It's easy to get overwhelmed by the amount of information on this site and other SP websites. Custom rules, custom cards, options, variations all add up to make for a pretty big read and then knowing which bits to pick out and use and knowing where you can find various things can be a bit of a mess. Hopefully this site will become an exhaustive resource for all things Statis Pro and will organise everything that appears on other sites as well as a whole lot more into a form that allows you to follow it step by step until you build up your knowledge on the game and all its variations.

To play the game you either need an official set which were produced between 1980 and 1992 and contain the team cards, rules and all the other bits and pieces, or you need some custom player cards, a set of rules and options and a fast action card deck or system. You can download all these from this site if you don't own the official yearly boxed sets.

You can also download a windows computer game version of Statis Pro by Alex Mittermeyer which currently has the 1989, 2001 and soon 2002 season data

My first introduction into the world of Statis Pro came in the mid 80's when I got into the NFL craze that became something of a cult phenomenon at the time. We formed our own American Football team - The Northfield Vikings and we used to play every Saturday afternoon on the field of a local primary school that required a fairly big climb over some locked gates! The main protagonists were Garry Dawson who was a running back in the style of John Riggins, Phil Bent who was the quarterback and Ashley Hutchinson who was a wide receiver along with Steve Pimperton. I decided I would be a running back too although I was more of a pass catching speed runner than a bulldozer.

For some reason there was this tradition that you would get an "American name", I guess stereotypical jock names that you would expect to hear in some crappy TV show. Garry became Dudley Dawson (no idea why), Phil was "Curtis Conway", Ash was "Scooter Jones" with Steve as "Flash Thompson". I ended up with the moniker "Bud Bradley". Hey, we were in our teens then, it seemed like a good idea at the time and it was just a bit of fun. We got really into the NFL and Garry, Phil and myself were big Skins fans. We used to play games against these lads in school who were into rock music and had long hair with Megadeth T-shirts etc. We called them the "Heavies" haha. We almost always won even though they were bigger and harder than us because we actually knew plays and did blocking schemes and stuff.

Later we would join up with Richard Kay and form the Rotherham Braves and we were one of the best teams in the country in the late 80s reaching the national semi finals twice, only just missing out to Shropshire (Wrekin) Giants on both occasions. We had a black kit which was cool and played touch football without padding (we played contact before the official league stuff started). I had number 44 in honour of the big Riggo machine. Anyway, I'm getting away from the point. At around the time of this NFL boom in the mid 80's Garry got hold of Statis Pro and I think it was almost certainly the 1984 set as the 49ers were the best team and had just won the Superbowl against the Dolphins who were also good. I remember how good Montana, Rice and Craig were, but also wasn't Steve Fuller of Chicago 1-40 on quick passes?

Well, after a quick introduction of how to play we got going and Garry explained stuff as we went on. It was fantastic, really good fun and so realistic. We started doing a replay of an entire season and actually got to Week 3 or 4 I think before it was clear it would be too big a job to do this, so I think we might have done the playoffs or just some random games from time to time. I guess this lasted a couple of years before we all started to move on to college and university and unfortunately we never really got round to getting the other guys involved and setting up a proper league, drafts and competitions etc. One day I hope to get the chance to do that. I think Phil and Steve might have played once, and this guy called Tim who insisted on calling Kenny Easley (huge interception range) Kenny Keasley - that used to do my head in!

The aim of this site is to provide an exhaustive resource for the hobby of Statis Pro football including information, utilities, rules, cards and links to the other great SP websites around.

If you have something to contribute or know of a great site, let me know so I can add it in here and let everyone share in the experience

I do have a confession though because I remember once fiddling the cards just for a laugh when Garry nipped out to do something and when he came back I had sorted it out so that he would fumble a kickoff and I would score and then throw a few bombs and there were low numbers in there to get me a TD. It really backfired because after I had leapt out to a 28-0 lead vs Chicago in the 1st quarter, the cards REALLY started to come up for me and the score went up to 60 or 70 I think and Garry just got fed up and said lets not bother with this, its stupid. I think he knew I'd done some fiddling but I never admitted it until much later.

Anyway, when I was away at university I spotted a copy of Statis Pro in Virgin megastore, it was the 1989 set I think, and bugger me, the 49ers were the top team again. I hate the 49ers with a passion. Anyway, I got some pals who also liked the NFL to play a game or two but it was clear they werent going to really get into it enough to keep a league or competition going so that never really took off like it could have done either, despite some entertaining games like a Cincinnati v Pittsburgh grudge match.

So that was more or less that for Statis Pro until I found the Yahoo group dedicated to SP and Marty's website as well. I dug out my old 1989 set and started looking on ebay for other sets. I was lucky enough to get hold of almost every set, in fact the only ones I didnt have were the Superbowl winning seasons for the Redskins! I did eventually get the SB22 and SB26 winning teams along with the SB18 losing team but to this day I still have not managed to get the 1982 strike shortened season set which ended with the Redskins 1st superbowl triumph. I hope to get this one day or at the very least get a scanned copy of those cards. I think it appeared on Ebay once but some idiot gazumped my bids and told me he just collected them but never played the games, whereas I wanted to actually use the game. Anyway, I lost out on that one damn it.

I don't get a lot of free time these days but I know whenever I go to the group, or check out the various websites [see links] it can get a bit messy and confusing working out what is what, and where it all is, also sets appear in word, excel, pdf and all kinds of formats. I wanted to create a site dedicated to Statis Pro, including having everthing together in one neatly organised site so that fellow enthusiasts could quickly and easily find what they wanted and get more out of this great hobby. I must say that Alex Mittermeyer's Statis Pro Football for Windows is a fantastic game and brilliant for solitaire play but there's nothing quite like face to face play and the turning of those FAC cards to determine what happens as the clock counts down. It was my search for SP football sets on ebay that led me to SP baseball too and that's another great passion of mine, and hence I created a site just like this one but dedicated to Statis Pro baseball too. Check the links page for more details

 

An overview of the development of the game from its beginnings in 1980 to its conclusion in 1992 due to legal and financial issues relating to player names and licenses. Includes details of each annual boxed sets with box scans where possible and a checklist of the contents of each set as well as similar products. I will also keep an up to date checklist on all the unofficial custom sets created by Statis Pro enthusiasts worldwide and hopefully have them hosted here. My ultimate goal is to have the official card sets here too and reverse engineer a little to get cards going all the way back, at least to the beginning of the Superbowl era in the 60's. I hope to include scans of the pitches that come with the official sets, the playing pieces and scorecards that you can print out and fill in

A thorough description of everything you will need to get playing this great game, including the rules, cards, pieces and equipment you need, where to get the most commonly used options and variations, custom cards, add ons and a walkthrough of the whole process including those of you who want to play Statis Pro on the computer. I know when I found some of the various SP websites out there I quickly became overwhelmed at all the information out there, and which rules and add-ons were in use and which weren't so hopefully this will be a clear and concise guide to help you make sense of the mass of stuff found here and the other SP sites on the world wide web. For those of you new to the game this section will also give a step by step introduction to how the game is played and will hopefully encourage you to give it a try!

Last update: 25th August, 2004 © Lee Harris