40 Years Later, The All-Pro Football Game Finds A New Fan

A review, by Hunter.

The other weekend when we went rummaging, Hunter, the huge sports nut, found a vintage football game. Lured, no doubt, by the image of his beloved Green Bay Packers on the box lid, he had to have it.

The game was NFL All-Pro Football, an official National Football League game, made by Ideal, game # 2520-5, from 1967.

Since vintage games often do not have recommended ages listed on the boxes, I was a bit concerned this game would be too complicated and if all the original pieces were inside the box, that they’d only become ‘food’ for the vacuum or lost at the bottom of his toy bins — and though only $3, that’s a rather large sum for a a boy who usually is satisfied with 50 cent cars, baseball caps and action figures. So I did my best to caution him.

“That’s a 40 year old board game, a real collectible,” I told him. “Your daddy has one of these,” I continued, “maybe you and he could play his? Three dollars is most of your money for the day…”

But Hunter had to have it.

He then had to wait until the next day for a grown-up to help him establish if all the pieces were there, and to help him with the rules. This would be the moment of truth…

After discovering that all the pieces were there, he and Derek set about learning how to play the game. They played for about an hour and had a really good time. Here’s what Hunter had to say about the vintage All-Pro Football game.

Why did you want to buy it so badly?

Cuz it looked cool — with the football field and I like football. And it’s old.

What about the game being old is cool?

Well, you can’t just go find one anywhere. Not many people have it. My dad has one, and now I have one.

Now that you’ve played it, do you like it?

Yeah!

Was it hard to play?

A little. I was glad to have Derek help me — we helped each other, really. Then we had lots of fun.

I heard at first you were a little disappointed that the checker-like pieces didn’t have team logos on them; were you?

Yeah.

I bet I know this, but what team logo did you really want to see on the pieces most of all?

THE PACKERS!

I knew that! But now that you’ve played the game, does it bother you that the pieces aren’t marked with specific teams?

No, it’s really cool that you can pretend to be any team you want to be — at least that’s what I do when I make my own rules.

(The game rules set the team match-ups, so when Hunter was the Packers that meant Derek had to be the Vikings.)

Is there anything that you don’t like about the game?

That you can only move three spaces.

You want to move more spaces?

Yeah. But I mean it’s OK. Just when I play by myself, with my own rules, I let them move more.

What other rules have you made up?

I let my guys actually tackle. (Hunter then demonstrates one white checker tackling a red checker.) But you can mess up the game that way, so it wouldn’t really be a good way to play with others. I mean you could bump guys you didn’t mean to. Tackling is how the players play, but on the board you have to worry about the squares.

So, you really like the game then?

Oh yeah!

Because like I said, you could take this game that you bought for $3 and sell it for more and make money… I bet you could sell it for at least $10.

But I don’t have to, do I?

Oh no, I just meant that if you didn’t like it that much you could make money. Money you could spend on something else you’d like more. And I’m sure if you ask dad, he’d share his game with you.

No, I think I’m gonna keep this game my whole life.

He pauses.

You never know… I could want something else later. But I really think I want to save this one forever. It’s fun.