The Unforgettable Buzz: The History of Electric Football and Tudor Games

In a thoroughly researched and comprehensive book covering 37 chapters and 652 pages, authors Earl Shores and Roddy Garcia have brought us the long-anticipated inside story of how professional football -- the NFL -- Brooklyn's humble Tudor Metal Products Co. and a generation of American youngsters came of age together under the banner of Tudor NFL Electric Football.While combining the history of college and professional football and its many and colorful landmark events, Shores and Garcia reveal how Norman Sas, the chief executive of Tudor, and Lee Payne, a talented industrial designer, shared a vision for realistic football in miniature. The result was Tudor NFL Electric Football, which captivated kids and adults alike, and for many years was the NFL's biggest revenue-producing licensed product. In the world of toy manufacturers, Sas and Payne were innovators and game-changers.There is much more to this incredible success story -- including how the individual NFL and AFL (later the AFC and NFC) teams were produced and hand-painted -- and the fierce competition Tudor faced with Gotham Pressed Steel Corp. and other football game manufacturers. Whether you're a student of college and professional football history, an electric football coach, a toy collector, or if you just want to re-live those holiday and birthday memories of your first electric football game, this book is for you.Shores and Garcia, with design by Michael Kronenberg, have picked up the felt football and run with it, producing a richly detailed and thoroughly enjoyable book that you'll find yourself frequently referencing. It's that good and that informative.

This book is the definitive source on the history of the greatest football game ever created! There is more info here than I ever thought possible and it is a must have for those who played the game in their youth and for those who keep the game alive today. Whether you are an electric football fan, NFL fan or just love football, you will want this book! I had no idea how rich the history of this game really was and how it was intertwined with the success of the NFL. Electric football is part of who we are in America and touched the lives of many boys who dreamed of being football players as adults. It was our first taste of the NFL and is probably why many of us are such rabid fans of pro football today.The history included in this book not only compiles the Electric Football story, but tells about the other great toys and Christmas gifts of an era so anyone can enjoy the book.Electric Football is still going strong today and is played at a very high strategic level with national and regional tournaments, local leagues, incredible customized players, fields and stadiums! You can learn more about the game as it is played today at Tudor Games, The Unforgettable Buzz and at the Miniature Football Coaches Association (MFCA) websites and community forums. The MFCA is dedicated to educating others about the game and the hobby and bringing people together who still like their opponent to be across the table from them!

The Unforgettable Buzz is enjoyable on so many levels that it's a challenge to herald any aspect of the book without inadvertently slighting another.Foremost it is a thoroughly researched and readable history of an iconic American toy, electric football, and its founding company, Tudor Games.Then again, maybe it isn't. Authors Earl Shores and Roddy Garcia have done such a brilliant job of using the game as a lens for viewing so many aspects of American life - including the rise of professional football, merchandising, and television - that foremost it may be a history lesson cleverly disguised as a book about a toy.Or...maybe it's a fascinating look at the often uneasy marriage of manufacturing and creativity, one so seldom explored when considering the 'stuff' that permeates and defines our American lives.Funny that I didn't notice all these nuances before. After all, I first played the game in 1971, when I was still so young that the only other electrical device in the house I could use without parental oversight may have been my night light.But I was just a kid, simply enjoying his favorite game. One that helped me escape to a world where the woeful New York Giants of the era managed to always win, at least when I was captaining both teams.Shores and Garcia have thankfully given readers another guaranteed winner. - Tom Flynn, Boxer Journal, Author -  Venable Park

'The Unforgettable Buzz' is a thorough and entertaining journey through the history of, not only electric football and Tudor Games, but of the evolution of the Nationional Football League, the boom of the post-WWII toy industry, and the emergence of television as the dominant advertising medium of our time. You'll learn how a 2nd generation toy factory owner, Norman Sas, literally saved his father's business by digging an old toy out of the basement and converting it into what would become the most wanted toy on any boy's Christmas wish list for the next 35 years. You'll learn how a 'singing cowboy' teamed with the brightest marketing mind the NFL has ever known to form the premier sports marketing franchise; NFL Properties. Earl Shores and Roddy Garcia will take you to New York City and drop you off in the Tudor suite at the 'Toy Fair', every spring. All the while providing detailed recaps of the current state of college and pro football; as well as a look at what's happening with the major catalog retailers and how long time nemesis Eddie Gluck's 'Gotham Pressed Steel Company' attempts to 'sack' Tudor's strong hold on Electric Football. It's everything you ever wanted to know about Electric Football, and much more.