Norman Sas, the inventor of the old Electric Football game, passed away recently, according to a story on Yahoo! Sports. For those of you who grew up in the 1960's and 1970's, Electric Football was one of the coolest games out there, even though it rarely worked the way you wanted it too. You had two teams of plastic players who you lined up on the metal gridiron.
Then you turned the machine on, which hummed and vibrated, moving the players all around the field. Hopefully, you guy with the little football-shaped piece of felt fabric moved in the right direction, although much of the time it just headed to the nearest corner and stayed there.
Long before video games, Electric Football reportedly made more money for the NFL at that time, than any other NFL-licensed product, with the earliest version selling for $5.95. Sas died on June 28th at the age of 87 years old. R.I.P.