Camaraderie rings out at Sun City’s horseshoe pits

By Gwyneth J. Saunders

Clang, thump, thump, thump, clang!

From lane to lane, there’s a lot of joking and teasing as members of the Sun City Horseshoe Club toss the silver or red horseshoes at stakes in their opponent’s pit.

Players comment on their opponent’s technique, sometimes impressed.

“I don’t know how he does it,” said one club member as he watches club Vice President Bill Wilkey flipping one end over end. It lands very tidily around the stake 37 feet away from his own pit.

Wilkey’s a rookie compared to many of his counterparts. He and his wife moved to Sun City about 15 months ago, and he joined shortly after.

“I was still working at the time, had another few months to go, and it looked like an easy sport where I could go play in the morning and still make it to my office in the afternoon,” he said. “It was one of the smartest moves I made because it’s a great group of guys.”

The universal thread that ties the members together seems to be a sense of camaraderie, something newbie Wilkey appreciates.

“I’m an OK horseshoe player. These guys are much, much better than I am. It doesn’t matter if you’re good, bad or in between. There’s always a little competition, there’s some talking back and forth, but everyone has a good time,” said Wilkey. “Put it this way: if you’re not very good at it, people are still very encouraging.”

John Riccio, club past president, has a vastly different horseshoe background from Wilkey.

“I’ve been playing probably since I was a child. A lot of people probably did it when they belonged to a fraternal club that carried it, so that’s how people would get into it. They had access to it,” said Riccio. “I grew up in a neighborhood that had a lot of veterans in it, they played in the service and they got into it. Other people would go to a family reunion or outing or learn it from their grandfather.”

Riccio recently introduced a Hall of Fame program to honor those members who have been members for 10 or more years, officers, contributors who improved the club in one way or another.

“Some people get into a club, and they could be gone in six months. But the ones that stuck it out and have been here a long time, I try to recognize that,” he said.

That includes members such as Herman Hauprich, a former firefighter, who suggested the club lay old firehose on top of the foul lines to protect the wood. Dave Kimball founded the club. Other Hall of Famers include Wayne Moore, Ron Petroff, Tom Schneck, Denny Leinberger, Joe Gilsinger, Florida and Bob Lindstrom, Art Holland, Dave Griffiths, Tiff and Jackie Tiffany, and Bert Ruys.

The main horseshoe pits are next to the softball field and pickleball courts at the corner of Red Dam Road and Sun City Boulevard, but early on – like the softball field – all the action was on the site of Magnolia Hall

Griffiths, who at 95 is one of the senior players, remembered what it was like to play in that first location.

“I joined when the horseshoe players used to play in the parking lot where Magnolia Hall is now. I was playing a lot of golf at the time, so I only played there on a Saturday.

Then they moved from there down to the sports complex,” he said. “I like the cama- raderie. The guys are a great bunch of guys. You can be a bad player or a good player but it doesn’t make any difference. It’s a good social club, nobody gets angry, you do the best you can, and everybody is ok with that.”

It’s not just men who play horseshoes, either. There are two women who play and one of the “guys” is Jackie Tiffany, who can be seen pulling out of her driveway on her golf cart twice a week heading to the pits. She and her late husband “Tiff” were founding members, according to Riccio.

“We got involved with horseshoes right away, Tiff and I loved it. He was so good,” she said. “The people are so nice. I enjoy playing with them. They’re very kind to me.”

Tiffany said she heads out a little early, especially now that play begins at 9 a.m. because of the summer heat, so she can towel down the tables and benches set up under a canopy next to the pits.

“I’m not the best player. Every now and then I can get a ringer, but I really enjoy it,” she added.