Foosball History Overview:
The origin of foosball started in 1922 by Harold Searles Thorton from the United Kingdom. He invented the game due to the popularity of football in Europe (known as soccer in the United States). The popularity of the sport was spreading so rapidly Harold decided to make a game that people could play in their homes. Since Europeans called the real sport football, Harold decided to call his new creation "Foosball". The game was eventually brought to the United States in the 1950's by Lawrence Patterson. The game eventually reached its peak popularity in the U.S. in the 1970's. In recent years, the invention of video games have since taken the popularity away from the game but there are many communities where foosball still thrives today. You can still find many tournaments and local bars that have foosball tables.
By Mary Grayson
Last summer Liz Hill asked me if I'd be interested in promoting the women in foosball by interviewing the top players for Table Talk. These interviews would give the women a chance to talk about the things they wanted from foosball as well as tell their story to help us see what was winning for women today. The professional women of the sport would finally start to get some of the recognition they deserved. We were able to isolate some of the realities Liz and the other pro girls were facing, and began to see how some of them were affecting the entire female player base. Table Talk has devoted an entire section to women for the past year.
Being our number one ranked player, I interviewed Liz first, right before the 1995 World Championships. Dominating the majority of the titles in '95, Liz was feeling little competition at the time and mentioned it in her interview. This, along with the spectacular showing of Cami Carter in the '95 World Championships sparked the lulling fire in legendary Cindy Head who made a much anticipated and exciting return to the tour. I interviewed Cindy at the beginning of the 1996
To the average novice player, a foosball table is a foosball table. However, to a die-hard “fooser,” there are four distinct styles, which necessitate different styles of play.
For example, American style foosball, also known as “Texas foosball,” is generally played on a dense, solid table surface like mahogany, the ball is usually thick plastic, and the foosball men are made of harder plastic, all of which makes for a fast game where power rules. In addition, American tables have three men on the goalie bar as opposed to one goalie in other countries, enabling the player to pull the ball out of the corner without stopping gameplay.
In contrast, French foosball is played on a linoleum surface with a “tacky” feel and a cork ball, making the gameplay much more controlled, with an emphasis on passing the ball and setting up shots, just like real football.
German tables are the softest of the bunch, providing ultimate control of the ball to strategically line up shots on over-sized goals.
Finally, Italian tables are a good mix of styles, well known for using either sandblasted glass to allow for faster gameplay, or plastic laminate to
