Norman Sas, inventor of Electric Football, dies at 87
 

I had one of these; I remember mine was noisy as hell and Mom didn't like me to play with it!!

The generation that grew up on video games may find this hard to believe, but there was once a time when football fans could entertain themselves for hours by playing a low-tech game featuring inch-tall plastic players moving around chaotically on a vibrating metal football field. The game was Electric Football, and it grew so popular that more than 40 million copies of the game have been sold.

Electric Football was the brainchild of Norman Sas, who, according to the Hackensack Record, died on June 28 at the age of 87. Sas invented Electric Football in 1948, but it was in 1967, when he signed a deal with the NFL to put team colors and player names on his tiny plastic players, that the game really took off.

Norman Sas, inventor of Electric Football, dies at 87 | ProFootballTalk

I understand there was a glitch in the funeral procession, as some of the
pall bearers suddenly darted off sideways in random directions, one actually turning around the opposite way, while some spun in place and seemed to
go nowhere.

Just had a little nostalgic moment there. Forgot how many hours my brother and I spent playing on his Electric Football set. Wow, that was a long, long time ago. I especially remember the little felt footballs!

My brother and I had another football game we used to play back then, although it was made up between the two of us. We called it "Csonka". My brother (six years older than me) would get on his knees, with a football, on one side of the room. I would have the entire length of the room (on my feet, mind you) to attempt to bring him down. That was it, and we loved that game, almost as much as Electric football, lol.

.. yep, the purple one.

Funny how many people harbor such fond memories of a game that sucked so bad ... and I can say that, I owned one!

RIP Mr. Sas, you created a legendary - if flawed - relic of many childhoods. Thankfully, Tecmo Bowl was just a few more years away!!!

We have a winner !!!!

I actually eventually had all 28 teams in dark and white jerseys, with 4 sets of Saints....

No actually, the game is fun, if you do it right. We ditched the bizarre timer wheel, made some necessary rules, for instance, you could stop the action to pass, we passed with a cotton ball, and one guy played referee, which it self was just as fun as playing. We used sewing spools to "kick" field goals, which could be done from any point on the field. had timeouts, 30 seconds per play, unless you could get out of bounds.... we actually had a bunch of fantastic finishes.

Oh, and me and my brother in laws back in the 80s used to play this in our 20s.

Good times there, hadn't thought about that game in decades.

WOW! That games was crazy, we use to sprinkle baby powder over it cause we thought it looked like snow!! Talk about a mess ! Ha
Good memories there. RIP

shoot... forgot i still have this.

Does it still work? Who are the Saints playing, there?

I remember 2 versions- one where it just vibrated and another that had two sticks with magnets at the end. Each person could control one player magnetically, at least until the sticks crossed.

f***ing hilarious

seriously? they're playing the falcons. this isnt the real
electric football board game in this pic. this is a coffee table a friend painted for me. but i do still have the real game field. fyi.

my Uncle (who isn't that much older than me) used to plasy this game for hours. Every time a Saint player would leave he would paint the new name on the uniform. Like someone said earlier; a rush of great memories filled my head.

RIP Mr Sas. You brought a lot of happiness to little boys evey where.

I actually wrote this &
sent it to my morning show star last week, and he used it on the air.

Sapper, you're right Mr. Sas made a lot of little guys happy, and I honestly
think he did much to implant more love for the NFL in us.