Soaring through America’s backyards or just lying in the grass, NERF footballs symbolized ’70s childhood — as iconic as Big Wheels and banana-seat bikes. Their squishy, kid-friendly foam design and eye-popping colors transformed every park, yard and cul-de-sac into makeshift gridirons and every kid into a wannabe football star.
No wonder they quickly soared to become the nation’s top-selling football.
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But not everyone knows it was Minnesota’s top-scoring Viking who created them.
Freddy 'The Foot'
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the team made famous by a defensive line known as “The Purple People Eaters” also featured the less-intimidating Freddy “The Foot” Cox, who became one of the most reliable placekickers in the NFL.
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Fred Cox in his 1976 football card.
Contributed / eBay
He played for the Minnesota Vikings for an incredible 15 seasons (from 1963 to 1977), kicked in all four of the team’s Super Bowl appearances, and was the NFL’s second all-time leading scorer at his retirement.
Today, 47 years after he last kicked the pigskin for the purple, he is still the Vikings’ all-time leading scorer with 1,365 points.
But how did a prolific point-after guy stun corporate America by inventing one of America’s favorite toys?
A Pennsylvania guy
Cox was a four-year starter at Monongahela High School in Pennsylvania. Following graduation in 1957, he played running back and kicked for the University of Pittsburgh. One of his teammates was future Chicago Bears coaching great Mike Ditka.
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Fred Cox didn't start as a kicker. While at the University of Pittsburgh, he was a running back who occasionally kicked.
Contributed / University of Pittsburgh
The Cleveland Browns drafted him in the sixth round to be Jim Brown’s blocking back, but after aggravating a back injury, Coach Paul Brown suggested he switch to place kicking.
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He was traded to Minnesota and started playing in 1963, where he became as synonymous with kicking as quarterback Fran Tarkenton was with scrambling — both Skol-worthy stalwarts of the ‘70s Vikes.
Cox’s straight-on kicking style proved highly effective. In 1969 and 1970, he led the NFL in scoring and earned first-team All-Pro honors. Numerous accolades followed. However, the biggest win was still ahead — at least for his bank account.
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Fred Cox's style of straight on kicking was effective and made him the top scoring Viking in history.
Contributed / eBay
'You’re gonna want some kind of foam rubber'
In a 2019 NFL Films production, Cox said in the summer of 1971, while living in Minnesota, he was approached by a local entrepreneur named John Maddox, who wanted the kicker’s advice on a new kids’ field goal kicking game he had created.
The game included a goalpost and a heavy football so that the kids couldn’t kick it out of the yard.
Cox liked the goalpost but not the dense football. He told Maddox, “You’re gonna have a bunch of sore-legged little kids. What you should look at is some kind of foam rubber.”
The NERF Football was born. The two men pitched their spongy synthetic foam football to Parker Brothers, which had invented the NERF indoor ball in 1969.
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In 1969, Parker Brothers created the original "indoor ball" — The Nerf ball.
Contributed / Newspaper Advertisement, circa 1970 / Hasbro Media
The 4-inch ball was advertised with the slogan: “Throw it around indoors; you can’t damage lamps or break windows. You can’t hurt babies or old people.”
The Monkees even promoted it.
Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz and Mike Nesmith playing NERF in the house
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The company flipped over the new football version created by an actual NFL field goal kicker.
“When the man at Parker Brothers saw that football with a skin on it looking like a regular football, I could tell he was sold,” Cox told NFL Films.
Parker Brothers passed on the goalpost idea and chose to sell only the ball.
Soon, the football version of NERF — which stands for Non-Expanding Recreational Foam — was sold in just about every color of the rainbow. Because of its squishy design, even the littlest kids could get a grip and throw tight spirals like Terry Bradshaw.
The soft ball also left fewer bumps and bruises on young players roughhousing in their Toughskin jeans.
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The NERF football was among the most popular Parker Brother products in the 1970s.
Contributed / Magazine Advertisement, circa 1974 / Hasbro Media
As the ’70s rolled on, Cox confessed he was stunned by the runaway success of his toy football. Boys and girls across the country pleaded with their parents to join Cox’s "Nerf Football League," eagerly mailing in sales receipts to claim a membership card and a coveted NERF patch, kind of like Ralphie in "A Christmas Story" sending away for his Little Orphan Annie decoder ring.
“It never dawned on me what was happening until they started selling 6 or 8 million of them every year,” Cox said. “Of course, I wasn’t going to turn it down. They kept sending me checks.”
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Inventor and NFL kicker Fred Cox was featured in a Parker Brothers ad for the toy.
Contributed / Hasbro Media
Did they ever?! Parker Brothers failed to put an expiration date on the contract, so what could have been a short-term deal with Cox wasn’t. The money kept rolling in.
At the height of the ball’s popularity, Cox made about $400,000 a year from NERF royalties. Well into the 2010s, he was still cashing annual checks for about $200,000.
Considering that the average football player around 1970 earned an annual salary between $20,000 and $60,000, it’s pretty clear Cox made more money from NERF than he did from playing football.
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Fred Cox said he made more money as a chiropractor and inventing the NERF football than he did during his 15 years in the NFL.
Contributed / Wikimedia Commons
Cox’s legacy
While kicking for the Vikings, Cox earned a chiropractic degree from Northwestern Health Sciences University. After retiring from the NFL in 1977, he ran a successful business for 16 years.
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He died in Monticello, Minnesota, in 2019 at the age of 80 due to heart and kidney-related issues. He was survived by his wife and four children from a previous marriage
His invention, the NERF Football, also survives him. Hasbro bought out Parker Brothers in 1991 and now sells more than 100 different NERF-related products.
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Several authentic NERF footballs from the 1970s and '80s are available on eBay.
Contributed / eBay
Shortly before his passing, Cox reflected on his life with NFL Films, describing it as “one of very good fortune.”
It’s hard to disagree, especially when you see kids today still tossing his invention around in backyards everywhere.
“How can you fathom that something that’s lasted 50 years came into being probably in 10 minutes?” he mused. “I’m really proud I invented that thing.”
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Tracy Briggs, "Back Then with Tracy Briggs" columnist.
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Hi, I'm Tracy Briggs. Thanks for reading my column! I love going "Back Then" every week with stories about interesting people, places and things from our past. Check out a few below. If you have an idea for a story, email me at tracy.briggs@forumcomm.com.