Sport: Horseshoe Pitchers

For the 2,000,000 horseshoe pitchers in the U. S. there is one question that has never been satisfactorily answered: whether it is better to throw a shoe so that it makes i^ turns before reaching the stake or so that it makes if turns. The 71 men and ten women who lined up in Chicago last week for the World’s Championship Horseshoe Pitching Tournament were about evenly divided. In twelve courts on the boardwalk overlooking the north lagoon at A Century of Progress, they pitched into boxes six feet square, filled with blue clay. In the qualifying rounds—high score for 100 shoes, with three points for ringers, one for a pitch within six inches of the stake—all but six women and 24 men were eliminated. Next day, the final round-robins started. A scorekeeper for each court measured the pitches with calipers, and a straightedge for questionable ringers. Using 2½lb. shoes, like men, but on a 30-ft. instead of 40-ft. court, the women pitchers, wearing white dresses as convention required, settled their championship first.

The women’s contest was really unnecessary. Well-informed horseshoe pitchers are aware that the best women pitchers in the U. S. are the Schultz sisters of Harvey, Ill., Caroline and Charlotte, who have been exhibiting their skill in the Midwest, where horseshoe pitching principally thrives, for the last seven years. The Schultz sisters are plump, brown and stocky with bobbed brown hair. Caroline is 21, Charlotte 22. Since they took up their pastime in 1926, they have pitched horseshoes three times every day on their own courts and either of them will guarantee 200 ringers in 30 minutes. Once Caroline threw 254 in half an hour, a record. Last week she established another record by throwing 211 ringers in 286 throws, for a percentage of 73.8. By beating all five of her opponents, including her sister, in the round-robin, she became champion. Charlotte, a shade browner and one inch shorter, who like her sister, throws a high slow pitch with 1¼ turns, was runner-up.

Most famed and oldest player in the men’s tournament was Frank Jackson, 73, five times champion, who failed to qualify. His youngest and least rustic confrere was John Calao, 17, of Chicago, who qualified with 219 but could not keep up with

Charles C. Davis of Kansas City and Theodore Allen of Alhambra, Calif., the two finalists who were tied at the end of the round-robin. In the play-off (two games out of three), Allen won, 50-28, 50-27. He had established a world’s record, throwing 73.5% ringers in the tournament. A farmer until recently when he got a job with a transfer company, he is a shy, sandy-haired, well-built fellow with a missing tooth. Now 24, he has been pitching half his life, throws a soft lead shoe with 1¼ turns, takes time out during matches to remove splinters from the shoes (lead shoes often splinter) with a file he always carries in his pocket.