| Groups of mibsters will gather in
Downtown Akron on Saturday to knuckle down, trying not to lose their commies and
flinties to a dabster playing for keeps, hoping for a snooger and
trying to avoid a hunch.* If that sounds like gobbledygook, you may need an
education in the oldest children’s sporting event in the nation to be played in Akron
this weekend.
 The Akron District Marbles Tournament is
Saturday, June 11 at Lock 3 Park sponsored by the City of Akron and the American Toy Marble Museum.
This is the 16th year for the tournament
in Akron and the third annual event to be held at Lock 3, according to Michael Cohill,
director of the competition.
"The American Toy Marble Museum has returned the game of marbles to Akron. The
tournament, for many years, was promoted by the Akron Press as a way to sell
newspapers and can claim the right to call itself the oldest children’s sporting
event in the nation, having been founded in 1923," Cohill said.
Over the past school year, Cohill has personally instructed hundreds of children in the
game of marbles as part of the City of Akron’s after-school programs sponsored with
the Akron Public Schools. He has also shown the game to hundreds of visitors —-
including HUNDREDS OF CUB SCOUTS —- at the History Museum at Lock 3.
"Every boy and girl, 14 years of age and under can compete in the Akron District
Marbles Tournament," says Cohill. "Each child will be provided with a bag of
marbles to get started, and receive a lesson in how to play the game."
Lock 3 gates open at 9:00am Saturday, and the tournament begins at 10am. Depending on
attendance, the championship should finish around noon with the winner being awarded a
large trophy and a trip to Disneyworld for two, including airfare, hotel and park
admission, valued at $1,000.
The City of Akron’s Recreation Bureau will also be on hand to offer an assortment
of games for children including hopscotch, jump rope, four square, hula hoops and even a
bubble gum blowing contest.
"These are the games our parents and even grandparents knew well," says Suzie
Graham who coordinates Lock 3 events for the city. "It’s appropriate that we
bring them back here at the History Museum along the canal."
Lock 3 Park actually sits atop the site of the American Marble & Toy Manufacturing
Co. whose founder Samuel C. Dyke is regarded as the founder of the American toy industry.
In the 1880's, it was Dyke who put a simple manufactured toy in the hands of every child
who had a penny — a handful of ceramic marbles. The company made a million marbles
every day, six days a week for many years.
The American Toy Marble Museum will be doing demonstrations of how marbles were first
made in Akron, and children will be able to try their hand at forming a marble in clay the
old-fashioned way.
All events are free and open to the public.
For more information, go to www.akronmarbles.com.
-end-
* Translation: Groups of children who play marbles (mibsters)... will play the game by
always leaving at least one knuckle on the ground, (knuckle-down) trying not to lose their
common marbles (commies) and natural agates (flinties) to a player who is an accomplished
shooter (dabster) who will be rewarded by taking home all marbles that he or she shoots
out of the ring (for keeps). A "snooger" is an easy shot A "hunch" is
an illegal shot. |
