Foosball History and Uprising
Foosball history or table football, fussball, futsal, kicker, biliardino – or, you know, the game with the guys on a rod hitting the ball go back a long ways.
Since it’s invention in 1921 by Harold Thornton the game has popped up in several places around the world, including: Spain, Brazil, Greece, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, and so on. Though earlier similar patents may exist as far back as the 1890s, the game of table football was conceived after Thornton attended a Tottenham Hotspur FC match and decided to re-create the game of football that could play in the comfort of your own home. The game was brought to the States by Thornton’s uncle, Louis, who patented in 1927.
It was 75 years after it’s invention that the International Table Soccer Federation (ITSF) was established in France; who’s mission it was to promote the sport and organize/ regulate competitions.
We’ve discussed the rules of the game in an earlier post.
There are several of our favorite table sports that are being digitized. The idea of taking a game and shrinking it down to be more mobile is nothing new however. Tennis-lovers around the world relished in the idea of having a miniature version of the sport to play indoors during the cooler months; shuffleboard was taken off the decks of boats and retirement homes in order to be played indoors and probably without those awkward staffs. In this day and age, however, we want to carry all our games in our pockets via smartphones or tablets; and while the mobility of these games may appease during those vigorous commutes to and from work, nothing will compare to the responsiveness of being hands-on with a foosball table, spinning the rods and feeling the intensity of the back and forth with your opponent.
Future of Foosball
So what does the future hold for Foosball? We here at Venture have high hopes that this sport only increases in popularity as it becomes more and more readily available and more common in some of our everyday hangout spots.