Galloping Ghost

The Galloping Ghost, manufactured by the Pacific Amusement Manufacturing Company (PAMCO) of Chicago in December 1934, is an early electro-mechanical game with a football theme - and a famous namesake. 'The Galloping Ghost' was the nickname of Harold 'Red' Grange (1903-1991), the legendary college and professional football player whose talents brought new heights of popularity and respect to the sport, and who was named the greatest college football player of all time by ESPN in 2008. The machine, also known as 'Galloping Ghost No. 77' after Grange's jersey number, was a tribute released the very year Grange retired from professional football.

The game was advertised at 40 inches long and 20 inches wide - a compact footprint typical of pre-flipper pinball of the mid-1930s, when players propelled balls onto a scoring playfield with no flippers to control them. Its road to market was bumpy: according to the Encyclopedia of Pinball Vol. 2, problems with test-location models caused it to miss its announced January 1, 1935 delivery date and a second date of February 5, before finally debuting at the Coin Machine Show in Chicago on February 18-21, 1935.

Despite its star-powered theme, the Galloping Ghost turned out to be only an average moneymaker, disappointing an industry that had expected more from the Grange name. Today it stands as a charming artifact of the 1930s coin machine trade from PAMCO, a Chicago firm that operated only from 1932 to 1937.