Table Shuffleboard
Shuffleboard's name, and the basic idea for the sport, came from an English game that was popular in the 16th century. Shakespeare referred to it as "shove-groat" and "shovel-board."
The game was probably created as an indoor version of lawn bowls. The English aristocracy played on specially made tables up to 30 feet long. The object was to slide a metal weight down the table, attempting to get it as close to the other end as possible.
Lower classes played in taverns, using coins, such as groats or shillings. In 1522, Henry VIII issued an edict that "none of the society shall play at the game called Shoffe boorde or Slypgrote." However, that didn't apply to the aristocracy. Henry himself continued to play: in 1532, he lost 9 pounds at "shovelboard" to a certain Lord William.
The upper classes lost interest during the 18th century, but the tavern version survived as "slide-thrift," "push-penny," and "shove ha'penny," created about 1840 and still popular in many areas of Great Britain.
Table shuffleboard was undoubtedly brought to North America during the Colonial era, but the first record of the game is from an 1848 court case in Pennsylvania, where a tavern owner was charged with keeping a public gaming table. The case was dismissed because the judge ruled that shuffleboard was a game of skill, not of chance.
During the late 19th century, shuffleboard became something of a fad among wealthy New Yorkers, Many of them bought custom made tables from famous furniture makers such as Duncan Phyfe. At the same time, table shuffleboard was becoming popular in taverns and pool parlors, first in the New York City area, then in New Jersey, Philadelphia, Chicago, and points west. Former heavyweight Gentleman Jim Corbett installed a table in his California pub in 1904.
Like pocket billiards, table shuffleboard went through a series of ups and downs during the 20th century. The sport declined during prohibition, then made a mild comeback on the East Coast during the late 1930s. During World War II, many servicemen discovered shuffleboard while they were stationed in the east and, after the war, there was a major boom. By 1950, more tha 100 companies were manufacturing shuffleboard tables, most of them coin-operated. The standard size had shrunk from 32 to 28 and then 22 feet, so even most small taverns could find room for a table.
During the 1950s, major manufacturers sponsored national tournaments. But the lack of a national organization and standardized rules, along with the increasing popularity of pocket billiards, brought on another decline. Coin-operated pool tables replaced shuffleboard tables in many bars and taverns.
The table game made something of a comeback during the 1990s. There are now more than a million shuffleboard tables in the United States. The Table Shuffleboard Association has standardized rules and, in 1994, created a Shuffleboard Hall of Fame.
Court Shuffleboard
Undoubtedly inspired by the table game, an unknown recreation director for the Peninsular and Oriental Line created deck shuffleboard during the 1870s. The cruise industry, established by P & O in 1835, was burgeoning and new sports and games were being created to amuse passengers between ports. Among them were deck tennis and quoits. Deck shuffleboard quickly became a shipboard staple.
The deck shuffleboard court was considerably larger than the table and larger wooden discs replaced the coins and metal weights used in table shuffleboard. Of course, cruise passengers couldn't be expected to get down on their hands and knees to play, so a shooting stick was created, with an attachment at the end to hold the puck.
Scoring was originally the same as in table shuffleboard: lines across the court marked scoring areas, with the higher scores at the end farthest from the shooter. But somewhere along the line, a triangular scoring area was devised, with the highest scoring area at the apex of the triangle, nearest the shooter, and a penalty area,
The deck game was brought ashore early in the 20th century, probably more than once. Most important, the Ball family built a shuffleboard court in 1913 at their resort hotel in Daytona Beach, Florida. The sport quickly became popular, especially among retired people, and it was quickly adopted at other resorts and in the retirement communities that sprang up in Florida during the 1920s.
The St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club (originally known as the Mirror Lake Shuffleboard Club) was founded in in January of 1924. The SPSC was and is unquestionably the leading club in the country. At its peak, the club had 110 courts, a covered grandstand from which spectators could follow the action on its tournament courts, and more than 5,000 members.
In 1931, the SPSC called a meeting of other shuffleboard clubs, most of them in Florida, to form the National Shuffleboard Association (NSA) and adopt standard rules. The rules were essentially those that the SPSC had been using for seven years, and they have changed little since then.
The size of the court was set at 52 feet long by 6 feet wide; the length of the cue was limited to 6 feet, 3 inches; and disc size was established at 6 inches in diameter and 1 inch thick.
The NSA held its first national tournament, for men only, in 1931. Women's competition was added the following year.
During the 1930s, the federal Works Progress Administration built shuffleboard courts on many playgrounds throughout the country. An indoor version of the sport, often played on a scaled-down court, was developed after World War II.
Shuffleboard reached its peak during the 1950s and 1960s. Since then, it has virtually disappeared from many areas, primarily because other types of recreation have entered the picture.
There are currently eight state associations, in Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas. The NSA has a membership of about 160,000. About 25,000 of them belong to the Florida Shuffleboard Association.
The NSA estimates that about 5 million people play shuffleboard at one time or another in the course of a year.
