History

From Paul Gardner
“Industrial Designer Lee Payne is to Tudor NFL Electric Football what Walt Disney is to Mickey Mouse. “

Payne, who played high school football and one year of college football at the university of Georgia in 1952 under Coach Wallace Butts, is the mind behind the men the action poses, the idea of NFL pageantry, and the innovator of Tudor’s NFL look on its gameboard.
As he explained in his letter of 1981, “I first got involved with Tudor Games while I was a designer at Walter Dorwin Teague Associates in New York City. I began handling the Tudor account around 1960 and 1961, and hit on the idea of three-dimensional figures for Tudor’s electric football. At that time, Tudor was using two-dimensional relief figures which I felt were very unrealistic, not only in appearance but in action as well.”
“In order to convince Tudor of our idea we sculpted players out of wax representing what I felt were typical poses of football figures - poses naturally representing an 
offensive lineman, a lunging pose representing an end or defensive back, a figure with 
outstretched arms as if in a linebacking position, and a sprinting figure representing 
an end or defensive back. These figures were rather crudely done, but the idea got across to Tudor.”
Besides the realistic poses for the figures, they were also designed that the arms, shoulders, and hands contacted one another in a realistic manner and gave the consumer realistic action as to blocking, stiff arming, offensive and defensive 
action.”
“We then sculptured these originals in wax, had molds made by a jeweler who then cast duplicate wax figures so we were able to mock up complete teams of figures and show Tudor just what these would look like on their actual game.”
“I then got the idea of painting these players in actual team uniforms, something they also had not done at that time. I spent quite a bit of time trying to find a company which would spray paint the figures in team uniforms, but that proved to be impractical.”
Eventually, the painting process would be done overseas in Hong Kong and Haiti. The 
artists used toothpicks. Payne continues, “Our first attempt in getting these players on the market in the Spring of 1962 was not too successful, in that the supplier misinterpreted our design, and we were all very unhappy with the results.”
“By Spring of 1963, we had redesigned the football players and had provided Tudor’s supplier with brass masters approximately three-times the size of the final figures. This allowed for a great deal of detail, which was then reduced into the full-size figures and made them very sharp. Those are the figures you see on the market today.”
Former Tudor President Norman Sas noted, “When you put a set of adhesive numbers on the players - two inch high sculptures weighing less than 1/100 of a pound - the men symbolize the NFL players.”
Payne also designed Tudor’s triple-threat quarterbacks made out of a flexible material 
called polypropylene. Payne would also design the first soft margarine package for 
Chiffon as well as the station exhibit for the AMF monorail exhibit at the 1964 New York World’s Fair.
But there was still work left undone for the brain behind Tudor NFL Football. “I also began Tudor’s NFL electric football gameboards,” he said, “and in 1961 I came up with the idea of actual photographs of crowd scenes in their electric baseball game, and later in their EF game.”
"Being a sports fan as well as a designer, and having played football, I felt strongly that Tudor’s game should look as close to the real thing as possible - the actual game in miniature, and tried my best to bring this about when designing for Tudor. I was not 
only after realistic appearance, but also realistic action.”
“My first attempt at designing a playing field involved a proposal that we send someone up in an airplane and actually take a bird’s eye view of a football field and 
print it on the gameboard.”
“We did the next best thing - actually rendering a football game field or football grid- 
iron to make it look like actual chalk lines on a football field. In fact, in one sketch, I showed worn spots in the grass, as you would see in a real football field. This was prior to the use of astro-turf.”
The completed versions would be made of lithographed steel and range from 26 1/2 by 15 1/2 inches to 3 feet by 19 1/2 inches.
Soon Tudor had its man as it eventually hired Payne away for his old company in 1964. He became Tudor’s head Director of Product Development, where he got the NFL-itch again.
“It was during my tenure at Tudor,” he explained, “when we approached the NFL and 
convinced them that we could do a better job than our competitor, and they gave us the franchise, after which time we very soon became the largest licensee that the NFL had. In working with the league, I tried to use various trademarks, helmets and colors of different teams to add as much excitement as I could to the game. We wanted our games to scream NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE, real players in action. In fact, we made sure that any time we took a photograph of a game that included particular 
teams that we actually used the numbers the real players used on their jerseys. So if you look at a picture on a package of Tudor Games you will see the numbers that the players were actually wearing during the year in which the photograph was taken. We constantly watched the National Football League games in order to make sure our field decorations were typical of what was being used in the league that year.”
The NFL was very accommodating. “NFL Creative Services kept us abreast of all uniform changes around the league, “according to Sas. The beauty of our game is that Tudor players actually emulate what they see in a true game. We provide Tudor players with NFL pageantry and action, but the Tudor coaches provide the strategy.”
Payne added, “the NFL is very good in supplying its licenses with art work relating to 
different teams, trademarks, helmet designs, uniform designs, and so forth, and this 
has been a big help to us.” In fact, when we designed the Super Bowl game, we had to make sure that we used the field decorations that were actually used in the Super Bowl, and the first time we were really able as when we watched the game on TV. That very next week we had the art work done for the field in time to get it into 
production so that when the game that was sold at Sears that year would be identical to the one on TV.”
But sometimes “Excedrin headache number one” hit Payne as millions of viewers watched the NFL’s televised games. Payne explained, “One thing that gave us trouble from time to time is the fact that teams will often change details, even colors on the uniform, without notifying the league office. They are not supposed to do this but sometimes the coaches or owners will get an idea and say ‘oh why not put stripes on the uniform - change our luck, or change the jerseys or pants from dark to light’, and as you can imagine, a company like Tudor already owns thousands and thousands of players painted just the right color.”
“It can be a terrifying sight to turn on your television and see that the uniforms on the field don’t agree to the ones in your factory.”
No doubt that Payne, who as of 1981 was the head of the Industrial Design at Georgia 
Tech, would either grimace or be elated with what today’s players are doing with his 
creation.
There may not be “A wonderful World of Lee Payne” or a “Payneland” or ever a “Payne World” out there, but even Tinkerbelle couldn’t have provided the magic that he has provided to a nation of Tudor NFL Electric Football fans.

[Treks1]

Thanks for posting this.

Interesting that we as coaches and players who just love the game are continuing to do the same thing that Mr. Payne was doing from the onset, to make the game more realistic and exciting. With decals, custom poses, base tweaking, stadiums and the like, even leagues with stats and the like. Its great to be a part of a history of a game really like no other....