Our History
Jeff Spelman originally created Jukem Football as a fun way to connect with his own children and help them with their math skills. He had no intentions of doing anything more with it. But after sharing the game with friends and family at gatherings, and much urging and encouragement from them to “do something with this,” he and wife, Michelle, decided to “go for it.”
Originally called Quick Count Football, they brought the game to market just in time for Christmas 2007. From there, Michelle introduced the game in person to independent specialty retailers all over Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. The game was quickly embraced by stores and won two prestigious national toy industry awards. Within six months of its debut, the game was available in more than 60 stores across the Midwest and Seattle.
Response to the game was overwhelmingly positive, but Jeff knew the game could be even better. The following year, he went back to the drawing board and expanded the original Quick Count game from one to two decks to accommodate more players, and added new cards to make the game more dynamic.
The game got a colorful makeover – new vibrant images on all the cards and a color coding system made the game more intuitive and visually appealing. Jeff and his team also gave the football game a fun new name: Jukem.
Soon, there were Fumble, Interception, Blitz, Kick Return and Pancake Block cards. The new defensive cards added more fun “gotcha” moments to the game. There was also a quicker way to advance downfield with the addition of Pass “range” cards. And, there was a new special powerful card which carried the new name of the game, Jukem.
Quick Count was a 54-card deck with two rule cards. Jukem Football now includes two 56-card decks (112 total cards), a colorful 20-page Official Playbook and a beautifully illustrated green gift box.
