8 minute read
A Century of Shuffling
BY MARCIA BIGGS
St. Petersburg is known for many things — world class murals, craft breweries, beautiful waterfront parks, and the Tampa Bay Rays. What may come as a surprise is a little known fact — the Sunshine City is home to the oldest and largest shuffleboard club in the world.
Drive into the heart of downtown on I-375 and along 4th Avenue N. and it’s hard to miss the courts of the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club, especially on Friday evenings when bright lights shine down upon a mainly local crowd who gravitate here for some casual open play. In a city that was once referred to as “God’s Waiting Room,” things are decidedly looking a lot younger and hipper at the century-old club.
Yes, there are still those famous green benches lining the courts, but this is not your grandad’s shuffleboard club. A permanent grandstand now seats hundreds of spectators who come to watch regular tournaments and even world competitions. Last October, the Club hosted nearly 100 players from eight countries for the 40th World Shuffleboard Championship.
Now boasting some 2,600 members, the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club celebrates its centennial feeling like an unlikely survivor. Indeed, the last 100 years have seen membership sky rocket then plummet through economic ups and downs, world wars, and the introduction of movies and television.
Club executive director Christine Page has been around the last two decades, starting out as a volunteer and sitting on the board of directors. She is proud of the part the Club has played in the history of St. Petersburg.
“It really has an amazing story of survival,” she says. “It’s been attracting the younger generation in recent years, but you’ll still find a good mix of both younger and older generations. Anybody can play, it’s that easy.”
The club offers members leagues of various levels, and even boot camps to improve your skills. Tournaments and social events round out the annual calendar.
Matt and Nancy Cory of Venetian Isles are members who discovered “shuffling” in 2018 from their grown daughter who lived in St. Pete and played on Friday nights. She invited them to join her one Friday and they were hooked. When the couple retired and moved to St. Pete from Lakeland in 2020, they joined the Club and became regulars, even joining a rookie league. “We make it a social event,” says Nancy. “We invite our neighbors and friends and everyone has a good time.”
At the beginning
In 1924, with two shuffleboard courts at Mirror Lake Park, a small group of shuffleboard players organized what they called the St. Petersburg Mirror Lake Park Shuffleboard Club. It was officially the first strictly shuffleboard club in the world, eventually growing to be the largest club of its kind in the world.
In the first season in 1924, 426 members signed the Club’s roster. The daily match games were so popular that members were limited to one game. Expansion came quickly: the members contributed $60 to build another court, and the City built another one to bring the total up to four. Dues that first year were 25 cents, giving the Club a treasury of $30 when the first season ended.
After the second season began, the Club bought 50 benches, 50 cues, and 30 sets of discs (two per set, compared to today’s four). Weekly tournaments began, with winners receiving a 10-cent pin, which they had to give up if they lost.
The shuffleboard craze cranked into high gear during the late 1920s. Work started on the first clubhouse with the first section completed by October 1927 at a final cost of nearly $11,000. The clubhouse still stands today, used primarily for weddings and social functions. Membership grew rapidly that year, reaching 507 by the end of the 1927 season; 1,323 the next year, and 2,588 in 1929, paying dues of $3 that year. The demand for court time was so great that the City added more courts, bringing the total to 71.
The clubhouse was expanded in 1931. A complete set of cues and discs could be purchased from the Sunshine Lumber and Supply Company for $5. By the end of the 1932 season, the Club boasted 3,050 members and 82 courts; 328 players could compete at one time. In that season, too, the Club had restructured itself as the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club, Inc., a 501c(7) non-profit corporation. That year, the Florida Shuffleboard Association authorized creation of a National Shuffleboard Association, which in March held its first winter tournament in St. Petersburg.
In 1934, when the Club celebrated its 10th anniversary, the City built 16 terrazzo courts. The demand for courts and clubhouse facilities continued. Even the 1931 addition to the club building didn’t keep up with growth. Plans were developed for another building on the site, to accommodate the bridge club and social gatherings. The addition was completed in 1937, and in November of 1938, some 2,000 members and guests gathered for the dedication and opening of the new clubhouse.
That year, too, the 15th semi-annual national singles shuffleboard tournament was held at the Club.
During its heyday, the Club was more than a club for shuffleboard players. It was a community recreation center, where members could play bridge, watch movies, hold parties and dances. In those days, activities and social events were reported in the newspaper and in the travel guide Florida: A Guide to the Sunshine State, published in 1939, Mirror Lake Park was listed as one of the city’s points of interest. It was, the guide said, the city’s liveliest playground, and “headquarter for the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club, with 116 courts and more than 4,000 members.”
Next door was the lawn bowling club. Across the street, folks danced to big band performances at The Coliseum. The shuffleboard club also offered pool, cards, bingo and dances of its own. But as 1941 ended and the United States entered World War II, tournament play began to decline. So did membership and activity at the Club, as men went off to war and women went to work.
Over the years, amid the rise and fall of the local economy, membership declined and so did the facility. Throughout the 1950s and ‘60s growth picked up, but then declined so dramatically that in 1972 a proposal called for the Club to be moved and the site turned into a parking lot. That didn’t happen, obviously. In fact, in 1994 the City’s historic preservation office designated the Club, its buildings and courts a historic landmark.
A renaissance begins
By the 1990s membership was declining again and the property was taken over by the City. By summer of 2005, only 35 members were recorded, all elderly. At that time, however, a group of young artists, led by Phillip Clark and Chad Mize, took up the game and joined forces with preservationists and Club president Mary Eldridge to host free Friday night games open to the public.
They brought music, food and beer along to play shuffleboard in a party mood. The plan was a success, bringing renewed attention to the Club. By 2013, there were 500 members and the Club hosted the World Championship. But after so many years of neglect, many repairs were needed.
Dark paneling in the clubhouse was removed to expose the original walls. Rewiring was required to bring the historic buildings up to modern codes, damaged plaster needed replacing, and air conditioning was added. A rotting wooden deck that had been placed over the old terrazzo courts was removed and the original company that built the terrazzo courts in 1934, Steward-Mellon, was hired to restore them. Seven original terrazzo courts were uncovered and restored. By 2019, $65,000 in improvements were completed.
Today, the St. Pete Shuffleboard Club is thriving and, after a few dark years during the pandemic, the lights are back on for Friday Night Shuffle. The old club is looking pretty good at 100 years old.
“The three pillars of the club have always been Competition, Community and History/Preservation,” said director Page, during a program she conducts on the history of the Club. “And throughout the last century we feel we have lived up to that mission. Friendly competition leads to a sense of community.”
If you go
The St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club is at 559 Mirror Lake Drive N., St. Petersburg. Courts are open to non-members every Friday night from 7-10 p.m. Admission is $10 adults, free for kids. Equipment is supplied and you can bring food and beverages (but no glass bottles). Rainout announcements are posted at Facebook.com/StPeteShuffle
Annual memberships cost $50 for individuals and $90 for families. For more information, visit stpeteshuffle.com or email info@stpeteshuffle.com
