captain Crunch and wacth the morning film funnies! There on the dinnning room table was a Montgomery Wards or Sears cataloge! While crunching away and devising my 20 page Christmas list I saw a game? It was a game unlike any other. It had my favorite teams on the box "The Pittsburg Steelers vs. The Dallas Cowboys"
Now, I already had more AFX racing cars sets than any one child should have. In a moment of devine inspiration, I negotiated the ultimate deal. With the grace of a baptist minister, I ascended the stairs. I gently tapped on Mama's door. I waited for her acknowledgement and said, "good morning mama". I want to show you something! BOY, DON"T YOU COME IN HERE TO SHOW ME ANY TOYS! Fearing for my life, I swiflty descended the stairs and began to assemble my AFX track. It ran through the front room, curved into the dinning room. Now that Mama is up, Ill get her attention again. She said to me, "Sean Robert Carter, if you don't get this mess up out of my living room, I'm going show you something!". For several weeks I baited the hook. I would have that football game. I must get it under my tree. That year must have been the best year for selling the superbowl game. I konw for a fact that she searched high and low and couln't find the game anywhere. I over heard some private conversations while doing my secret Christmas Recon. Too make a long story short, Christmas came and under the tree was this great big Coleco board with poles on the side. What the hell was this? This was not the Steelers vs. The Cowboys! How could she make this mistake? Was my mother tripping? This was a game for special children! Where was the board I showed her? It would have been better not to have told that there was no Santa Claus. I could have at least cussed him out for this blunder! Little did I know that I had what we would call "The Big Board" Everybody else in the neighborhood had painted teams,but me. I could chage my figures at the waste. You could maneuver your ball carrier with a magnet and that magnet was strong enough to pull other figure towards the ball carrier. Mom had discovered a big hit. Everybody loved the board and it became the prime board for most games in the neighborhood. Fortunately for me, Tudor provided an order form and I gladly spent my allowance and paper route money accumulating teams. Sadly, all was given away in 1984 when I went off to UMCP. In less than 6months, my younger cousins had completly destroyed what took me a decade to build. O' by the way, My mom introduced me to electric football! Happy Mother's Day MOM!:cool:

"Stole" it from my brother
 

I don't recall the year but I can remember the time vaguely. It was Christmas time and I was 3- 4 years old and we were making the yearly visit to the grandparents'house in Detroit (I lived in East Lansing at the time), apparently my Mom bought the game for my older brother Gary, as I was too young for the recommended age. But that did not stop me from busting open that box, I think it was a Superbowl set.....it was awesome. It kinda became my present and the rest is history.

"Stole" it from my brother
 

I don't recall the year but I can remember the time vaguely. It was Christmas time and I was 3- 4 years old and we were making the yearly visit to the grandparents' house in Detroit (I lived in East Lansing at the time), apparently my Mom bought the game for my older brother Gary, as I was too young for the recommended age. But that did not stop me from busting open that box, I think it was a Superbowl set.....it was awesome. It kinda became my present and the rest is history.

TV
 

wow, I can remember like it was yesterday..... It was November 1969... sitting in the kitchen eating a boal of Rasin Bran watching cartoons and on the next commercial there it was..... THE GAME .... it showed the RB running down the sideline, then it showed the Father behind the goal post looking at the kick, which went straight thru the uprights.......... after that I just had to get one..........so that Christmas I had one under the tree...it was the Giants vs. Bears....and it was on from there!thmbsp$ thmbsp$

Coach K-LO

have been hooked ever since

my story...
 

My grandpa bought me and my brother the game from a garage sale when I was 10, an old 500 with yellow and red players. They were whatever team we imagined them to be...usually the yellow team was Michigan and red was Ohio State. When I was 12, we had the most magical Christmas kids could have. We recieved the Bears/Patriots super bowl game with 4 additional NFL division team sets. We played several years up to about high school with a total of ~25 bases. We had one base that was pure magic- a fast TTC that ran straight. We new nothing of rookie bases and we never thought to ask for more bases. We always swapped that great base to whoever was playing offense so that the offense could have a good running back. We ran that running back base on every play for years no matter what team's figures we were using. We enjoyed the competition, but I'd say we enjoyed the simulation aspect of it the most such creating holes, big hits, long runs, pulling guards, screen passes, draws. The unspoken "winner" was actually the person that could come up with the most creative way to simulate a play.

Ricky
 

My next door friend Ricky Kirkland!! He was about 11 I was eight he would let me watch he and another kid play when I was nine he let me play that xmas I got my first set Packers vs the Rams!!;)

My earliest memories
 

was like Lomax! I saw the commercial and the rest was history. Next thing I knew was some guys in the neighborhood had it. Some brothers from a street over and a guy had sets. Their names were "Boonie" and "PopClean" and Tony Smith.

I remember it being the board where it had all the teams on the side of the board. They would just run all day. No passing back in those days. The Triple Threat Quarterback was a foreign thing to them in their youth and to me. I looked at that QB like it was the plague.

No one touched him to pass or kick. All I know is that the impressions on the commercial of watching that little sucker kick and pass told me that if it could work for that father and son, it better work for me too.

So getting leagues started, that apparatus was BANNED! Fiften years later when I went to University of Tennessee and I spent my time playing EFL instead of going to engineering classes, I rediscovered the game when Air Coryell was in full effect. Watching Jefferson, Joiner, Winslow, and Fouts told me it was time to bring my game into the modern era.

That's when I taught myself how to pass. The great thing about the game is that making that pass when 10-20 people are standing over you is the one reason I still cherish the game so much!

And Steve, yeah I stole one from my brother in which the game was originally intended for me. He had NO INTEREST in electric football!

Reg

My father introduced me into the hobby when I was about 8. He bought me a Super Bowl board for Christmas...Vikings versus Raiders. I went on to buy every AFC East team and some others. I tried in vain to get more of my friends interested in the game, but they tired of the rugby scrum and whacky player maneuvers...sigh....wish we had base tweakers, custom figures and more back then....

Now the hobby is vastly improved and flying under the radar. It is hard to compete with computer games...but I think the game could and should be more popular with America's kids...from 8-80!

Introduced To The Hobby
 

Guys,

I was introduced to the hobby by the Washington Post in Dec. 1999. They did a story on Electric Football in the Style Section with Vance Warren and Anothy Burgress. I was blown away by the stadium AB had at that time. I went to the Miggle Convention in January in D.C. and that was it! My wife and daughter thought that I was going through mid-life crisis and I would quite. Little did they know, seeing EF again sparked memories from my childhood. The rest is EF History.

Smitty

My uncle had the old with the metal players. A few years later I got it for christmas. Dallas vs Denver.

My
 

dad brought this for me on Christmas day in the late 70's. I still got the figs.

My Favorite Game
 

I think it was 1979 when I seen the board with figures in the window of the local department store in Canton, Ohio. The game probably saved my life. When I was kid growing up in Detroit I kept getting into trouble, a thug in training:( My mom got worried shipped me to Canton and I wasted no time finding trouble quickly but I always loved football and basketball no matter what mischief I got into. When I seen that board I lost my mind I was fascinated cause I couldn't believe the little guys could run, kick and catch. Well as it turned out they didn't do everything like I hoped lol but they did enough where I didn't go outside or do nothing but play that game, I even got beat a couple of times for sneaking out of bed to play.

I got back to my old stomping grounds in Detroit and was lucky because instead of finding trouble my new neighborhood had about 30 teens who played everyday all day even skipped school a few times when someone got to popping off at the mouth about how good they were. I played this game until I had no one to play with. Once we became adults it seemed there was no one to play or even a place to purchase products but little did I know there were many of you guys still playing and evolving the game. I needed something so I got hooked on "Madden". I played Madden all the time traveled the country, played in leagues and tournaments but there was always something missing:confused: I got bored and quit playing Madden and needed something to get into other than hanging at every night club in Detroitthmbsp$

One night I was cruising the net and happened to randomly look up this game, found this site, found out about the Great Lakes League, played last year for the 1st time in 18 years, got the snot beat out of me and loved every minute of it:) I played Madden for years in several high stakes games, leagues and tourneys but the time I have had playing in the Great Lakes and the college tourney in Canton is PRICELESSppls$

A special thanks goes out to all of you who have kept this great game alive:D

My journey
 

My story began in 1970 when my friend Joe Jenkins showed us his Superbowl III set. Soon all the boys in the neighborhood wanted a set. But the only set that any of our parents was the 500 set. Soon Joe, Donnie, Gary, Alan, Mike, and myself formed a league. The way we played, we broke the NFL into 4 six team divisions. Each would take a team and play a round-robbin to determine the divisional winner and runner up. As soon as all of the divisions were played out, the 8 teams would meet in a playoff. This went for 2 seasons. I won the first year by beating Joe, 49ers 28 - Jets 10. The next season saw Joe beat Donnie, Jets 21 - Steelers 7. After these 2 seasons we moved to another city, but I got a AFC 620 game for Christmas. Since then I have played a solitary league of some kind.

I recieved a super bowl game when I was 7 years old for christmas by my parents.I played with it until the switch broke and keep getting more and more when they would break normally for christmas.

When I was 11 or 12 I got a job in the local barber shop sweeping the floor for a dollor a day.
I saved and save until I bought every team .

I had to play solitare because we lived in the country .

My biggest feat was playing a 14 game schedule and the playoffs keeping stats for each game.

The Dallas Cowboys beat the Oakland Raiders in the super Bowl 27-17

I would give alot to have those stats from the season.

During that season my set broke and I had to use a ruler the tap the field to make the players move.

We started playing in the late 70's, early 80's
 

my crew battled against an entire family of EF'rs. They were tweaking and making neck rolls before we knew how to coach. We resolve fights by playing EF back then we glued pennis and domes on the players base....now that I think of it..how the heck did we do that:eek: ..Hey weighted division in the 80's:D I was reintroduced to EF in 2005 by Coaches Ed.Roche(Where are you:eek: ) Joe.Grecco(EF's Tom Landry), and The Great Coach RaiderMan(NHFL Invite 06)...then they introduced me to the EF World....not to forget my good friend Coach Jack.T"The Ironman"


ppls$ ppls$ ppls$ ppls$ ppls$ ppls$ ppls$ ppls$ ppls$ ppls$

wow great thread
 

i think i was six or seven , my uncle had a old gatham all-star game with blue and red figures, it was awesome ,i watched him and my older brother play until that x-mas rolled around and i got my own game ,it had the bears an cardinals ,i was sssssssssssssoooooooooooooooo speechless,i knew it had me .

the saga begins!!!!!!
 

my parents bought me my first set when i was 8 yrs old,it was a 500 board with the yellow and white men that were all one piece.one of my sisters would write whatever number i want ona piece of paper then tape it to whichever player i wanted to have that number.the next set i received was from my cousin,it had the lions and cowboys that's when i was really hooked.from then on i received on every christmas a football set,a coleco hockey set and a afx or tyco race set(tyco sucked).i started playing all these games with guys in my neigborhood who's parents had bought them either a football,hockey or racing set.we started a football league, we had 8 guys and we played clean up to i was in 9th grade in high school,that ended when i discovered all the fun things you could do with girls:D did'nt find my way back to electric football until one day back in the mid to late 80's i was at work and i was reading the chicago sun times and saw this ad about a electric football convention at a hotel in downtown chicago,i could'nt beleive people still played the game.so i showed it to my wife and ask her if she would go with me,so my wife and 6 yr old daughter and a niece and nephew went to the convention,it was held by this company called miggle.when i first walked i could not beleive my eyes all the different displays guys had showing there electric football stuff,it was awesome!!!.this where i first met a one mr.reginald rutledge,he had a modal of the metro dome stadium in minnesota(remember that reg)it blew me away.it was there to that i met a fellow named dirk and boy did he love the cardinals:) :) at that moment i knew i wanted to get back in the hobby,so bought a few items from guys.my wife was also blown away by the items that were being sold,that's when i ran into a fellow from my hometown named terry i had not seen him in years.he introduced me to a couple of fellows named edger downs and frank johnson(and he also tried to sell me some of the ugliest figures that he painted into bears i had ever seen in my life,tudors ugly paint jobs looked like a picaso compared to these,my wife whispered to me if you by those things i am going to slap you in the back of your neck!!!)from there on i was hooked and back in the game,began to make friends with some of the most helpful and wonderful people a person could ever meet.and every year since then, the list of great friends in this hobby continues to grow.so i want to say thanks guys you are all my family!!!!

My Brother!
 

Conned me into getting the game in 1969. My parents also purchased some additional teams at my request. My brother talked me into the whole thing. I swear to you all I boiled my first base in 1972 because the prongs got harder that year. Anyways, he went in played in the league over near Mumford High School are in Detroit. I never played in that League but Jim Davis did. My brother lost interest after a few games but the game stuck on me like glue. I just loved the challenge of manipulating the reeds to make the men run correctly. I played in the league near the Mumford area on Littlefield Street. I was about ten then and most of the players were adults. I learned a lot and started my own league at 14 and it ran for 25 years before Jim, Eric, and I helped to become a part of the Great Lakes project. It was Tony Johnson's idea after running the inaugural Ann Arbor summer League. Tony, Jim, Chuck P, and L, Shawn, Greg, Simmie, Pat, and others were charter membersf. The rest is what it is today. I think I stopped playing the year I got married cause I was whipped!:rtfl: :rtfl: I think I play more out of habit now than before but the past year is probably the most fun I have had with leagues due to the great people I play with. They are all classy people top to bottom because they all know that life is more important than hobby.

Christmas 1979
 

when my uncle received a CFL electric football game. I used to play with him


Benster

My Aunt
 

My aunt bought my first electric football game. She didn't know what she was doing. She just knew that it had something to do with football. I have been turned out ever since.

Maurice

The Electric Coach

Christmas 1962
 

I remember asking for one for Christmas. Think I saw one in a department store. That Santa guy came up big. ;) I was so excited and LOVED IT. I was 7 or 8 yrs old and knew nothing about improvisation or tweaking. Just a happy camper. Simply got the guy who ran the straightest and he was the RB. Played with my brothers and a lot of solitaire. Seems like I got one
about every other Christmas till I was about 15. I do seem to recall the bases with the metal tops with the magnetic football. Good times!!

WOW, great thread
 

As a kid growing up, football was life in my neighborhood. That's pretty much what we did all year round. I was probably 6 yrs old and saw a commercial on tv. Begged the folks for the game, and whoa and behold on Christmas day the 500 was under the tree. Best present I ever received, in the context of how much & often it was used. The players were the gorilla men, white & yellow figures. We also had know idea about tweaking, like others have said, we just found the guys that ran the fastest and they carried the ball. What fun it was!