The Other Dugout
The story of the original Football Manager-manager
Football Manager wasn’t the first to bear the iconic moniker, with Kevin Toms creating the original football management game over three decades ago. Created in the space of a year, Kevin Toms’ Football Manager released in 1982 initially for the Tandy TRS-80, with ports following on ZX80/ZX81. This text-only version did indeed have some graphics ‘bolted on’ for its port to the Spectrum, and subsequently made its way to every home computer of note in the Eighties.
The game featured an engrossing – though light – simulation of the management game, unlike anything else that had existed prior. It also included – across the original and subsequent releases – features it would take neo-football Manager years to implement, like a graphical match engine and team talks.
While Football Manager dominated the Eighties, with a well-received sequel and
World Cup Edition following, the series dwindled in its third – Toms-less – edition and fell out of favour. In a sign of things to come for what would become Football Manager, Toms cited ‘artistic differences’ as the reason for his lack of involvement.
Toms returned to the series he created with Football * Manager (the star is important); a tweaked version of the original game for IOS, Android and other modern systems. The legend – and the beard – will never die.