The 15th Annual Cancer Memorial Benefit was held on September 10-12, 2004 at One Nostalgia Place, 6521 Abrams Rd. in Dallas. 60 players from the greater Dallas area entered the event, a 6-man draft team tournament. Through the usual hard efforts and excellent services of the ONP staff along with the active participation of the league executive committee, the GDSA presented a check to Children’s Medical Center of Dallas for $6,350.00.

This event was first organized in 1990 as a way for the league to remember one of our sponsors, Bobby Jones, who died of cancer. Since that time, we have dedicated the tournament to all of our friends of shuffleboard that have passed away, and remember them by our participation and generosity in this event, which to date has raised close to $100,000.00 for cancer research and treatment for "our kids".

The tournament itself ran smoothly from start to finish. In addition to shuffleboard, there was also a blackjack tournament to give waiting players and bar patrons other ways to pass the time while helping our kids at Children’s. First Place and Grand Prize for this tournament went to Steve Dunegan, who won a 2 night stay in one of the casino hotels in Bossier City/Shreveport, LA along with a trophy.

A great many items were donated by members and local businesses in the community for raffle prizes. While everyone on the staff at One Nostalgia Place went out of their way to assist with this weekend event, Cindy Boyd decided to really step up and take charge of this event. Through her determined efforts the raffle raised well over $1000 for the cause.

Congratulations to the First Place team that was led by Dave Ewing (who also won last year as well) and his teammates Terri Robertson, Gary Michael VanZant, Dorothy Henderson, Dennis Buchert and Roy Applegate. Second Place went to the team led by Herb McClain. Third Place honors went to Connie McCormack and Fourth Place went to the team led by Sal Mancuso. (see pictures).

1) To promote the shuffleboard through its members in and around the greater Dallas area;

2) To provide a profitable return for sponsoring bars/clubs that enter teams into our league, and

3) To give back to our community through charitable contributions to our adopted charity – The Cancer & Blood Disorders Unit at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas.

The league is administered through a Board of Directors. Each team elects a Captain at the start of the season, and this person becomes their elected representative on the board of directors. In addition, the membership elects a President, Secretary and Treasurer. Together with the Board Chairman they form the Executive Committee, which oversees the daily operation and administration of the players.

The adopted method of play for us on Tuesdays is a best-of-nine match that pits Pairs of players from each team in a game to 11 points. This shortened game is necessary in order to give each player the chance to play a reasonable amount of games (3) and still get them home at a decent hour, safely. The league also employs a handicap system, using a rating system not unlike the Bowers System in use today for tournaments. Ratings are done through the team captains and by ballot, twice yearly.

Weekly cost to the players is $5.00, and if their team wins the match they get $6.00, and $2.00 for a loss, payable at the end of the season. A 2 division system is used for standings, but all teams play each other at least once. The Divisions become important at playoff time, as the playoffs are seeded, with the top 8 teams playing in Division 1 and all others playing in Division 2 in a double-elimination format.

To briefly summarize what makes this system work here – in part or in whole – is that is has been designed for the overwhelming majority of our members. These are just average people that want to get together with their friends on Tuesday and enjoy themselves by socializing, playing shuffleboard and being given a measure or fair hope that they can win a match, no matter who they are playing against. They will spend $5.00 to play, but will not usually play $10.00 tournaments or travel to one. Since these players are the same people that make prize packages possible for the better teams, it only makes sense that our program be tailored around this player without over handicapping the more one, to the mutual benefit of the