![]() So I call him up - he’s pleased to hear from a Yankee youngster - and ask for some background. His grandfather started the company to meet the huge demand during the shuffleboard boom in the 1940s, and today Allen is a walking encyclopedia of shuffleboard knowledge, as well as a tireless promoter of the sport. Shuffleboard Co., based in Seminole, Florida, manufactures virtually all of the shuffleboard equipment sold in the United States. The third-generation owner and operator of Allen R. But it’s not where it all started.Įveryone at the club said I had to talk to Jim Allen. This is, after all, the shuffleboard capital of the planet. The club is hugely important to the sport - in addition to being the oldest and largest in the world, it’s where the modern rules of the game were standardized. Pete crew is committed - among its members are Florida’s youngest pro player (he’s 31), a computer programmer who makes shot-motion analysis videos for fun, and a decorated Hall of Famer who refused to give her age ("let’s just say it’s over 60") and now coaches the next generation of competitive players. Pete interviewing dedicated league players and board members about the history and evolution of the club, trying to figure out if the scene I’d witnessed at the Friday Night Shuffle was a fluke or something like a renaissance. But that Friday was just the beginning.Ī few weeks later, I was back in St. I decided to check out the Friday Night Shuffle in a fit of boredom, figuring I would shoot the shit with some salty old-timers, drink a beer, and call it a night. In my mind, shuffleboard was a retiree affair, a low-stakes game that required little brainpower and even less physical might. I grew up with the occasional afternoon shuffle on the sun-bleached concrete courts near my grandparents’ condo. But when I arrived this spring, I was greeted by a tailgate gone tropical, with hundreds of people - natural hair and teeth intact - digging through beer coolers and crowding around dozens of smooth green courts. ![]() Petersburg Shuffleboard Club - which bills itself as the "world’s largest shuffleboard club" - is no Gatorland. When did shuffleboard - that bastion of geriatric time-killing - become cool?įlorida is home to all manner of kitschy roadside attractions, but the St. ![]() I stood, stunned into silence, marveling at this unfettered display of youthful vigor. The hubbub was punctuated by the rhythmic smacking of heavy plastic discs against each other and the intermittent eruption of cheers. Players were illuminated by twinkling white Christmas lights hanging from the rafters above the open-air setup. Tom Petty and REO Speedwagon boomed off the grandstand seats. ![]()
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