'78 SI NFL preview, Bud Goode's computer predictions

[74_75_78_79_]

Just read this article. Quite an interesting read. Many coaches buying into his analytics. Anyone here remember this guy? Was he a regular with SI?

http://www.si.com/vault/1978/09/04/2643 ... -home-team

[mwald]

Goode was one of the pioneers of NFL statistical analysis, along with other guys like Jim Barnes. Don't know that he was ever employed by SI, but he was all over the newspapers in the late 1970s. I think some teams might have employed him as a consultant. He looked at a number of stats, but was known for a few efficiency/efficiency differential statistics, many of which are used today but are "rebranded" as other names by various websites to give the illusion of originality. At one time his stats probably gave the gambling inclined an edge, but today are so commonplace that they are incorporated into the pointspread. Still, for his era he did some really good stuff.

[rhickok1109]

It seems to me that he also did some kind of frame-by-frame film analysis of Olympic sports--or am I thinking of someone else.

[Rupert Patrick]

Goode was one of the pioneers of NFL statistical analysis, along with other guys like Jim Barnes. Don't know that he was ever employed by SI, but he was all over the newspapers in the late 1970s. I think some teams might have employed him as a consultant. He looked at a number of stats, but was known for a few efficiency/efficiency differential statistics, many of which are used today but are "rebranded" as other names by various websites to give the illusion of originality. At one time his stats probably gave the gambling inclined an edge, but today are so commonplace that they are incorporated into the pointspread. Still, for his era he did some really good stuff.

Jim Barnes created the Statis Pro sports board games in the late 70's for Avalon HIll. Statis Pro Baseball remains in my opinion the best Baseball board game ever invented. One thing I really liked about the Baseball game was it had individual cards for each player, but Barnes wrote an explanation of how to create your own cards using the player's statistics. Also, the game had no dice, just a stack of cards with numbers on them that simulated probability, and a chart for weird plays (two outfielders colliding on a fly ball and both are injured, batter gets ejected for arguing balls and strikes, ground rule doubles and things like that). Barnes started the Statis Pro games in the early 70's, I have the Basketball, Hockey and College Football games along with the 1974 pro football game which were sold by mail and are very rare, and Avalon Hill bought his company around 1978. I think Avalon Hill stopped producing sports games after 1992, it discontinued Paydirt and the Statis Pro line, along with Baseball Strategy and Football Strategy.

Barnes also worked on the Paydirt game in the mid 80's if I remember correctly, long after David Neft created the SI Baseball and Football games in 1969-70. I met Neft at the 2010 PFRA meeting in Canton and asked him about Paydirt, and he had no idea what I was talking about until I explained it was the Sports Illustrated Football game with the colored charts for each team.