The Elusive and Very Rare Tudor College Electric Football Game

[nefgm.org]

Not long ago I found a seller on eBay (canuck_parrothead) offering some hand painted college teams for sale. They were being displayed on a Tudor College Edition gameboard. Asked him if he could send me some pics of it. 

The only other one I had seen an actual pictures of was in the The Greg Carter Collection – The National Electric Football Game Museum (nefgm.org)

Here's a link to an article by "The Unforgettable Buzz" about this game. 

Tudor's 1971 College Electric Football No. 600 Game (theunforgettablebuzz.com)

Here is a picture of it from the 1972 Tudor Sales Catalog

If one ever came up for sell on ebay, it would be very interesting to see what it would sell for. 

[Daryl Collins]

Holy cow! I’m a bigger pro fan, but there is no denying this baby is an absolute stunner! I look at all the names of colleges on it and have to wonder how long some of them will being fielding football programs in the future, given the current state of college football.

Leonard’s Losers anyone?

[Terry43]

On the box, and on the game, I wonder who made the decision to put Alabama is big letters and Auburn in little letters? 😉

"The show described college football matchups and then predicted which team would lose.  A game might be described as follows:

"Phillip Fulmer leads his Rifleman into the Athens Kennel for a shooting match with Jim Donnan's Pack of Drool Dogs. The Volunteer Army has owned the K-9s of late, while the Red Clay Hounds think it's about time to sink their teeth into the Big Orange Rifle Brigade. The Knoxville Army is angry after last week, but the Athens Dawgs will get the job done. Leonard's Loser? Tennessee".   Quote from Wikipedia.

😃Really Enjoy the History.  ⚡🏈♾️

[Daryl Collins]

My cousins name never missed a broadcast!

Now get me outta here, Percy!

[Daryl Collins]

And me. Not name. Spellcheck 😡

[Coach Shawn]

Is Boise state on the board?  Can’t find it.

my favorite College teams:

1.  Boise State

2.  Army

3.  Iowa

4.  Boston College

[Daryl Collins]

Got 1) Alabama 2) Navy 3) Wyoming

Holy Cross not there when considering my favorites, yet Tex. ElPaso is there?

Love seeing the Ivy League schools on there! But, Villanova? I can’t remember a Villanova football score in….ever.

Overall, one of the most interesting boards ever created!

[nefgm.org]

Since Lee Payne was employed by Tudor when this game was designed in 1971, I am almost positive it was his decision what school names were chosen, the font and size of the type, and the placement of the names on the siderails.   

Here is his profile from the Industrial Designers Society of America website.

 US industrial designer who studied in 1953 at the University of Georgia and played on the freshman football team under Wallace Butts. He originally wanted to be an artist, but a lecture by Charles Eames convinced him industrial design was it, and so he went to the University of Cincinnati and received his degree there in 1958.

In the early 1960s, he worked for Walter Dorwin Teague's office in New York, where he worked on the AMF monorail exhibit at the 1964 World's Fair, projects for Federal Express, Tupperware, General Electric, and Tudor Games, for which he developed high-tech electric football and hockey games introduced in 1962.

From 1964 to 1968 he was employed by Tudor as director of product development and worked with the NFL to refine the electric football game players with realistic poses, trademarks, helmets, team colors and the actual numbers of real players.

In 1968 he established his own design firm, Lee Payne Associates (LPA), in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, and consulted with many clients. From 1976 to 1988, he chaired the industrial design department at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. While serving as chair he earned a master's degree in art history from Emory University. In 1981, he designed the original Smartmodem and chronograph for Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc. that was featured in a book published by ID magazine, "Product Design-Award Winning Designs for the Home and Office." In 1983, he won an award in a Formica Corporation contest to show off its new ColorCore material with his Neopolitan ice cream coffee table, now in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Other clients included Chiffon, Bosch Power Tools, IBM, Dow Chemical, Georgia Pacific, KitchenArt, Olan Mills and many others.

He also served on the design team for both the Atlanta (1996) and Salt Lake City (2002) Olympic games.

He moved to Jasper, GA in 1996 but continued to teach at Georgia Institute of Technology until his death in 2003.

[Terry43]

21 hours ago, Daryl Collins said:

3) Wyoming

Wyoming is okay, but I like...

22 hours ago, Coach Shawn said:

Boise State

... Better because I grew up in northern Idaho.

#1. University of Southern California

#2  Ohio State

#3  University of Montana Grizzlies. Undergrad degree from the University of Montana.

Enjoy the Journey   T43  🐻

[zak99b5]

In the one real life pic with players on it, it seems to be the 620 size. 
 

But the sales brochure states it is 18x32?

Looks great either way

[Terry43]

I guess we need to ask eBay (canuck_parrothead) to measure his/her field and let us know the real dimensions. 

Enjoy the Journey.   T43.   ⚡🏈♾️

[nefgm.org]

It was based on the Sears model 613 frame size. The playing surface actual size is 15 x 29 1/4 and the actual overall frame size is 17 1/2 × 31 1/2. Box size is 18 x 32. Since Tudor did not have college licensing they could only use school names and not mascot names. The teams were unpainted white and amber plastic. The conferences on the scoreboard are "Atlantic Coast", Southeastern", "Ivy League", "Big East", "Big Ten", "Southwest", "Pacific Coast" and "Western Athletic". 

Edited August 25, 2023 by nefgm.org

[Capanther]

Great collectors item....seldom seen....i owned one about 30 years ago when i first started collecting again....wish id kept it.

[Long island EFL]

On 8/15/2023 at 11:02 AM, nefgm.org said:

Since Lee Payne was employed by Tudor when this game was designed in 1971, I am almost positive it was his decision what school names were chosen, the font and size of the type, and the placement of the names on the siderails.   

Here is his profile from the Industrial Designers Society of America website.

 US industrial designer who studied in 1953 at the University of Georgia and played on the freshman football team under Wallace Butts. He originally wanted to be an artist, but a lecture by Charles Eames convinced him industrial design was it, and so he went to the University of Cincinnati and received his degree there in 1958.

In the early 1960s, he worked for Walter Dorwin Teague's office in New York, where he worked on the AMF monorail exhibit at the 1964 World's Fair, projects for Federal Express, Tupperware, General Electric, and Tudor Games, for which he developed high-tech electric football and hockey games introduced in 1962.

From 1964 to 1968 he was employed by Tudor as director of product development and worked with the NFL to refine the electric football game players with realistic poses, trademarks, helmets, team colors and the actual numbers of real players.

In 1968 he established his own design firm, Lee Payne Associates (LPA), in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, and consulted with many clients. From 1976 to 1988, he chaired the industrial design department at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. While serving as chair he earned a master's degree in art history from Emory University. In 1981, he designed the original Smartmodem and chronograph for Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc. that was featured in a book published by ID magazine, "Product Design-Award Winning Designs for the Home and Office." In 1983, he won an award in a Formica Corporation contest to show off its new ColorCore material with his Neopolitan ice cream coffee table, now in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Other clients included Chiffon, Bosch Power Tools, IBM, Dow Chemical, Georgia Pacific, KitchenArt, Olan Mills and many others.

He also served on the design team for both the Atlanta (1996) and Salt Lake City (2002) Olympic games.

He moved to Jasper, GA in 1996 but continued to teach at Georgia Institute of Technology until his death in 2003.

I really enjoyed reading this Chris thank you for posting it. I've been really studying The forum with all the great things people talk about.

[Long island EFL]

On 8/12/2023 at 5:07 PM, nefgm.org said:

Not long ago I found a seller on eBay (canuck_parrothead) offering some hand painted college teams for sale. They were being displayed on a Tudor College Edition gameboard. Asked him if he could send me some pics of it. 

The only other one I had seen an actual pictures of was in the The Greg Carter Collection – The National Electric Football Game Museum (nefgm.org)

Here's a link to an article by "The Unforgettable Buzz" about this game. 

Tudor's 1971 College Electric Football No. 600 Game (theunforgettablebuzz.com)

Here is a picture of it from the 1972 Tudor Sales Catalog

If one ever came up for sell on ebay, it would be very interesting to see what it would sell for. 

I wish Tudor would bring back some of these old boards or at least one

[zak99b5]

With field covers, they could at least offer many of the classic boards' designs in a relatively inexpensive way.  I assume they own the artwork.  I like that the offer the Tru-Action field cover, but there are so many more great looking ones.

Now, if they offered a brand-new 620-style field (as I think some iteration of Tudor Games did in the not-so-distant past), I'd be all over that.

[nefgm.org]

Field covers have already been msde with a lot of the old designs. Many of the mini ultimate boards being used today in the Tudor Con Tournament have these vintage field cover designs on them. 

Tthere are plenty of the old 620 game boards in circulation that can be restored with new vinyl adhesive graphics. I have done several already. 

Miggle Toys did replicate the old 620's with their new 620's in 2004. I currently have 3 of those. 

I do have the opportunity to buy a vintage College Edition this weekend to add to the Museum's collection. 

To completely manufacture new 620's would be very expensive and the market demand for them just isn't there to justify the cost. 

Todays market is more for custom built 2' x 4'  game boards with multiple magnetic field covers and Tudor has that covered with the ultimate game boards and the ability to produce any field cover any body could want.