WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - The inventor of electric football, the tabletop game that enthralled and frustrated generations of boys, has died in Florida.

Norman Sas was 87.

Sas was a mechanical engineer who brought the world electric football in 1949, with its vibrating metal field and unpredictable plastic players.

Its popularity endured for decades, until the advent of electronic games in the 1980s.

His daughter confirmed Friday that Sas died June 28 at his home in Vero Beach.