The Charlotte (SHAR – LOT) Electric Football League is located in the north end of Rochester, NY a mile up the road from Lake Ontario. The area was named after a founding father’s daughter and dates back to the late seventeen hundreds.
In the summer of 1981 four friends, and schoolmates formed a small 4-man Electric Football League, Bill Tortora, Dale Gillette, Wayne Palumbo, and myself, (John DiCarlo) made up the league. Two years later the league had 8 members and played two separated seasons, winter and fall. The venue for the games (my basement) is known as “Subterranean Stadium”, so named by “Steve Demchock”.
Once each season the league goes on the road to play at one of the local pubs always drawing a crowd of family, friends, and curious onlookers. All games are played on custom built fields and players have their choice of hand painted and detailed, college, pro, high school, or fantasy teams stored in the stadium along with Electric Football games and accessories that were made over the years, making the stadium a sort of museum.
The league gained notoriety in 2015 when ESPN discovered our website and thought our league would make a good human interest story as part of their TV special “It’s not Crazy, it’s Sports” which was telecast in March. They filmed parts of the CEFL 22-minute segment “The Subterranean Stadium”, over a 3-day period. It put us on the map and can still be viewed.
Subterranean Stadium
The CEFL has had 27 members over the years, four have passed on, and as of 2024, only two of the original 4 members, Palumbo and myself, still play and remarkably, the league has lasted long enough to see our children and now our grandchildren become members. Our 14-game season runs from October to February with playoffs, exhibitions, championship, all-star and two-man tournament games.
Keeping the league going all these years has not been easy. It has taken dedication and perseverance. In the 90’s Subterranean Stadium was flooded, destroying the league records and damaging or destroying games and game parts. The league went dark for two years and almost ended the CEFL. It was only for the love of the game and the hobby that the league restarted.
When the internet came about and connected everyone who was into Electric Football, a whole new world opened up for our league including trips to tournaments that exposed us to customized players, fields, styles of play and most of all, many new friends who love to play and share our belief that Electric Football is the best sports game ever invented and that the games longevity proves it.
League Commissioner, John Dicarlo
Here’s another video made by John Dicarlo and posted on his YouTube Channel
The National Electric Football Game Museum 