If you’re an American and have played Foosball before you might think that it’s a weird name; because you’re playing soccer and as far as you know, there are no foos in soccer. And you would be correct. Foos is not an English word. Foosball comes from the German word Fußball which means football. If you are from any other part of the world, you recognize the game of soccer by the name football. Why does America have to be so different? Why do we use Fahrenheit and the Imperial system? Great question for another blog.
Foosball started in Europe around the 1880’s.
Foosball made its way across the pond around the 1960’s by Lawrence Patterson.
He discovered the game while being stationed in Germany and brought his favorite game home. He started running some tournaments, and the game found traction. But it blew up with E. Lee Peppard who created his brand of tables and tournaments based on his tables. He traveled around the country with tournament prizes ranging from $1,500 all the way up to $100,000. This lasted until the late 70’s when a rising new form of entertainment, the video game, overthrew foosball as king of recreation.
