Ever heard of "matchbox football"? (1 Viewer)

pltrgyst

pltrgyst

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OK, this really made me wonder. Growing up, my friends and I passed many a lunch (and other) hour playing "matchbox football" across a cafeteria table or a desk. Yet my wife, who grew up in Colorado and other mid/western states, has never even heard of that game.

No connection to the "Matchbox" company, but that company's existence makes it impossible, as far as I can see, to research the subject of matchbox football online. A couple of bare mentions ten Google pages deep in old school newspapers, and that's it. (Google will not allow exclusion of a search term that differs from a desired search term only by capitalization.)

Have any of you guys played that game as kids? Is it extinct simply because boxes or books of matches aren't commonly carried any more? Was it a purely local thing in NJ, or Is it a figment of my imagination?

Thanks for any input!
 
When I was a kid, we played a version of this with a piece of paper folded into a triangle “football”. By my childhood it was no longer acceptable for kids to have matchbooks in school. Goal was to flick the paper so it overhang the desk without falling. Then you kicked an extra point at your opponent who made uprights with their finger
 
Highli99 said:
When I was a kid, we played a version of this with a piece of paper folded into a triangle “football”. By my childhood it was no longer acceptable for kids to have matchbooks in school. Goal was to flick the paper so it overhang the desk without falling. Then you kicked an extra point at your opponent who made uprights with their finger
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We called it paper football. Used it to pass the time at restaurants, weddings, etc
 
Sounds like the game we used to play using a full size sheet of paper folded up into a small triangle.
I don’t remember the exact rules. You sat across from each other. Sometimes you’d hang the “ball” over the edge of the desk and then flip it toward the other guy. And sometimes he’d set up uprights with his fingers and you tee up the ball and flick it at the uprights, trying to make a field goal (and usually you’d hit him in the face with it.)
 
I am also guessing that we are a little younger then @pltrgyst and the game evolved from matches to paper as matches became taboo in school.
 
Was big at Northeastern in the 80’s. We all played. The other one was 3 pennies where you had to flick a penny between the space of the other 2 Pennies and into the goal which was made with the heavy metal fingers extending onto the table to make the net
 
ChipTalker said:
I am also guessing that we are a little younger then @pltrgyst and the game evolved from matches to paper as matches became taboo in school.
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Exactly, in his time the kids needed matches to light their cigarettes, which used to be called “health sticks”
 
legend672 said:
Was big at Northeastern in the 80’s. We all played. The other one was 3 pennies where you had to flick a penny between the space of the other 2 Pennies and into the goal which was made with the heavy metal fingers extending onto the table to make the net
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Wow! I forgot all about that one.
ChipTalker said:
I am also guessing that we are a little younger then @pltrgyst and the game evolved from matches to paper as matches became taboo in school.
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Yeah I just turned 51 so I missed out on it, but I know they allowed smoking in the courtyards at my town’s high school until the mid to late 80s.
 
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I played this with my kid last weekend. 1 kid was doing a ropes course and the other one was stuck at a food court table with me for like 2 hours.

Didn't have any paper, so I took one of her toys and taught her to play. The pushing it back and forth until it hung over the edge worked, no way to kick field goals with it though.

We occasionally just kick field goals with the straw wrappers when out to eat, much to my wife's chagrin.
 
Highli99 said:
When I was a kid, we played a version of this with a piece of paper folded into a triangle
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upNdown said:
Sounds like the game we used to play using a full size sheet of paper
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I think he was talking about before paper was invented, lol.

There was a version before called “rock football” but it wasn’t as popular.

Just kidding of course. Pure jokes, nothing to get bent out of shape about, but flame on if it makes you feel better.
 
ekricket said:
I think he was talking about before paper was invented, lol.
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We folded papyrus, of course.

But we never folded either into a triangle -- always a square.

And our place (aka face) kicks were always extra points, kicked from the middle. We never figured out a useful way to add field goals, since you only got one down per possession.

Glad to hear many of you guys played it, but it seems unlikely to exist today.
 
pltrgyst said:
Glad to hear many of you guys played it, but it seems unlikely to exist today.
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Yeah today sucks.
I wonder how many other things I’ve forgotten about, that we used to do to kill time. Like that 3 pennies game that @legend672 mentioned. There’s got to be tons more, and they’re all getting lost to time.
 
buffalojim said:
Old grade school past time.
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Interesting, thanks! My wife remembers seeing guys in high school in CO back around 1970 folding a sheet of paper like that and flipping it around, but she never knew what the game was or what it was called.

She also doesn't remember the knife game (or fingers, chicken, etc.) which we knew about in NJ, but weren't stupid enough to play. Let's hope that one does get lost to time... :cool
 
Highli99 said:
When I was a kid, we played a version of this with a piece of paper folded into a triangle “football”. By my childhood it was no longer acceptable for kids to have matchbooks in school. Goal was to flick the paper so it overhang the desk without falling. Then you kicked an extra point at your opponent who made uprights with their finger
Click to expand...
Yep. This was our lunchtime game.
 
Paper football is thought to have originated in the early 1970s, when it was widely played in churches in Madison, Wisconsin. Larry Bynon is credited with popularizing the game in his school cafeteria in 1966.
 
I was born in 81 and played paper football with my dad in restaurants with the paper ring that goes around silverware folded into a triangle growing up. My dad also taught my kids and played with them. My daughter still wants to play at 13 every chance she gets. Ticks mom and grandma off if either are along with us when she makes sure to kick fieldgoals towards other people or tables.
 
Hornet said:
Paper football is thought to have originated in the early 1970s, when it was widely played in churches in Madison, Wisconsin. Larry Bynon is credited with popularizing the game in his school cafeteria in 1966.
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Ha! "Is thought" by whom? Bynon may have popularized it in his school in '66, but we were definitely playing it in the 1950s in NJ. Junior high school, 1959. Hell, I graduated from high school in '64.

Churches are widely recognized for promoting fiction... :cool
 
pltrgyst said:
Ha! "Is thought" by whom? Bynon may have popularized it in his school in '66, but we were definitely playing it in the 1950s in NJ. Junior high school, 1959. Hell, I graduated from high school in '64.

Churches are widely recognized for promoting fiction... :cool
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It was an AI created answer based on a Google search. Thankfully, I don’t believe everything I read!
 
Yeah paper football was a staple in grade school that would have been in the 60's. Never played with a matchbox though. Hanger was a TD. We would kick field goal after a player had 3 tries go off the edge, made the game a little more strategic. I remember I always kicked with the fat point down instead of the long point.
 
I played paper football as a kid and remember the rules to be pretty much the same as others have mentioned.

The only thing I have to add is that when I Google "matchbox football," this thread is the top result for me.
 
TheBigTater said:
Yeah paper football was a staple in grade school that would have been in the 60's. Never played with a matchbox though. Hanger was a TD. We would kick field goal after a player had 3 tries go off the edge, made the game a little more strategic. I remember I always kicked with the fat point down instead of the long point.
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Do you bowl with 2 hands too ?
Fat point down…. Oh brother
 

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