Other soccer tables and even some websites are often
endorsed by so-called professionals. "So and
so is a great player," or "This table
was designed in cooperation with this so-called
pro player," but be sure of this: Johnny Lott's
place in the sport of table soccer is one of almost
mythic proportion. Most players would be satisfied
to win any major world championship title but Johnny
Lott is one of only two players to have captured
both of the most coveted titles in the history of
the sport (Open singles 1980 & open doubles
1981); on the prestigious Tournament Soccer tour,
which many believe had a level of competition yet
to be matched even now, twenty- five years later.
One thing's for sure, the money at stake on TS has
yet to be matched!
It all began when as a high school athlete Johnny
Lott, with a fellow football player wandered into
a penny arcade and was suckered into a game of
foosball for a dollar. It didn't take long for
the seasoned hippies to dispense of the green
rookies. Johnny determined that, "No long-haired
punks would ever beat him like that again."
After a few months of practice Johnny returned
and recouped his dollar plus a profit but to his
dismay he was now hooked on this little game affectionately
known as foosball.
It now became his mission to seek out anybody
who could "give him a game." This was
several years before organized competitions and
practically every town had their "foosball
wizard" and it was easy pickin's. Johnny's
foosball mentor, also a mythical figure, was foosball's
equivalent to Minnesota Fats. A man by the name
of Don Jewell from Arlington, Texas was so far
advanced compared to everyone else that he took
on all comers and would easily beat two players
by himself. Jewell took Lott under his wing and
within a year or so found he had created a player
that he himself now had trouble defeating. Lott
would graduate to the professional Tournament
Soccer Tour but not before an influential year
in Dallas under the tutelage of the great Gary
Pfiel and Lori Schranz.
When Lott joined the TS tour he was young, cocky
and felt he could beat anyone. An innovative player,
by the end of the first tour several major rules
had to be implemented to control the cagey Lott.
These rules still occupy the rule books to this
day. His style, especially in the five row passing
and defensive game was so advanced that the 1975
world championships saw many of the top players
scrambling to copy the Lott "moving wall"
pass.
In one of the most famous matches and arguably
most important match ever played Lott and his
partner Paul Daltas were ahead 4-0 in the fifth
game of the 1975 Open Doubles winners bracket
finals against Dan Kaiser and Kenny Rivera when
a controversial spin shot was allowed to count
for Kaiser's team. The head official, Cal Rogers,
was looking away and allowed the point, even though
many witnessed the illegal spin!
A young and easily angered Lott lost his temper,
got off his game and lost the match -- possibly
changing table soccer history, since that one
point kept him from becoming not only open doubles
champion but also the leading money winner on
the first professional table soccer tour. This
saddled Lott with the label of runner up and it
would be five years later in 1980 before he would
finally capture a world title.
Lott went on to capture his 2nd world title in
1981 teaming with the Great One, Doug Furry from
Minnesota. According to Lott, who has played with
most of the top world champions, "Doug was
the best of them all!"
Lott, having reached the pinnacle of his sport,
turned his sights to other aspects of the game
where his accomplishments are too numerous to
detail. The following list summarizes Lott's contributions
as a player promoter, ambassador and table designer.
Top ten Tournament Soccer tour professional
1975-1981
1975: Central character in the only novel
ever published about Foosball, Adventure in Foosball
by Steve Edgell
1976: Tournament Soccer National promo
team
1977: Cover of Foosnoos; Selected and won
for Best Idea of the Year, for being the first
to establish pro clinics to teach the game
1980: Authored The Complete Book of Foosball
with Kathy Brainard
1980: Chosen by producers as technical
advisor to the only feature film ever made about
Table Soccer titled LONGSHOT, and made the difficult
aerial shot for the film's finale on the first
take
1980: TS world singles champion over Alwood
Makekau
1981: TS world doubles champion with Doug
Furry over Makekau and Mcweeny
1982: Kept pro foosball alive by contracting
with Dynamo to build the ProBilt table and founded
Coin Sports International staging Four Majors
per year
1983: Redesigned Dynamo's table to be the
first table to bridge the gap between Tournament
Soccer style and Texas style and relaunched a
national tour hitting twenty cities
1983: Developed possibly the most important
improvement in the game since the counter- balanced
man: an all new foosball made of urethane to be
used on the Dynamo tour, years before competitors
would be forced to copy the design
1984: Developed his own unique table design
known as Striker
1986: Founded the Table Soccer Hall Of
Fame and inducted the first twelve charter members
1986: Organized and staged the only ever
reunion tournament held in Long Beach, California,
attended by many legends and featuring among many
attractions the Hall of Fame Charter Induction
ceremony and a rare collection of foosball tables
never before in one room
1992: Sold Striker to Dynamo and developed
the first electronic foosball table
1995: Organized Dynamo's Grand Slam Tour
which awarded Two Ford trucks to Garrett Sherkenbach
and Thor Donovan
Staged and promoted over $500,000 in tournaments
in his various associations with table manufacturers
during his career
2001: Inducted into the prestigious Table
Soccer Hall of Fame, 15 years after he founded
it
2003: Brought on as partner in Warrior
Table Soccer to develop the ultimate table soccer
program.
