Vibrating Football

FROM: Chris [E-Mail]
DATE: Friday March 15, 2002 -- 9:06:51 pm

Should I be concened that we are blogging about the same subjects in the same week?
http://www.odonnellweb.com/mtarchives/000182.html#000182

FROM: Ryan
DATE: Friday March 15, 2002 -- 9:31:48 pm

I think you meant this: http://www.odonnellweb.com/mtarchives/000180.html#000180

:)

Yeah -- you must have (not-so) subliminally influenced me, because I know I read yours first! :)

FROM: Matt
DATE: Friday March 15, 2002 -- 11:46:41 pm

That game sucks. My friend James had a non-electric tabletop soccer game. You would flick the players at the ball. That was a pretty weak game also.

FROM: scribbler
DATE: Friday October 17, 2003 -- 5:17:20 pm

I have a vibrating football game from the 50's. It had a little spring loaded device for kicking or passing the ball which was about as accurate as Garo Ypremian. The bases of the players (all in classic Heisman trophy pose) had two plastic ribs that made it move.

FROM: Joseph
DATE: Friday January 7, 2005 -- 5:50:59 pm

The real challenge was painting the little players with model paints. (You could order the players already painted, but that was considered cheating--plus it was a lot more expensive and the uniforms were much less accurate). My older brothers used to spend hours painting those little players. They would give you a card with all the numbers for the jerseys on them. For the rest of the uniform, you were on your own.
My older brother Jim really did a nice job painting those. Must have taken hours. Eventually, they all got stepped on and crushed by some bastard clumsy little brother (me).

It's funny because he still remembers who all the players were. Man is he a die-hard. One year, when we were all over for Christmas, he found one of the old players in a drawer. He painted it over thirty years ago. When he saw the player and the number, he uttered the year of the team, the name of the player (some name I had never heard before) how long the guy had played for the team represented by the little figure, where he played in college, where he played before and after the team represented by the little player, and what year he retired. The guy had a very short career, did not stand out at all, and is barely worth the memory, but my brother knew the guy's whole career.
I think once you spend that much time painting the little figure, you never forget. So, as boring as the game was to play, it was a great learning tool for him.

I never really got it, though. I always had my little green army men take the football players hostage.

FROM: Johnny
DATE: Thursday June 23, 2005 -- 8:43:53 pm

I had this game when I was a little kid in the 50's. I was talking to a 26 year-old today and somehow got onto talking about this. I laughed so hard I barely got out the description of what happens when you've finally arranged everyone "just so" and then turn this monster ON!..watching all of that organization go to hell in a handbasket while you covered your ears to lessen the insane racket. Even then, I was aware that I had to bring all of my "kid-imagination" to bear to see this as something other than totally ridiculous...turns out to be a very very fond memory....47 years later, I got my biggest delight from it. Go figure.

FROM: amie
DATE: Tuesday November 22, 2005 -- 1:27:08 pm

What was the name of that football game?

FROM: clinton
DATE: Thursday December 15, 2005 -- 6:18:51 am

i would love to get my hands on one for sentimental reasons