Founder and Curator, Chris LeMay

My Vision

Electric Football is my life and passion. From 1997, when I rediscoverd the game, to the present, it has been so much a constant in my life, that I decided to create a museum dedicated to the game and hobby.

My vision for The National ELECTRIC FOOTBALL Game Museum is to preserve the game itself, its history from its early beginnings to its status as an icon of the table top sports game industry, the art and artistry of the game, and the memories of the people who grew up playing the game and still play the game today simply for the enjoyment of it.

It is about honoring the people who have done the most in creating the game, improving on the technology of the game and innovations in they way it is played. It is about honoring the artist who have taken the art of figure painting and detailing  to a new level.

But mostly it is about introducing the game to a new generation and “preserving the buzzzzz … “

My vision includes establishing a permanent home for The National ELECTRIC FOOTBALL Game Museum. A place where quests can come and see examples of  games from the past, learn the history of the game, see and admire the works of the great miniature artists of the game and hobby, and experience playing the game.

A retail outlet store will allow guest to purchase games, teams, accessories and other items to enhance their home electric football  experiences and environments.

A “Hall of Fame” that recognizes the games, innovators and artist that have had the most impact on the history of the game.

My  Story

My ELECTRIC FOOTBALL Story began in the late 1960’s. My first experience with an electric football game was at a friend’s house who had a new game – a 1967 Tudor model 510 with the Colts and Packers. The Packers were my favorite team at the time with the Colts a close second. Seeing my favorite players like Bart Starr and Jim Taylor of the Packers in their Dark Green and Gold uniforms, and Johnny Unitas and Raymond Berry of the Colts in their white uniforms on the metal gridiron and actually being able to set them up and run plays was much better than the previous football games I had owned and played which were nothing more than dice, charts and spinners and players that were nothing more than just “checkers” limited in their movements to a checkerboard like game board. With electric football the miniature football players “came alive” when the game board was turned on and that familiar sound of the game, the “buzz”, was forever etched into my memory.

The first electric football game that I owned (received as a Christmas  gift “from Santa” in 1969) was the “AFL Electric Football” with the Chiefs and Jets, a Tudor model 520. By then my favorite team was the New York Jets and players “Broadway Joe” Namath, Don Maynard, Matt Snell and Emerson Boozer. Len Dawson, Otis Taylor and Buck Buchanan were the players that had to be represented on my Chiefs team. That was probably the best thing about electric football and what led to its greatest popularity during that time, the ability to field your favorite teams and favorite players in their “official team color”uniforms. And Tudor was the only manufacturer of the game that you could get more NFL teams from.  I quickly added more of my favorite teams (the Vikings, Raiders, Dolphins and Colts)  to my game and spent the next 3 years playing the game as only I could, with my own Solitaire League of Electric Football.

But like most, I got older, other things got more important like school, work and girls (mostly girls) and my electric football game got shoved under the bed more and more, eventually winding up in the closet and later lost forever. My game was given to another young boy who never really cared about it and the last I saw of it (about 1980), it was bent and dented, the players lost and broken. It was permanently stored away where it rusted and eventually wound up in the local dump.

Collector and Hobbyist. 

Some twenty years later, in 1997, while shopping at a Toys R US store, I saw a familiar game from my youth on the shelf. It was a Super Bowl Electric Football game, now made by Miggle Toys, but still under the brand of Tudor Games. I received that game as a Christmas gift (like my first) and soon discovered, through the wonders of the internet,  the Miggle website and forum. It was through the Miggle “Electric Football Forum” that I became a part of the growing Electric Football Community discussing the game, sharing experiences of playing the game, and becoming acquainted with other “collectors and hobbyist” of the game.

For the next 20 years, I spent just about all of my free time, attending conventions and tournaments, playing in leagues, and building my collection of games and teams (searching ebay, flea markets and antique stores for vintage games).

Career Experiences

For the most part of my first 20 years of working experience, I was involved in the area of retail management, working with Kmart stores as a Footwear Dept. Manager and Inventory Control Auditor, for 17 years, and for 3 years in department  and general store management with Toy R Us.

In 2005, a change in my career path led to 14 years of experience in the area of cabinet building, woodworking, museum exhibit fabrication and installation. Through this job, I had the opportunity to learn a lot about the inner and behind the scenes working of museums and the opportunity to work on and install exhibits in some of the most prestigious museums around the country.

Retirement and Creation of The National ELECTRIC FOOTBALL Game Museum

In the summer of 2019, I decided to retire from my working career. I had just turned 62 years of age and had been working since I was 16. It was then that I decided to merge my life working experiences and my love and passion for the game and hobby of electric football into a museum  dedicated to preserving the history of the game .

It is through the creation of this museum that I hope to share my collection and the collection of many of my friends and fellow members of the Electric Football Community.

While I may not personally live long enough to see the ultimate goal of a permanent home for the museum, I have dedicated the rest of my life to doing everything that I can to at least get it started and lay the foundations for the fulfillment of that goal.