The home of foosball

Bob Hayes and engineer Bob Furr design the first major American-made foosball table, using the Tornado name and creating what became known as the Texas style of play.

Promoter Lee Peppard stages his first National Championships in Missoula, Montana. Marcio Bonilla wins singles, while Jack Briggs and Stu Meyers win doubles.

Tornado holds its first National Championships at Mickey Finn’s in Dallas. Reggie Congleton wins singles.

Dynamo begins manufacturing foosball tables in the Dallas area, creating Tornado’s principal American-table competitor.

Lee Peppard stages the $50,000 International Table Soccer Championships at Elitch Gardens in Denver. The event, featuring 144 tables, is widely regarded as the beginning of professional American foosball.

Mike Bowers wins Open Singles at the Denver International Championships, becoming the first major singles champion of the American professional era. Gordy Somekawa and Joe Purcell win Open Doubles.

The World Table Soccer Association, or WTSA, is organized to establish national rules, player conduct standards and tournament procedures.

Tournament Soccer launches its Quarter Million Dollar Professional Foosball Tour, taking professional tournaments to more than 30 cities across the United States.

The Chicago Music Operators show features 18 different table-soccer manufacturers, illustrating the size of the American foosball boom.

Tournament Soccer expands to a $375,000 season, culminating in a $125,000 World Championship in Minneapolis with approximately 200 tables. Dan Kaiser wins singles; Brent Bednar and Mike Belz win doubles.

Budweiser announces a $25,000 branded foosball tournament and a custom Budweiser table. The tournament is cancelled, but it represents an early attempt at major corporate sponsorship.

Seventeen-year-old Todd Loffredo and eighteen-year-old Gil Jackson win the $250,000 Tournament Soccer World Championship in Open Doubles. It is Loffredo’s first world title and the beginning of one of foosball’s greatest careers.

Dynamo runs a $75,000 national tour whose championship awards three Honda Civics to the major-event winners.

Doug Furry wins the $50,000 Super Singles tournament and receives a Porsche 911 Targa, finishing the year as the tour’s leading money winner.

Tournament Soccer begins an 18-month, million-dollar professional tour and introduces the famous Browntop Tournament Soccer table.

Doug Furry and Jim “Wiz” Wiswell win the $100,000 Super Doubles event and receive two Corvettes.

Furry and Wiswell win the Tournament Soccer World Championship in Open Doubles, earning $15,000 each. Dan Kaiser wins the singles world title.

Todd Loffredo wins the Masters Invitational, a 23-round all-around competition featuring singles, goalie wars and draw-your-partner events.

Mike Bowers and Tim Burns win the East-versus-West World Championship playoff in doubles, while Johnny Lott wins singles.

The Complete Book of Foosball, written by Johnny Lott and Kathy Brainard, is published and becomes one of the sport’s foundational historical and instructional books.

Long Shot, a full-length movie centered on teenagers pursuing a national foosball championship, is released.

Coinsport and Dynamo introduce the Pro Bilt table, designed to combine characteristics of Texas-style and Tournament Soccer play. Major launch events include a U.S. Open and a World Championship.

The Dynamo and Tornado player associations merge to form the United States Table Soccer Association, or USTSA. Joint World Championships are played on both tables from 1985 through 1987.

The Foosball–Table Soccer Hall of Fame is founded by Johnny Lott, with a charter class that includes Mike Bowers, Lee Peppard, Bob Hayes, Lori Schranz and other pioneers.

Cindy Head wins six world titles during the combined Tornado-Dynamo World Championships—three on each table. She eventually records 14 consecutive world titles, including eight consecutive Women’s Open Singles championships.

Tornado assumes responsibility for the primary American professional tour after Dynamo withdraws from regular tournament promotion. Tornado becomes the dominant U.S. competition table.

Bonzini creates the free-play B90, which becomes one of the defining tables of French-style foosball.

The Bonzini B90 becomes the official competition table of the French Table Football Federation.

Terry Moore wins the World Singles Championship, helping popularize the front-pin rollover—or “snake”—shot at the highest level of American competition.

Eighteen-year-old Tommy Adkisson wins both Open Singles and Open Doubles at the World Championships, establishing himself as one of the sport’s leading young stars.

Foosball experiences a consumer and cultural resurgence. Tables appear prominently in Friends, ER, television commercials and major films, while Tornado reports sharp growth in home and commercial sales.

Valley Recreational Products purchases Tornado.

Valley Recreation Products and Dynamo Corporation merge to form Valley-Dynamo, placing the Tornado and Dynamo brands under the same corporate organization.

The International Table Soccer Federation, or ITSF, is officially created on August 16 in Oberwart, Austria, providing foosball with a formal international governing body.

The United States Table Soccer Federation, or USTSF, is established on September 1 to represent American players within the emerging international federation structure.

Bonzini’s competition model becomes the B90 ITSF, approved for major national and international events.

Eighteen-year-old Tony Spredeman wins his first World Championship, dominating Open Singles while losing only three games during the event.

Garlando introduces the World Champion competition table and joins the ITSF as an official manufacturer partner.

Frédéric Collignon wins the ITSF men’s world title, beginning the documented ITSF championship lineage that would establish him as the dominant international multi-table player of the era.

Frédéric Collignon successfully defends the ITSF Men’s Singles World Championship against an international field playing across multiple official tables.

Samantha Di Paolo of Italy becomes the first ITSF Women’s Singles World Champion.

The ITSF General Assembly approves common playing rules for all official tables, an important step toward international standardization.

The first official ITSF World Cup for national teams is held in Germany from May 25–28.

Tony Spredeman defeats Frédéric Collignon to capture his second Tornado Open Singles world title in a match often described as one of the greatest performances in professional foosball history.

Corona Light becomes title sponsor of the Hall of Fame Classic in Las Vegas, which offers approximately $90,000 in combined tournament and international-league prizes.

Leonhart receives “ITSF Official Table” status, establishing the German table as one of the principal tables used in international competition.

The United States Table Soccer Organization, or USTSO, is formed as a player-driven organization seeking to represent the United States in ITSF competition.

The ITSF becomes a signatory to the World Anti-Doping Agency code, moving international foosball further toward conventional international-sport governance.

The ITSF’s formal anti-doping rules take effect on January 1.

ITSF releases Standard Matchplay Rules 2.0, the first version of the modern Standard Matchplay Rules to introduce substantive rule changes rather than only corrections and clarifications.

Philoro expands its sponsorship to support the entire America’s leading tour, including player sponsorship, event production and international growth.

America’s leading tour announces a $175,000 World Championships event for September 2–6 in New Orleans, one of the largest advertised prize packages of the modern American era.