Bidding a bittersweet farewell to the founder of Electric Football

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)