Original subtitles

So I heard all the story about this one dude.

He lived in Florida, he lived far away

and he was the best foosball player in the world.

I asked one of my buddies.

I'm like, who's that?

That's Tony.

Tony, what do you mean? Tony who? That's Tony Spredeman.

How do I feel as a mother being a world champion

of the United States of America, number one in the world?

It's breathtaking. It's, it's...

I'm proud. Just how people swarm around him like he's a god.

And everything he touched, turn to gold.

I knew that I wanted to be the best player in the world.

I didn't have many friends in high school.

I was a foosball player.

I wasn't a football player.

I was in my own world.

I still am. I'm obsessed with foosball.

It's been my whole life.

There's a lost generation of those who grew up dropping dimes in pinball

and foosball slots. Tonight, our Sports People salutes

those who are making a comeback for the game of foosball.

Do you think foosball is dead?

-A forgotten game? No? - It's called foosball.

- It's not well known nor recognized. - Foosball is the devil!

Just like disco and bell bottoms, foosball is coming back.

It's a lot like boxing and a little bit like chess

as he players battle within two or three feet of each other.

These folks play high stakes foosball.

Foosball is a combination of soccer

and shish kebabs.

Where players will compete to decide who is

the best all around player on the planet.

Tony, he's a master and I think he got that,

I know he got that from his father.

I live the simple life as you can see.

They're both, they're two of a kind. They're like carbon copies of each other

and I'm very proud of my husband and my son Tony.

The first time I saw a foosball table was actually in my house.

I think that I was just drawn to it because I knew my dad liked it.

I saw his eyes kind of light up and it was like, "Really?", you know.

And he started telling me stories from when he used to travel around.

It was really popular in the 70s. That was a million dollar tour back then

and I did it the hard way. I used to hitchhike all over the country.

I used to have a hat and my fishing rod. I 'd stick it out the back of my backpack.

I figured they'd pick me up 'cause

not too many crooks are going fishing and stuff.

I didn't go to high school parties or football games or any of that.

Me and my dad would go to bars and I'd be playing foosball till 2:30 in the morning

till bar time.

This was his life style and he couldn't

believe that I took to it.

This is when Tony won his first Worlds.

This is a Table Talkmagazine. They used to get these magazines every month

or whatever, every three months.

Got it after every big tournament. It was cool, I used to like when they

gave these magazines out.

They don't do nothing like that anymore.

Can you say foosball? Yeah, you will?

Are you going to be able to say that?

Lift your wings if you can say, say yes. Okay.

To me, singles is the ultimate representation

of the best all around foosball player.

Part of my training as a kid, I would play just left handed.

I've acquired some really fast hands because of it.

Singles, I think that I've won every tournament

that I've entered this year.

Including last year's World Championships.

I'd like to finish this year out undefeated.

He's going to Worlds and he's gonna expect

to win every last thing he plays.

He goes there expecting to win.

Tony Spredeman. So he's the current number one player in the world.

You know, you win a World Championships, what's next?

You just won the highest level of foosball. Where do you go from there?

This year I want to be down there. I want to be the one on that table where everybody's

screaming, hooting and hollering. I want to be the best player in the world.

In fourth grade, what I actually decided

to do for my science fair project

was I wanted to clone a tomato.

Now I'm cloning money essentially and medicine for people. It's about winning.

We are gonna be the best dispensary. A lot of that drive comes from what I learned

in foosball. It's made life a game.

Ryan's a perfectionist on things that he does

that mean a lot to him, becoming a grower and playing foosball.

He sits back, he thinks how can I do this better than anybody else.

We're going for the gold standard in this industry

so this is kind of the start.

This is a full 24 hour operation going on here.

This room has a lot of pot

and I mean a lot of pot and not many people

come in here. I mean, by not many, nobody.

Reason being we have a lot of pot.

I mean, how often can you have a foosball table

next to a thousand plants?

For the short year that he's been open, he's already won the Cannabis Cup

which is like the World Championship of marijuana growers.

A mutual friend introduced us

and it was, if not the best, it was

in the top two best cannabis experiences

that I've ever had.

Just had a real natural green thumb, so to speak.

Ryan is very competitive.

Anything from foosball to ping pong

to racing cars to growing the best cannabis in the United States.

Whatever he seems to be doing, he wants to be the very best at it.

The way that his mind works, we all call him the human calculator at work.

There's an angle to work, he's just got it.

He understands all the angles. He sees every shot before it's even made.

As a player, you know, you always want to be on top.

He's gonna be at every tournament locally, he's gonna be at every tournament there is.

He's gonna live on a table between now and Worlds.

Alright, so here we are at Pepas. It's a Tuesday night.

Bring your partner.

We have a weekly tournament here every week

down here in Colorado Springs.

Every time you come to one of these tournaments,

you got to have your wraps.

What this does is give you some better grip

when you're playing foosball.

So it's a tennis wrap.

Ryan Moore, number two in the world, is here

and showing off a little bit for all of us.

It's an honor to say that I get to play him.

You know, second in the world.

I'd call him spectacular.

Every World Championship title is very important and means a lot to him.

So this year he's gonna be the underdog for Worlds

but I think it's kind of revenge, redemption over last year.

I wanted to break a realm. I feel like I never unleashed my true potential.

Being able to compete and win it is one of my biggest loves of life.

I'm gonna win because I am the best.

So that's the grip ball. We call 'em dead bar in the foosball world.

Grips all the way through, man. First started, it was just one, couple around it,

and just kept going and now it's out of control.

Ouch.

Okay, so.

I had 25, 48.

I just added three.

So I got to change that.

51.

And counting.

I met Rob a couple years back,

playing local tournaments.

Little lumpy right there.

I probably haven't met anybody this passionate

about the game and probably loves the game as much as he does.

If I have a question, he'll answer it.

He'll go into detail for 30 minutes about it.

You can get away with pulling 'em way back, yeah, and then how good is the tuck,

how good is the spray, how good is the long?

So those are all gonna be your gauges

so it's not just random.

You know what you're looking for--

Robert's such a good role model, I think.

He's a veteran now, you know.

People look up to him and he wanted

to influence the younger generation too.

We don't want it to be like Luke Skywalker jumping through the thing,

barely making it through. Ideally, it's bam, right when it's open. Bam, bam.

I'm not trying to quick shoot you but I'm wanting to get it within two bobs

'cause that's honestly all I'm

gonna really see out there.

Little faster.

Little more. There you go.

I can handle that.

I'm Dr. Gary Otto, chiropractor.

Normally when I see Robert, he has issues with his shoulders,

sometimes his elbows and occasionally a wrist

just from the foosball, repetitive trauma, micro trauma.

-Ready, hold. That's good. Push that, ready? Hold. -Yeah. Yeah.

I've been on a bit of a hot streak this year

and I've been seeing Dr. Otto

and it does feel pretty good so

I don't want to say it's a secret to my success

but it's kind of part of the formula now.

Okay.

My daily routine will vary greatly depending on the time of year,

depending on if I'm preparing for a tournament.

If so, what tournament?

That all matters.

Loffredo's pull shot.

Blocked and taken away by Moore

who sends it up the table.

Oh, that was a good pass.

When you're watching the people on the video play,

you're generally watching good ball.

Just watch, just pay attention.

Oh. Oh-ho-ho...

Okay, see, like that.

Wooh!

Okay, there's a bald eagle right there.

He's flying in over the water here.

God, with any luck, he'll come right over here.

Oh, that's awesome.

I consider it a blessing.

I think it's a sign of good luck, too.

A good omen for me.

Training at altitude's got to be good.

You don't want to be bonking, man,

but I want to get in a good ride.

I don't want to hit too, too many balls today

but I definitely want to get my arm a nice workout in

and get those foos muscles worked out.

This is one of the hardest things to cross-train for, to simulate the actual impact

of slamming foosballs, you have to slam foosballs.

That's just the way that works.

When I was a kid growing up in Tucson,

I just liked KISS, you know.

So this one I've had since I was like ten.

What you're looking at here

is first ever Foosball World Cup

where they have country versus country, Olympic style foosball event.

We were completely freaking out that foosball's that big over there that it was on a stamp.

That's a picture of me and Ryan playing from the year before.

Foosball stamp really works, people.

It's not just a novelty.

Hey, I'm Terry Rue and I am professional foosball player.

I am foosball and foosball is me.

It's kind of like breathing at this point in my life.

You wake up and it happens naturally and you do it.

And you wait for it, they all do it.

Oh, that foosball's the devil.

-Like that. Move. -Move, now move.

Yeah, we actually made it!

And we both said, "Can you believe what we did last year?"

We had all won a world title as a family.

It's an amazing experience to do it

with the people you love the most.

Good pass.

This is my first world title.

It says, "Twelve and Under Singles, First Place."

There are times when I'll walk up and she'll be playing someone

that's old enough to be her grandfather.

They feel bad because they're gonna be playing this little girl

and then when it's over, they are like,

"I was taking it easy and that little girl just whooped my bleep."

I ' m like yeah, you can't take it easy on her.

She hits that ball harder than her mama does.

Nah.

-Oh, Sully Bear! -Yay!

I've never tasted alcohol, no smoking, dip, drugs.

I had dancing and skating and foosball.

That was my high in life.

You just show the love that you have

for something and your children follow.

They joke and call us the first family of foos.

He works hard. He works really hard.

He comes home, he kisses us all hi

and what's for supper and then he gets in the den

and he gets on the table for an hour

so at least he gets a little bit in,

you know, hopefully every day.

If I could just play foosball, get a big RV,

go see the country and make a living off of it,

that'd be a dream, it honestly would.

The challenge for me was that I had a family

that was budding and at that point,

I have to provide specifically for my family.

So my job now as an anesthetist, I'm the chief

of anesthesia for one of the biggest hospitals

in the entire region.

Yeah, Terry's a pretty special cat.

He's always the life of the party and he was a backup dancer for Marky Mark.

Pretty much you name it and he's either done it or can do it.

He's a spectacular wood worker, world class foosball player.

I didn't know that it was a real sport.

I thought it was just a bar game.

I don't think I knew what foosball was

when I was growing up, I don't remember the game.

-Uh, he started playing at the skating rink I guess. -Mm-hm. Yup.

and, uh, he would talk about it

and finally I realized what he was talking about.

Well, Terry is my brother-in-law.

He, uh, married to my wife's sister.

He is the best. World champion.

Uh, great guy. He's professional at everything he does.

The one thing left is obviously singles.

Good shot.

I, I have no-- I don't even know how to put it

into words what it would mean for him.

I can't even imagine what he would do if he won.

He would be almost embarrassing, he would go so nuts.

So how do you feel going

into Open Singles in Worlds?

I feel very good. I've had a good year and a half playing, uhm...

and I think I'm peaking at the right time and I'm excited.

That was good.

- Come on in. - Who are you all?

Well, I used to be an officer down here.

-Just taking a little tour again. -Okay.

-Okay, you all have a good day. Okay. -Have a good one.

Cindy Head is just so tough.

She's intimidating to a lot of the ladies.

Everybody knows her reputation.

Hey, how you doing? You doing okay?

- Yes, ma'am. -Hey.

She's a beast. I mean, I've seen her make many women cry in competition

you know, and, uh, I've seen her whip up on some guys too.

How you doing?

But you can see she's fierce.

That's my favorite word for her, fierce.

I was known for being fair

but I did have a street name that I was given

from all the local people and the homeless.

It was Annie Oakley, because I would

have no problem drawing my gun

and tackling the biggest bad guy.

I remember seeing Cindy play

when I was really young, because she scored,

it was like, Yeah, come on, Cindy!

Come on, let's go!"

And would like slam her point over.

Bam, baby, yes! One more!

The intensity is incredible.

It just fires her up.

I realize that I am so intense when I play

and I think it comes from growing up

and foosball making me feel like I'm somebody

and that I'm good, I'm a winner.

I grew up in a very poor family

on the wrong side of the tracks

who had a father that was, uhm, let's just say

not a very positive influence

and there was a game room in my neighborhood.

Uhm, it was kind of an, kind of an escape.

It was a place I could go be safe

and something that I felt good at

that made me feel good about myself.

She was probably nine or ten years old.

She had to stand on a milk crate

to be able to reach the handles, to be able to play.

I remember the exact time in my life

when I decided I was gonna be good at this sport.

As I was a small child and these three guys walk in

and you know, you're always trying to find a pick-up game and I thought

"Hey guys, I'll play," and I was all excited

you know, and I remember this one guy, he looked down at me

and he's like, "Not this time, sweetheart,

we need somebody a little better," and it crushed me.

Oh, it hurt my feelings so much and I remember looking up at him

and thinking, "Mister, one day you won't be able to say that to me,"

and every night I would say I practiced four hours a night

just, you know, five bar, tic tack from man to man.

I think it was 81 when I went

to the first world tournament I went to

and I signed in under Bama's Best

and I beat the doubles and I actually won the singles.

Well I imagine when you start as a young lady

in a room full of guys, you get tired

of being told you can't and you're a girl

and we're talking 40 years ago now,

35 years ago, not very many women played.

You know, there's a lot of people out there

with sad stories that grow up,

it doesn't define who you are as a person

but I think what does is how you choose to get through those hard times.

Myself and my brother, we're police officers.

Todd Loffredo. I've heard the comment a few times

that he's the Michael Jordan of our sport.

Well, nothing against Michael Jordan

but he doesn't have anywhere close

to the number of world championships that Loffredo does.

He's the Iron Man of our sport.

I've lived everywhere.

I got rid of all my trophies, all that stuff.

I moved so many times, I got so sick of lugging those things around.

Took 'em all to the dump one day and just went, "See you."

It's like Mars out here, isn't it?

I came to the top of this mountain and I found Jesus.

Here he is.

I like the spot. I come up to this spot actually a lot and sit on this rock.

It's just a comfortable spot.

This rock's been here a while.

It is, of all the places I've been, it's nice having a little hill or something

where you can get away from everybody.

It's weird, ever since I've been playing,

Worlds has stood out like it's really the only tournament.

The rest of them are just social gatherings.

Worlds is where I figure out how good I am that year.

See those pencil markings right there?

Tony does this pass to everybody

so I need to know exactly where the ball is,

how far from the wall, and how these markings here

are to reference how far back.

I have this camera right,

oops, right here 'cause this is about where I'd be if I was blocking that pass

and then I go over on that side and pass it and then when I look at it on tape,

I'm looking at it from the perspective of the blocker.

The spot, there's like about two inches

where the guy really wants to be.

It's actually helping me defensively

look at all the little nuances

to make sure I get it right.

So I call it a pull kick, far wall bank.

And this one's harder to do.

We call it the helicopter.

And now a brief history of table soccer.

While the exact origins of the game are unknown,

primitive versions have been discovered all

through Europe as early as the turn of the century.

The first known patent for a tabletop game

using men on poles was granted in 1923

to Englishmen Harold Searles Thornton

who was inspired by laying matches

across the top of a match box.

The game began to spread through Europe as a recreational game and was rumored

to be used to rehabilitate soldiers during the second World War.

It was around this time that Americans got their first exposure.

GIs were left in Europe during the occupation, forces from World War II.

They picked up the native games of the countries over there.

Soccer's the number one sport everywhere except in America.

It's only natural that they play the game version

of it too which is table soccer.

A gentleman named Lawrence Patterson

out of Cincinnati, Ohio, he was in Germany

as an entrepreneur and he saw how popular it was.

He was going to provide some impetus

for the game being played in the United States.

So he went straight to a friend of his in Germany and set up a licensing

with a German factory to make him a table

called Foosball Match. Uh, he ran full page ads

in Life magazine and Esquire and Playboy.

"Hey Chandler, why do you think they call it foosball?"

Foosball is the German name for football.

Foosball tables had suddenly appeared in every bar.

They put foosball tables in my school

and I was on those things all the time, 12 hours a day. That's all I did.

You had foosball come as the new game

and it hit as a fad and it really hit hard.

When I was in college at a Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity

in Boulder, we put a foosball table in the basement.

It was just a hotbed of foosball activity in America, you know, in the 1970s.

At one time, there were 19 manufacturers

making different brands of foosball tables.

There was a tournament or two or three every night.

I saw a very intense group of players

and started working promoting foosball.

I had heard of this tournament in Missoula

and it was like over a thousand dollar tournament

which just floored me at the time.

The promoter there, Lee Peppard,

had a vision of where he was gonna take foosball.

They quit skiing, they quit bowling,

they quit shooting pool, that they

became total table soccer players.

You had hope to create a coin operated sport

that would prevail and that could run the largest promotion of history

as far as coin machine.

When he saw the potential of it,

he sold his billiard parlor

and scheduled a 50,000 dollar tournament

in 1974 in Denver.

It was the first international world championships.

It was to be held at Elitch Gardens,

our biggest amusement park in Denver.

There are city champions, there are regional champions.

Every gunslinger from every spot,

especially in the western US.

And then probably about right here.

I'm gonna say this area right across here

is where the Trocadero Ballroom would be.

It's all history now.

I probably got back to my parent's house

about four or five in the afternoon the next day.

I walked in...

And my mom looked up at me...

and she could see I had the trophy.

And, sorry.

And I put my check down.

And I go, "When Dad comes in, show him my check."

I just made over 3000 dollars in one weekend playing foosball.

It was a tremendous success and that's where we created the tour.

They were gonna do the first pro foosball tour

and they were gonna run tournaments all over the US.

And there was a group of players that literally got in their truck, van,

car, whatever, and just went from tournament

to tournament to tournament.

It was just such a camaraderie

even though when you play them,

it was all like, you know, no mercy, no mercy.

I was really a naive kid, you know.

I quit school, moved out, and just played all the time.

I get all caught up in the moment again.

There's Jimmy, my partner. That's when we left in his 53 Chevy

right after we graduated from high school.

Yeah, we were heading out on tour never to return.

And I think this is a big part of what I consider the American dream.

There is nothing like getting in your car

and you're gonna drive to some big event that you're passionate about.

You hear all the stories of table soccer's heyday, the Tournament Soccer days.

They're giving away cars, the big money tournaments.

And it grew fast, from 74 to 76, it just went whoosh.

Because of what E. Lee Peppard and Tournament Soccer did,

they went from a quarter million dollar tour

to a half million dollar tour to a million dollar tour.

The winner of the Super Series gets a Porsche, okay? Brand new Porsche.

There's a picture of me after I won the Porsche.

We were playing as a job, seven days a week,

365 days a year.

Foosball was the eighth largest sport in America.

Probably at the big tournaments, 100 to 200 groupies.

You know, you're 20 years old, 19 years old.

We started meeting celebrities. That was a dream come true.

I was in a movie that Leif Garrett starred in.

Tournament soccer wanted us in the movie

and so they flew us in.

They thought they were making Citizen Kane.

"My goalie just ran out on me! What do you expect me to do?"

Just the corniest thing ever.

I just thought evolution of foosball was going to

become a permanent fixture in professional sports.

I was making a decision that I was not gonna finish my degree.

Instead, I was gonna play foosball.

What I've always strived to do is become a professional foosball player.

I opened up three game rooms.

I put 40 foosball tables out on location.

That's where Todd Loffredo came in too.

He's like a 16 year old kid

and he moves right near the Doc's location and comes in one day.

I was small and had little arms

and I could slide my arms up inside the tables

and drop three racks so I could practice for free

and I remember the very first pull shot I did,

-I remember Bowers says-- -Wow, your pull shot is very fast.

He goes, "Yeah, I'm Mike Bowers. I'm the singles champion" and he goes, "Yeah,

that's real money and he starts telling me the purses and--

1977, Schlitz got in

and put a quarter million dollars behind the World Championships.

I'm just, I'm liking what I see.

I'm thinking, I'm seeing money.

And he goes, "I want to be a world champion."

And he goes, "I want you to help me do it."

I remember it being a major dream

and I remember approaching our parents

if we could go or not.

They had 250 tables.

The biggest foosball event I'd ever seen in my life, you know?

Well, the most unbelievable part

was that nobody really knew us.

Seventeen years old and kind of a dark horse in the tournament.

Yeah, they just, they went through the competition

like a hot knife through butter.

He was just this skinny little punk kid.

How is this possible?

But then, uh, we had to play him and he beat us.

And I remember Bowers looking at me and he goes--

The stage is set here, you know, for you to win this.

I go, "What do you mean? I don't want to win."

And I hated seeing all those people looking at me.

I remember the first shot I took hitting the wall

and I remember thinking, Jesus, you got all these people looking at you.

You're in the finals of a World Championship and you're hitting the wall.

You get the dry mouth from breathing through your mouth

-because you're like-- - Come on, Todd!

And then next thing I remember,

I wasn't sure what to think. I was so young.

You can only experience that once.

I really loved foosball. When I say that, I mean it, like a woman. I mean I loved the game.

-I remember the song Lady. You remember that song? -♪ Lady

I would think about a foosball table when that song was being played.

♪ When you're with me I'm smiling ♪

And I just remembered thinking, my lady was a foosball table.

That's all I wanted. I just wanted to be up there in the spotlight

with that foosball table. For me that was enough. It's a little sick but--

This is a tape that Tom Spear made.

It's a practice tape and Tom Spear is a world champion foosball player

who was extremely good in the 70s and you could say he had genius qualities.

Before he went to AWOL and I was fortunate enough

to live with him and I was a really undisciplined person

and he came from a real hardcore military background,

had a lot of discipline.

So I started listening to this tape

and it helped me a lot

and it teaches you how not to give your shot away

and you're not supposed to move anything,

not a finger, no readjustments,

get comfortable and shoot it.

So give you an idea if I get the right side in.

Ball in position, Fifteen seconds.

Ball in position.

Fast.

Middle.

Twelve second middle.

Ready.

Pass.

It's the 70s when foosball was exploding.

Ball.

We were all dreamers, we were living our dream.

Life was about foosball.

It was truly like a religion

and we were out spreading the gospel.

You just wanted to be bigger and better every year.

Tournament soccer was doing that

and we were buying into it.

♪ Well the time has come

♪ So put your best gloves on

♪ Pull your hat down low

♪ You're ready

♪ Who's gonna get it

♪ Who's gonna win that car

At a certain point, probably all should've realized it can't

just keep getting bigger forever.

Right around 1980 is when video games were invented.

A foosball table, good foosball table would make 120 dollars a week.

A good Space Invader would make 600 dollars a week

with a lot less maintenance responsibility on the Space Invader.

The foosball table required more maintenance than any other piece.

So are you gonna go over there and play that tournament soccer table that's got

a bent rod and broken men and balls missing or a Pac-Man that works that's brand new?

So it wasn't even a fair fight.

The table sales started plummeting big time.

At one point they were selling about 5000 tables a month and overnight,

they went from 1000 coin tables to 100

and it stayed at 100.

The attendance started declining at the foosball tournaments

and you had declining foosball sales

so in 81, they ran the foosball tournament

in conjunction with Atari video games.

It's like if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Tournament soccer's hope was that they'll

bring in tons of players and tons of money

and tons of publicity and just be win-win for everybody.

They were preparing for thousands of people

and 200 kids showed up on the video game.

There wasn't enough cash

and that weekend, in one fell swoop,

Tournament soccer went down the tubes.

People just felt that if Tournament soccer

was going out of business, that life was over.

And one of the most uh, one of the most dramatic eventful things

in the history of pro foosball happened,

the great Jim Wiswell committed suicide.

Your best friend and your partner,

all of a sudden he's gone.

So life took quite a turn for the worse at that point.

It was a very depressing time.

The rest of us didn't, you know,

we floundered, we floundered.

It's like somebody opened the back door

of a bus and pushed you out and said, "Well,

good luck, you're starting all over."

The greatest period of my life with the worst ending.

That's how I would define my involvement with foosball.

I failed.

You didn't quite believe that the 81 fiasco

was gonna be the end of it, and you know,

it wasn't the end of it.

In the 1980s, there were people that stepped up

and kept the promotion going.

They just couldn't do it on the same scale.

You go from being the best in the world

to working for five dollars an hour

cutting wood at a lumber mill.

The top players just kept quitting.

Every year more would quit

but Todd managed to be the one still left

from this great era.

♪ Happy birthday to you

-♪ Happy birthday, dear Todd -What are the numbers.

♪ Happy birthday to you

- Alright. Can you blow out the candles?

You're a little late on the lighting.

Just assume that they're lit.

-Blow them out. -That they were lit.

Here, I'll light my own.

-Alright.

You can see it when somebody's 19 or 20

and they really are into something,

their spirit, and I'm talking the inner spirit,

it's different than when you look at a 50 year old.

If you lose that, I think it makes you old.

I realized that I don't want to quit.

Once you give up, Jesus, you start rolling down the hill.

Pretty soon it's so far, you see those guys way up there, you have no chance.

Usually, Worlds is just a consuming thought.

I 'm changing my singles game so I'm trying

to structure my thoughts.

I've always been the type person that I go down

and I practice something because I'm almost good enough to beat everybody all the time.

But I'm not quite there.

Foosball players are all obsessive.

And if you get satisfied, you've found your favorite meal,

you don't have to look any further.

I'm not gonna let that happen.

You're all ready for Worlds or--

Well, I'm where I should be and I've had years in the past

where I clearly peaked too early.

-Sure. -You know, I'm just practicing too hard, too early

-and then, the tournament came around. -Sure.

It's like I was playing better two weeks ago, you know, so.

You know, I'll be at least doing some drills everyday

-and just getting ready. Watching a lot of video. - Yeah.

I've been watching some good defensive video lately too.

Best three out of five.

-The winner advances to the round of 16. -Hm.

And Esterbauer on the scoreboard first for his team.

I got to check that out.

Big Boy hammered that thing.

Best three out of five, the winner advances to the round of 16.

Good for the foos brain for sure.

...scoreboard first for his team. A bit slow start to this match.

I think I was a pretty typical teenager, kid, whatever.

I was always at arcades.

I was more into the video games.

Pac-Man or Donkey Kong Jr. or whatever.

Classic 80s stuff.

And they made an announcement that they were

giving away the crappy foosball table in the corner that no one even played on.

They just wanted that thing out of there.

He called me and he said, "Mom,

I just won a foosball table in a raffle."

That's where it started.

You know, I didn't even have concept of tournaments

and pro foosball player and stuff like that.

I didn't even know that existed, you know, for years.

That was a good shot.

I got to see that again.

There was a time period there in the early 80s

that we didn't really know where the sport

was gonna go.

And when the foosball market began

to get some traction, you saw Tornado, Dynamo

compete for what was left of the foosball market.

Wasn't quite the same and it was smaller amounts

of money but the tour came back.

And they tried to run a dual World Championship,

just seeing which table

the players were gonna play on.

Tornado came up dominant and ended up

being the winner of this battle of all these tables

and they kicked Dynamo out and it's been theirs ever since.

Tornado was a Texas table. They were the Neiman Marcus as far as foosball.

Now we've whittled it down to one table and we're playing on the Tornado foosball table now.

It's being played all across the country.

Those were the years that the sport

was really beginning to resurge. Foosball was growing.

It was the right time to play if you weren't in the 70s,

the late 80s, early 90s were pretty good.

I got into the tournament scene. I just can't believe it.

There's that many people that love what I love

and it's such an underground thing.

We call it foos-aholic. They've got it, they can't get it out.

You don't spin the rods, you flick it.

While video games still dominate arcades and game rooms, foosball is making a comeback,

this time with a new table and a new controversial shot.

-It's call it a front pin or a wrist rocket. -The flipper.

-The monkey shot. -It's called the snake shot.

This shot revolutionized the game. It changed everyone.

It made players able to compete immediately.

What you're doing is you're putting your man on top of the ball

and then you just spin it and hit it straight in.

So it's a controlled spin, it's not a free spin but it's still a spin.

First thing I did is go back to the rule book,

saw that the rules said the man

cannot do a 360 before or after he touches the ball

and since the ball is in the pin position,

it can't possibly do a full revolution

from the time it leaves it to the time it hits it

and so it was instantly a legal shot.

A lot of people out there getting really, you know, mad,

getting ugly, and I go, "What'd I tell you?"

I 'm Terry Moore, my shot is the roll over or the snake shot,

and I was pretty much the first guy to win with it.

I remember back then I wanted to shoot a pull shot

because back then like 90% of the players all shot pull shots.

A pull shot, just think about it,

I'm pulling and shooting.

Pull shot.

You pull the ball towards the opening

and you strike it. Pretty soon you're gonna be

at the World Championships getting all the fame and glory.

Terry was on his way and I know this interview's

not about Terry but you got to understand,

the guy had an impact on me.

Terry's dedication was to put everything he owned

into storage and getting this little crappy little car

and tour around the nation playing foosball because he was just that hooked.

I'm like, you know what? This is what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna drive something that's a little more comfortable.

Terry comes rolling up in a brand new van.

He's like, "Dude, I really want to get in the van

with you guys, I want to go with you."

'Cause I wanted to. I just

didn't think I could, you know.

It just seemed too good to be true. So I did.

Put all my stuff in my mom's storage, I let my lease go out.

-Told my roomie I'm out. - And then off we went.

He had so much enthusiasm. It was like Christmas morning

when I told him he could come in the van.

We would pick up occasional players from time to time.

Dropped out of high school when I was about 16

and I just start traveling.

I traveled with Rob Mares and Terry Moore

and Evan Stachelek and eventually Tommy Adkisson.

Oh, everyone thought it was the coolest thing ever, you know.

Got to be like an arena football player

or a minor league baseball player.

We had as many as 1200 players show up

in the mid-90s for World Championships again.

But it never got back to that kind of money

and once decades go by, even if you're

at the same money, you're at less money.

We were on ESPN a couple times.

They did a deal on ESPN Ocho.

The eight.

Which I don't even know if that's still around

but, uh, they did a pretty cool piece actually,

that year, at the 96 Worlds.

Robert Mares goes in search

of his doubles partner, Tommy Adkisson.

Their enthusiasm rises with each goal.

Shutting down their opponents, they win the title

and 15000--

Oh my, we're gonna reject.

- ...dollars. -Yes! King of the World!

We did it, we did it, we did it!

Everybody at the time, when it was sold, was like wow, the tournaments can get bigger

if they do it right and kind of the opposite happened.

They didn't-- It didn't really grow at all and it actually started decreasing.

Well, it would be nice if we could

make a living playing foosball.

I would love to play foosball for a living.

The 1996 World Open Doubles Champions

are Rob Mares and Tommy Adkisson.

Robert's a blue collar guy and he owns this awning company.

That's what he does for a living so I don't really see him doing foosball for a living

even though he spends a lot of time, you know, touring and stuff.

He really has accomplished pretty much everything he's wanted to.

First Worlds trophy's got to be one

of the sweetest, especially such a big trophy

and everything and I've been fortunate enough

to acquire around 100 jackets at this point.

How can this not be your favorite?

Player of the year trophy right here.

How could that not be a favorite, you know? What an honor.

This right here is a World Cup trophy

that the men's team won in France.

How could that not be the sweetest trophy in here, you know?

This is the current Open Doubles World Champion trophy.

How can that not be the coolest one in here, you know?

So again, I'm not gonna try to pick one.

This is my first major I ever won, master singles.

How could that not be the favorite? You know.

So again, they all have special, special meaning

and some of the ones might not always

bring back victory moments.

You might have a second place in there

but you know, I don't get as wrapped up in that.

He's gotten second in singles six times.

That's probably as good as a win, you know.

I should give him credit for a win

but gosh, I'd like to see him step in there one time

and pull that singles down.

That's his Moby Dick, trying to win Worlds

and that's what he's chasing.

Four more, two each way.

I kind of, at this point, before a major tournament,

I've already done all the, just rigorous, hit the ball, hit the ball.

Right now, I'm focusing on ball depth.

Everything being perfect, the texture right,

and just having fun and kind of getting

into playing with the table.

And then I always practice five man shots.

Right off the drop. After that,

I typically go to the goalie area

and start practicing ball control drills

and shooting out the back.

I do a calendar kind of thing every month

and I mark off each day that I practice

so that I know that I practiced that day.

Little Sully Bear, her practice, it's amazing.

You can be sitting from a long day of work, tired,

and all you hear, bam, bam, bam,

and then you walk in and she's got a board

on the wall where she's checking off all

of her goals that she wanted to do for that day.

She's currently doing 1050 passes a day right now.

My dad just always says it's good to practice

like if you want to win a lot

and so I just do it.

He never tells, no one ever tells me to.

I just do it, 'cause I want to be better.

You know, I think we need new, younger players.

We're getting older and we're not gonna always

be able to play.

One of the things that hurts foosball

is you really don't have game rooms

like you did when I was growing up

so it's not like your kid can come out

to a local game room and play foosball

'cause you really don't have that anymore.

There used to be game rooms everywhere.

It helped foosball a lot because you always

had a new crop of players coming up.

I t 's kind of sad in a way but a foosball table is an odd thing.

It's like... if you gave somebody a guitar,

would they know what to do with it?

Would they really realize the potential of that guitar

if they've never seen anybody play it?

I would love for it to become a bona fide sport.

There's so many people who shit on it and if I call it a sport, they're like, "It's a game."

And I'm like, "No, it's a sport."

Like this is a real thing.

There is no publicity in foosball,

that's not something they cover on sports

and to Mary Moore's credit,

her and Brendan Flaherty, you know, the sole promoters left,

keeping it alive on pulse power.

We do about 15 to 16 tournaments a year.

We, uh, you know, charge X amount of dollars per player depending on your ranking.

Then of course your payouts are generated

from entry fees.

Without sponsors, okay, you have

to be funded solely by the players

and if you're funded solely by the players,

it's not a growing project, it's a shrinking project.

A lot of the sport goes to the players that we have

today that are in their 40s and 50s.

Many of them had that dream of being a professional foosball player

and making a living off of that

but they haven't had that opportunity, you know,

in the last 30 years to win as much money.

Foosball in the States has gone

through a series of those golden eras

and we're always waiting for the next golden era.

Twenty of the great table soccer nations

in the world competing in a team versus team competition here in Hamburg.

First of all, over in Europe soccer's huge,

so table soccer's huge.

As IFP, we had a real bad couple years

with the sport struggling.

We were about ready to shut down ourselves.

My goal is to keep the sport going in the United States

and that someday, our master players

can have that living that they've always dreamed of.

These kids, that's our future.

Tony's father is a foosball player

and my son, Ryan, you know, he's been my motivation

to keep the sport going.

We have another player, Billy Pappas,

they're all second generation foosball brats

as we call them, so their parents were players

and they've been around foosball their whole life.

I come from some weird DNA. My parents met playing

-in a professional foosball tournament.

So if you're embarrassed you met your spouse on Tinder, could be worse.

My daughter Kelsey, I'm very proud of,

with her career in working at night,

having to travel, usually if she's gonna go

to a foosball tournament, she's giving up her weekend to work.

Reality hit, they all had to get real jobs even though some kept playing. We have Tony Spredeman

and Ryan. At eight years old, he started winning and my kids were at all my tournaments.

He would stay in the tournament room from the time it opened till two o'clock in the morning.

This is when he's five, six, seven, and eight playing foosball.

My life and what has been my creator in my life is foosball.

When I turned 11, I played 17 and under doubles at the World Championships.

His partner, Tony Spredeman, he played him at local tournaments and this kid was phenomenal.

It was just ridiculous how he just played.

I mean, how do you play tennis by yourself? You can't.

How do you play foos, but he did. Non-stop.

Oh, he was pretty young back then. I'm not sure.

And we'd be kind of sad at the end of the weekend

'cause we had fun and now it was time

to go home back to regular life.

And Tony said, "Dad, I wish foosball was life."

And he's pretty much turned it into his life. Pretty much.

Life of a foosball player on the road.

We're in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma State,

pulled into the parking lot, truck broke down

so we had to win open doubles and Open Singles

to pay for our car repair. Mission accomplished.

Popped open the first beer of the weekend

so we're gonna break even for the weekend but it's all good.

The two biggest names that you're gonna find

on the American tour are Tony Spredeman

and Ryan Moore out of Colorado Springs, Colorado.

These guys have taken the game to a whole new level

and it's also a great rivalry.

They competed last year in Kentucky

with Tony Spredeman coming out on top.

This last year I took second in singles.

Second is just not-- you're the last loser.

Second sucks.

This year, to get mentally prepared,

I'm not smoking any cannabis or consuming any cannabis.

Um, this is just to kind of have mental clarity.

You can be foggy if you do smoke too much cannabis.

Just trying, trying to get my head game straight.

Get ready for Worlds so I can win this thing.

So back in the day, there's something I would do

before every tournament that would get me fired up

and I would watch the movie Rocky

and there's something about that movie

that would like flip a switch in me.

And I guess it probably had to do with my background of coming from nothing

and not having a lot, but that movie made me feel like

no matter who you are, no matter where you came from,

I could go out and conquer the world on a foosball table.

I've been trying harder in singles and I've been doing better

and that motivates me more than anything.

I'm much prouder of myself when I have

to do something where I got to get in there and grind it out.

I never want a guy walking up to the table knowing that he can beat me.

Tony's come close to that, you know, but even still, I still get Tony every now and then.

Practicing at my level is practicing your mental game

as much as possible and I position Tony

right across the table from me as I'm playing

and then I'm playing against his defense

so when that time comes around,

I've already been there, I've already

been a World Championship finals in my basement.

It's actually, it's a mind game.

I deal with life or death every day.

It helps kind of allay the anxiety that you could get in big pressure situations.

I really want to make a run this year. Tony's kind of the guy, though,

that has been getting the best of me in singles.

Why not me? Anything can happen.

You know, growing up, I was looking

at the top players, I was looking at Robert Mares,

looking at Todd Loffredo, Tommy Adkisson.

I aspired to be there someday

and now that I am, it's stressful.

Everywhere that I go, I have a big target on my back.

Rob Mares, six times he's been in the finals

and it's a shame he hasn't already got one

'cause he definitely deserves it.

It's not four years in a row like the Buffalo Bills

but I'd like to see him finally win.

Me not winning singles at Worlds

bothers other people more than me.

That doesn't mean I don't want to win

and I'm not gonna be trying as hard as I can

when I get there, that I'm not gonna

do everything I think I can to prepare properly.

It's not gonna be like finally I can,

you know, now I can sleep through the night

or you know, the monkey's off my back.

I would love to win it, that's fine.

Doesn't keep me up at night, bro, at all.

That loaded, boom.

You've arrived at your destination.

Oh, you couldn't have said that better, lady.

We have reached our destination.

Now we may fulfill our destiny.

Hi everybody, Jim Stevens is coming to you from Lexington, Kentucky,

famous for horse racing, urban and college basketball.

This week it's all about table soccer

as International Foosball Promotions

presents the World Championships of Foosball.

The sport's biggest names, the rock stars

of the sport, have begun to arrive today

in preparation for the big event tomorrow, Open Singles.

The open events are truly open. You can walk in off the street

and you can compete against the best foosball players in the world.

We love foosball.

First ever tournament.

We play together in Los Angeles.

Came from Dubai.

It's a 14 hour flight.

I think I'm like the only fourth black dude

that plays foosball, so it's pretty cool.

-Yeah.

I used to go and watch a friend

of mine play foosball and a year ago, he passed away.

Here he is.

My best friend. You know, we completed our goal.

We're here at the Worlds together for the first time.

My name is Jim Stevens. I'm the world's only fooscaster.

I go to 17 tournaments a year.

I set up nine cameras.

I mix the cameras not only for downloads

but also to livestream.

I also do commentary.

It's kind of like singing and playing the piano I suppose.

As far as having influences, I grew up in Los Angeles. Got to listen to

Vince Scully do Dodger games, to listen to the great Chick Hearn doing Laker basketball games,

and certainly both of those guys have contributed not only to my fast paced commentary style

which comes from Chick Hearn but also from the story telling aspect

which Vince Scully has highly influenced.

Hi everybody, I'm Vince Scully. We're gonna be back in a moment,

-ladies and gentlemen. -For more World Championship action after this.

Good morning, today's the day that open singles starts.

I'm doing my morning ritual before a tournament.

Game time, baby.

-Is what? - No.

No.

It's time for the main event here in Lexington

as the Open Singles competition gets under way.

In tournament play, there are a lot of rules

but here are some of the basics.

First to five goals wins the game,

best three out of five games wins the match.

And of course, you can't spin the rods.

The brackets have been drawn with hundreds

of foosballers from more than 40 states

and 15 different countries all battling

to be crowned the number one player in the world.

It's like going into a casino for the first time. You hear dink, dink, bl-bl...

Dink, dink, dink, dink. Just yeah!

Pop, pop, pop.

It's just a sensory overload.

The singles competition in the sport of table soccer is a lot

like boxing and a little bit like chess

as the players battle within two or three feet of each other

while strategically trying to outthink the opponent.

When you leave game room-style basement foosball and you discover

tournament foosball, one of the first things you realize

is how disciplined the tournament players are

and by disciplined, I mean that they're

gonna do the high percentage shot every time.

Nice high lane.

Another nice pass along the wall.

Sets up the pull shot.

Strokes it home down the middle.

What you're gonna see today is an array of styles

from the walking snake of Tony Spredeman and Ryan Moore

to the 1970s pull shot style of Todd Loffredo.

Ball in position.

Middle.

There are several stories we're following this year.

Six time runner up Robert Mares, can he get to the finals a seventh time?

Can he take home that elusive Open Singles title?

You know, you look over here and you can see the singles.

So these are the guys I'm watching here.

Terry Rue from Crowley, Louisiana.

Can he keep his emotions in check as he advances to the semifinals

where he'll face his former doubles partner, Robert Mares?

And on the other side of the bracket is Tony Spredeman.

Tony is looking to cap his undefeated season

by winning his fifth Open Singles world title,

putting him in second place all time

behind the great Frederic Collignon.

But if anyone's going to stop him, it's Ryan Moore.

With one of the deadliest two bars in the game,

Ryan is out for blood after losing to Tony

in last year's finals.

And in the women's division, the legendary Cindy Head has again

advanced to the singles final.

There it is, hit it! Come on.

You know, I'm nowhere near the player I used to be

but a lot of my game is heart.

I fight hard and I find a way to get that ball in the hole.

You know, lately whenever I play, I play for my brother.

He had become a detective and we were very close

and I lost him April 1st, the same day

I lost my other brother 28 years earlier.

You know, even though I was broken when I lost him,

I know that he always wants me

to be the best that I can be and do the things

that I love to do and since he's not here and he can't do those things

then I'm always gonna try to do the best for him.

You know, right now I have a pretty bad injury

that I've got to have surgery to fix.

This thumb was ripped off.

I've got to have a joint replacement here

and this bone was broken in 14 places.

The pain level from a 1 to 10 is about a 12.

So all I can do is go in and play with heart

and just try to do the best I can.

So we'll see, I'm just hopeful

but don't count me out yet.

And hi once again, everybody. Jim Stevens back with you here in the pit area

as we bring you the women's singles final.

That is 40 time world champion Cindy Head on the right.

This is a lady who has won every title there is

in a career that spans about four decades.

Linda Ly on the left side.

Come on, that's it! That's the shot! Hit it!

Cindy has come out and she needed to

with a great deal of energy.

-Let's Linda and the world know about it.

Linda has scored six of the last seven in this match.

-Not easy to play against Cindy Head. -Yeah, come on!

She makes a very strong case for being the best player

that the entire world has ever seen.

Linda just needs to keep doing her thing,

just keep playing her game and she does so here. She takes the lead.

Cindy Head as good as anybody of either sex has ever been

and coming back, that's not gonna phase her at all.

-I think it's gonna motivate her. -Come on! One more!

Has that one blocked and taken away by Ly. Linda fires it home.

It's championship point for Linda Ly of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

And she does.

Linda Ly has defeated Cindy Head,

the World Women's Singles Championship.

I'm very hard on myself when it comes to playing

'cause I expect me to go in there and play and win.

For once I was proud of me

because I was even able to make it to the finals.

This is the number four and number five seed

to get to what, fifth?

Both super talented players.

Actually, they won the World Championships together

last year in doubles.

They're not playing together this year.

They're too nice of guys to call it a grudge match

but I think Terry might have a little bit to prove here.

So daddy, why is it

when you won your World Championships

did you cry like a little girl?

I felt like a little girl.

The emotions overcame me.

There it is.

What a performance by Robert Mares and Terry Rue.

Last year, these two guys were doubles partners.

It was one of the really, most inspiring, I think,

and oddly, they're not playing together.

Mares with his former partner, Tony Spredeman.

Course you can't turn Tony down if he asks you.

Robert Mares has four career World Championships.

Terry Rue, last year was his first and still only.

Hoping to get another one here this weekend

and there are no better prepared players really than these two.

And there is Terry stroking it home from goal.

And finds the hole from far side.

But Robby does things a little differently than every other player.

There's not necessarily one thing that he's great at but he's just great at everything,

but Terry Rue a guy that will get on the table

and do repetition after repetition after repetition.

Terry Rue on a run right now.

Nice response from Robert Mares. It's all come down to this as we now move to game number five.

Oh, look at the long, deep outside bank.

Beautiful play by Mares.

He strokes that one home.

It's match point for Terry Rue.

Terry Rue comes out with some finesse.

On the five and there's the left hook to win it.

You know, just not one of my greatest turnouts

and I don't know what I'd do different.

That's a tough one.

Yeah. I don't know that I'd do a whole lot different,

be honest with you, except for put it in the hole and I didn't.

You know, looking back on the weekend as far as singles goes, kind of a tough one

to swallow at the time but you know,

you just got to take the good with the bad.

I'm fine with it.

He's a-- He's a big mountain to climb, that's for sure, as you all could see.

The guy's amazing, he's one of the best ever, period.

Uh, very, very, very good friend of mine.

Uh, got to make a dream come true last year with him, so it is emotional.

And it's not over.

That's the beauty of it, there's more to come.

My game plan's always to outscore, pure offense,

power, aggression, attack, attack, attack. Go for the throat.

You know, I want to go for the kill.

Controlled aggression.

I see something, I'm gonna exploit it.

That's Trevor Park, the talented player

out of California on the left.

Tony has lost two games to Trevor Park

who has aggressively defended Tony throughout the match.

So Tony Spredeman, a little bit on the ropes.

After Tony loses a game, he comes out with an elevated effort.

And Tony Spredeman can close it out right here and he does.

Tony Spredeman survives a tough five game match

but does show some chink in his armor.

If you can block the unblockable,

you can beat the unbeatable.

Tony and Ryan go back and forth, back and forth.

It's usually gonna be one or both in the finals if they're at a tournament.

Every now and then you'll get that weird upset where one of them's not in there

but it's always big to beat Tony. Tony's the one to beat and Todd's the one

to beat for Ryan, and everybody else he does pretty well against, but those two,

they're the two that they give him a little bit

of problem and he really has to have his A game on.

Like I said, I'm putting it all out there so I don't care if I break my finger,

break my wrist, doesn't matter, this is Worlds.

Put it all out there and go home.

The legacy, it's a whole another ballgame, you know This is the platform for that.

I've noticed a lot of the players defensively, they don't know where their men are.

This guy's going to be coming in, trying

to guard this hole here so if I catch him

at the right time and I can hit that hole

back there behind him... There, that was probably perfect.

I'll make that even tighter.

Let's see if it's still there.

Still there.

This is the definition of old school versus new school.

And Ryan definitely looks like he's

gonna do more than the basics here.

He's gonna razzle dazzle a little bit.

He's gonna throw some wrinkles in.

He hits another one.

Walks it. Tap it. And stroking it home near side.

The kind of pacing style of Ryan is setting near his own so kind of bully his opponent

and you can't do that with Todd Loffredo. You cannot intimidate him.

He's unbully-able.

Strokes it home and Loffredo comes out with a strong effort.

Completely in defensive position is Loffredo

as Ryan strokes it home.

A huge block by Loffredo.

Todd Loffredo's been is this situation before, many times.

He's not gonna fold but keep coming at Ryan.

And angled in by Loffredo, it's two games apiece.

The legend, Todd Loffredo, 56 years old.

Todd Loffredo who has not won a World Championship

since 1986 in singles is a goal away from advancing.

It is match point for Loffredo.

Shot a tip off the man and in and there it is.

Todd Loffredo outlasts Ryan Moore.

Uh, so he took me out.

Took out a couple other people as well.

He played good, he did great, he deserved to win.

He obviously wanted to win more, so.

I'll take my loss as a loss. Mm-hm. So.

When I lose, a lot of times it's like my defense

to anger and to being upset is I just laugh

and I know that I am upset inside

but what are you gonna do?

I just don't think I was mentally prepared.

Alright, two AM check.

Couple matches going on still

but we're pretty good a bit of the way through Open Singles.

Couple big surprises. We have Todd beat Ryan.

Great match, went to overtime, game five, uhm,

kind of surprised Mares is out a little bit early.

Uhm, you know, he usually goes pretty deep

but, I mean, that's the thing about Worlds.

Ready to pick back up on Saturday

and see who the number one player in the world is.

- You looked like you were sleeping. -I was.

Got a long fucking drive.

He just loves the sport and it's not against anyone

or wanting to kill anyone on the table,

it's about doing his best.

Just hoping, hoping this year he might, might pull it off.

I mean, in my opinion, Terry's kind of like the general of our Lafayette crew, you know.

Everybody pretty much follows his lead.

He's the best player to ever come out of Lafayette

and in my opinion, the best player

ever come out of Louisiana.

People want to know why my shot's so fast.

I'm looking for the shortest, quickest route to the hole.

And it's almost like the ball starts working forward here

and then it starts to come back and then shoot.

Normally shots look just like a normal seven just like that

and you waste a lot of time in this area.

Todd always seemingly so calm on the table.

You never can tell whether he's winning or losing.

Terry Rue on the other hand sometimes seems like he's about to come out of his skin.

Tony Spredeman, the snake shooter, sitting in the on deck circle

waiting for the winner of this one.

Todd, he of the world famous pull shot.

Both players trying to remember to breathe,

especially that guy.

Boy, Terry Rue can hardly contain himself.

Loffredo right now controlling the tempo.

Todd fires home a good long square pull shot.

Boy, Todd not missing much.

We are seeing quite a pull shot exhibition

here on table number one.

Todd can bring it across, set it up.

Again, look at the demeanor.

And stroke it home down the middle.

Terry just wanting to send this one to a fifth game.

And Todd gently coming back the other way.

It's match point for Todd Loffredo.

Looking to advance to the World Singles final.

He sets it up, strokes it home and there it is.

Todd Loffredo defeats Terry Rue

to advance to the Open Singles final

in a showdown with Tony Spredeman.

Great performance by Rue.

My third time I got third in singles.

I guess being there's better than not, right?

Pretty cool to say you're the third best

in the world at something.

It was Todd's day. It was just Todd's day.

Who would I like to see win Open Singles if it wasn't me?

Todd. Just 'cause of what he means to the sport. Uhm...

It's been I think maybe 84, 85 since he's won one.

I think it'd be a neat addition to everything going on.

There's too many people wanting me to win.

I need them to boo me.

I do much better when they don't like me.

There's no pressure. When everybody wants you to win, there's a lot of pressure.

Sound silly, huh?

Todd is, he's a hall of famer.

He's like the most important foosball player in history.

I was watching one of his matches and I was just a little kid

and he forgot one of his grips on the table

and I did a little look around and hopped down

and I swiped it and I put it on my table at home.

Like wow, I got Todd's grip, so.

And it kind of hit me.

The roles are reversed now and I'm trying

to pay it forward.

I was in Taiwan earlier this year

and I donated a couple of foosball tables

to an orphanage and they welcomed me

with a song.

You can see, they're all playing songs for me

and I got choked up.

You know, like a lot of people don't get

to do these kinds of things and it's crazy to me

that foosball brought me over here

and tried to make a difference in these kids' lives.

Eight months ago, this season opened up right here in Kentucky

and 15 tournaments later, here we are

at the Tornado World Championships.

Looking at this match is a bit of a role reversal that we see in nature.

It's the old lion challenging the young for dominance.

The fact that the old lion is still here

and able to play is a remarkable thing.

Come on, Todd!

Todd Loffredo went from being a young man

on the tournament soccer tour as the sport

was developing to now one of the top players

over 40 years later.

If he wins today, he'll be the oldest player

in history to ever win a world title.

He's got his work cut out for him as he faces that man over there, Tony Spredeman.

Tony, who has not lost a tournament all year, is chasing Frederic Collignon's record

for most Open Singles World Championships of all time.

I think Todd's got to come out ahead.

We will cheer for Tony. He's the best player in the world.

And we also like to be like him.

You want to be the predator. Kill, kill, kill every time.

The kill is when the ball goes in the goal. I am a lion.

I don't walk, talk, or sleep with the sheep.

Well, the lion's a predator.

Whatever your opponent's strength is,

train yourself to take the opponent's strength away.

Here we go, it's Loffredo on the left,

it's Spredeman on the right

as we open up the Worlds singles final.

Tony Spredeman putting the ball into play.

Tony will now step into the forward position.

Sets it up.

Walk it.

Trying to come near side, blocked,

and taken away by Loffredo.

That's what Todd's gonna have to do.

Going to have to defend.

And the quick shot taken away here by Tony.

Loffredo finding himself working from behind.

Todd knocks it off that back wall.

Tony a little slow.

Fires that one home to the straight hole.

Spredeman, he is truly a magician, an artist.

Oh, look at the pass along the outside wall.

This is the kind of situation

that Tony Spredeman thrives on.

Todd, of course, the master of the adjustment.

And Todd Loffredo cuts the lead to one.

Spredeman looking the left hand, there it is.

So game number one goes to Tony Spredeman.

Even if Tony only played with his left hand

against the best players in the world,

he would still be a top 10 player.

That's how good he is at playing with one hand.

His off hand, by the way.

Well right now, this is a step up even from what we normally see from Tony,

you know, playing an up tempo, aggressive game.

- Blocked, taken away. - Look at the pace.

But when he, when Tony Spredeman wants to play at this pace, no one can keep up with him.

A highly motivated Tony Spredeman

who is playing the game about as well as you can.

And there is the pass, the pull shoot

from the most exciting play in table soccer

and it's two games to nothing.

Third game underway.

Todd Loffredo needs this first goal, you would think,

to try to generate some sort of momentum.

Loffredo.

Strokes it home to the lawn hole.

The crowd, the Loffredo fans coming alive

and he's gonna call timeout.

Ouch.

Todd Loffredo comes out to get the first goal of game number three

and calls timeout just to kind of hold on to it for a second.

He's in the lead.

Let's enjoy that.

Let's see if we can turn the momentum around.

It's the old lion trying to fight back.

There's a debate, there's always this debate.

People trying to compare the 70s players

to the 80s, 90s, this century's players.

No matter what the rules are,

no matter how we change it up,

even if we made every single player

shoot a pull shot, the best players

are still gonna be the same guys.

Well, there's Todd Loffredo.

He's the best player now too. You don't have that debate.

It's the same guy.

Loffredo taking a look. Has that one knocked down,

stabbed backwards, then towards Tony's goal.

Todd's battling here. I mean,

and it's really all he's got left right now.

He's just got to keep fighting.

And that one blocked back into the goal by Loffredo.

Todd needed that one.

Loffredo now surges ahead 2-1 here in game number three,

a game he has to have to stay alive.

Todd Loffredo quite simply best player ever to play the game.

You stack up his accomplishments simply from 17 years on.

Michael Phelps couldn't even do that.

Now steps into the forward position. Looks to go from his five to his three.

Maybe take some chances right now. I mean,

he really doesn't have anything to lose.

Pass through the lane here.

Loffredo gonna shoot the snake shot and he's going to score. How about that?

- Well, best pull shot in the history of the game.

Tee it up, why not?

No heroes, no sport.

You got to have heroes.

You got to have people that are out there

that are being looked up to,

that people want to be, so you have

to have heroes in your sport.

OK. In foosball, how do you make a hero?

Now four-three but it remains championship point

for Spredeman who could close it right here.

Tony Spredeman looking for the Tornado World Championship.

The Singles Champion, Tony Spredeman!

The last five, six, eight, ten years, the greatest player in American table soccer,

the record you've put together tournament after tournament,

how do you stay motivated?

I love to win.

And... of course I hate to lose.

But I truly, I just love the game.

Uh, I love all the people, I love what it does for me.

- We love you. - We love you, Tony.

Yeah, it's, uh, it's special to me.

Well that was a special performance, no question about it.

Hello?

Hey, what's up, Buddy?

Yep, yep, what's going on, man?

That was fi- that was five in Singles.

-Now I'm tied with Fred-- I, I'm tied with uh--

-Alright, Buddy, I'm gonna go cruise.

-Love you, Pop, see you, Buddy.

Later.

My dad was a highly successful person.

He had told me forget about the car

in the driveway and the chicken in every pot.

He goes, "That is our American dream.

That is not your American dream."

But I'm sure beyond his wildest dreams,

he did not think that, you know, the alternative pursuit

was gonna be foosball and then finally,

when it came in that I won and got all the publicity

for it, it was a game changer for my dad.

You know, he saw me as a world champion.

What can I say?

What this is, is a letter I wrote to Sports Illustrated

to make them aware of foosball and what was happening

in hopes that I would make the magazine someday.

"It's my belief that the pages of Sports Illustrated

should honor the top players in every sport.

The transition from superstar status

to that of an ordinary guy with an ordinary job

has been especially painful for me,

but having my career recognized by Sports Illustrated

would erase some of that pain

and end the story on a positive note."

A lot of people know what foosball is

but nobody really knew that it was played professionally.

When people ask me what I do for a living

and they hear my response, they laugh.

Foosball player's not a typical profession.

We all have a common interest.

We share a passion for a game that just

kind of brings everybody together.

I didn't have many friends in high school.

I was a foosball player, I wasn't a football player.

I was in my own world.

I was obsessed.

I still am, I still am.

I'm obsessed with foosball.

It's been my whole life.

After Worlds, sold the house. Completely downsized.

I ended up buying a motor home, Class A RV.

The bus, the Foos bus.

I'm a big heavy metal fan.

I figured, what the hell? Get a tour bus and hit the road just like they do

and I got an assortment of wraps and just merchandise,

so we got one hell of a road trip coming up.

-Let's go. -Kick ass.

Cool buddy. Alright, let's do it.

I'm trying to keep the vagabond lifestyle alive.

'Cause the new generation of players, I don't think has that in them.

Got a dog sitting on my lap.

-Dixie freaked like "where's my house going?" -Yep.

She kind of freaked.

Said what the hell's this shit, man?

Yup, we fucking maybe pulling the car behind this thing too.

Right. Fucking shit or get off the pot. Look at her.

She just walked right in front of you.

Copper, copper.

Yep, I see him, I see him.

Maybe you got lucky. Let's see.

That one-handed driving's gonna backfire on you.

Big- big truck wins. Get the fuck outta the way.

Yeah, right, jackass.

Jackass.

-Going to get in our way. - Yeah. Some--

One dude who said, "I'm getting there--"

Yeah, I'm gonna go to fucking, go hiking in the dark?.

Yeah, right, dumbass.

Happens to me every day.

Here and it comes back to Dave. And there it is!

Dave Gummeson puts it away as Team USA

wins their fifth World Cup Championship

in a great match against Team France.

On behalf of the Hall of Fame Committee, it's my honor

to introduce Hall of Fame inductee,

Tommy Adkisson.

You're typically watching good ball.

How could that not be the sweetest trophy in here?