Shuffleboard

Shuffleboard made its was across the country. In 1904, Gentleman Jim Corbett, an avid player, had a tavern owner named Croll install a table in his Alamedia, California, pub. "Doc" Croll, his son, claimed it was the first shuffleboard in that part of the country. World War II opened the "Swinging Forties" and shuffleboard really came into its own.... The intrinsic appeal of the game - skill, diversity, competitiveness, availability to young and old, strong and disabled, the serious game, the fun game, offered the kind of release needed in those turbulent years. Hollywood climbed on the shuffleboard bandwagon and took it up, at first, as a source of good publicity. Then when the pin-up girls and bandleaders and actors discovered they really liked the game, shuffleboards found their way into the studios and homes of the stars. People like Betty Grable, Harry James, Merv Griffin, Alan Ladd; all had their own shuffleboards. Shuffleboard grew to its greatest height in the 1950s. Most major shuffleboard manufactures sponsored nationwide shuffleboard tournaments. These were the biggest tournaments ever held; one had 576 teams participating. Fierce competition among major manufactures and suppliers, lack of uniform rules and organization, the inability to gain sponsorship of the sport, and general internal strife in all facets of shuffleboard, led to a demise of the game in the '60s and '70s. Some feared it was damaged beyond "repair," but others invested their time, efforts and talents to breath life into the sport that they had loved. That dedication paid off, by the mid-'80s, shuffleboard experienced a revival, a revival that has extended and strengthened in the '90s. While organization, cooperation and communication have been key elements in the revival of shuffleboard; probably the most important factor has been an almost universal realization in The World of Shuffleboard that new young shooters will be the continued lifelines of the sport. Across the nation, established shooters have made it their top priority to ...Read More