The Munro hockey game was the first commercially successful table hockey game. It had its roots in the depths of the Great Depression of the 1930's.

Short of cash for Christmas presents, Donald Munro cobbled together a mechanical hockey game from materials found in his Toronto home. He used coat hanger wire, butcher's twine, clock springs and lumber from the coal bin to fashion a spring-action game for his children.

His family enjoyed the game so much that Mr. Munro decided to make more to sell. He took a prototype to the main Eaton's department store in downtown Toronto where they agreed to take it on consignment. In the time it took him to ride the streetcar home Eaton's had sold it and called with orders for more.

Within a few years his business outgrew his home and he opened a factory from which he began shipping to stores across Canada. Most of his production was taken by Eaton's and Simpson's, mail-order catalogues distributed to small towns and rural households that made up most of Canada's population at the time. Their Christmas catalogs featured Munro hockey games every year for two decades.

The first game was patented in 1932. The original version was patterned on early pin-ball games with one important difference: it was a two-player game. It had a playing surface which sloped downward toward each end, with a maze of pins on either side of the crown, through which a steel ball bearing had to negotiate to reach the goal. Players at each end of the board controlled levers which worked the goaltenders and the flippers which could propel the rolling ball back toward the opponents net.

This version underwent major changes before it became the game which popularized table hockey and which morphed into the forms of the game familiar to North Americans today. Removing the pin-ball maze sped up play considerably. The number of flippers was increased to five aside to make up two full teams. The familiar red and green team colors were adopted and bluelines and face-off circles were added to give it a more authentic appearance; however, the crowned playing surface was retained to allow the ball-bearing 'puck' to roll freely and ensure play would go on without stoppages.

The Munro hockey game thrived and spread throughout the country over the next decades. During the Second World War, Canadian troops took it with them to England where they prepared for the invasion of Europe. Every Canadian Forces mess hall had a Munro hockey game for R&R and Donald Munro Jr., who served as radar technician during the Battle of Britain, was often called away to make repairs to hockey games throughout the U.K. in order to maintain the morale of the troops.

The company founded by Mr. Munro and his partner expanded into production of crokinole and other board games. During the 1940's they devised a mechanical baseball game built on the same platform as the hockey game and secured an endorsement from Babe Ruth. In the early 50's the Munro Games Co. moved their operation from Toronto to Burlington, Ontario. The last of the original red and green wooden games was produced in 1955, after which the company switched production to the new rod-and-slot games with more realistically painted sheet-metal players and plastic parts. Irwin Toy bought out Munro Games in the 1960's.

Though Munro games disappeared from the marketplace long ago, you can now build your own Munro replica hockey game with plans from Vintage Games Co. Visit our catalog to view this project and other wooden games that you can build with our plans.