After a career in the United States Navy, Sas created the first-ever electric tabletop football game that took the market by storm and remained a hit toy for decades.
Vital Stats
Born 1925 in New York
Died 2012 in Florida
Kickoff
Sas graduated from the Bronx High School of Science. He joined the United States Navy and earned a mechanical engineering degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as part of the Navy V-12 College Training Program.
He served as a naval officer until returning to MIT to earn a bachelor’s degree in business administration.
He worked at General Electric before joining Tudor Metal Products, a company founded by his father.
Sas was named president of the company in 1948 at the age of 23.
The Snap
During his time at Tudor, Sas created an electric tabletop football game. It used an electric motor to generate a vibration that moved tiny plastic football players up and down its metal surface to emulate gameplay.
The Tudor Electric Football game was first announced in the March 1949 edition of Playthings magazine.
Touchdown
Under Sas’ leadership, Tudor Metal Products was renamed Tudor Games. The company regularly released new editions of the popular Electric Football game.
In 1962, Tudor Games introduced the first posed 3D plastic players.
In 1967, the company struck a licensing deal with the National Football League for the rights to use league colours and the names of players on its plastic figures.
Exclusive editions for retailers such as Montgomery Ward and Sears were also released.
In 1972, a Canadian version of electric football was released and licensed by Coleco, celebraing the Canadian Football League (CFL) Grey Cup game.
Sales of electric tabletop games began to wane as video game technology became more accessible.
Observing the rising excitement for the new video games, Sas sold Tudor Games to Miggle Toys in 1990.
Legacy
During his lifetime, Norman Sas was awarded multiple “Symbol of Excellence” awards by retailer, Sears.
He was posthumously inducted into the Miniature Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2012.
Tudor Electric Football games remain popular with collectors, thanks in part to the many iterations of the game.
