Dori Monson
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Bonneville Seattle is raising funds for the construction of a second Fisher House at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma and we need your help.Bidding a bittersweet farewell to the founder of Electric Football
on July 10, 2012 @ 10:12 am (Updated: 10:16 am - 7/10/12 )
Well before Xbox and Madden, young football enthusiasts turned to a primitive table top game called Electric Football to live out their gridiron fantasies. It was favorite of many including 97.3 KIRO FM's Dori Monson, who bids a heartfelt farewell to the inventor of the game, Norman Sas. He recently passed away after a stroke.
For those unfamiliar with the game, players meticulously staged small, metallic figures on a tabletop football field. When they turned it on, the players would move at random around the board, occasionally breaking through the pack. It was rudimentary, but it sparked many an imagination.
"We were really poor when I was a kid and I wanted an electric football game so bad but there was no way my mom ever could have afforded it," remembers Dori. But it didn't prevent him from coming up with his own take on the beloved game.
"I got a flat cardboard box like a shirt box and I drew a football field on this big cardboard box," Dori reminisces. "And then I cut 22 pieces of little squares of paper to make the offense and defense and then I put this box on this back massager."
But there was just one little problem. The box wasn't perfectly level. There was a big depression in the middle.
"So if you were at the 45, you'd get a 5 yard gain on the next play. If you were at the 2 yard line about to score, you'd get a 48 yard loss because it would always just vibrate all my squares of paper into the middle of the box," Dori laughs.
Here's to the dreamers.
Josh Kerns, MyNorthwest.com
(AP Photo)
Josh Kerns is co-host of KIRO Radio's Seattle Sounds (Saturday nights 7-8) and a digital content producer for MyNorthwest.com.
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