Football

The 1934 "Football" pinball machine by O.D. Jennings and Company is a rare relic of early electromechanical (EM) gaming history. Its most striking design touch is a shooter lane that allows the ball to loop a full 360 degrees around the playfield before entering play. This feature, combined with its sporty theme and competitive gameplay, would have provided an engaging experience for players in the mid-1930s.

The gameplay of "Football" borrows its structure directly from the gridiron: equipped with 10 balls for 5 cents, the game imposes no fixed number of shots. Instead, the player keeps shooting until failing to gain 10 yards in 4 downs, just like in a real football game. This simple yet strategic design would have appealed to sports enthusiasts and pinball novices alike.

According to the Encyclopedia of Pinball, the game was created by an outside designer named Sidney E. Van Tuyl, and it was advertised at 44 inches long and 22 inches wide. The original release had problems, and Jennings reissued it in 1935 as 'Football (Improved)', though period ads show essentially no playfield differences between the two versions. Football remains an interesting window into how 1930s pin games translated real sports rules into mechanical play.