Hello, all. As we are not being able to come to the table for cards, it’s still nice to connect with one another. I was thinking back about how I got my start at bridge. My parents played, but I never played bridge at home with them. I loved cards, though. When I got to The University of Iowa, the piano player in my band played bridge and we would get in a game occasionally while living in the Quadrangle my sophomore year. Also that year, 1970, I tried out and made the Iowa bowling team. That got me to the IMU for practice. After practice, I wandered into the Gold Feather Room and people were playing bridge for coin. I kibitzed. Then a great guy by the name of Dave Garrels asked me to play duplicate. We finished last, but I was hooked. Rich Clinite took me under his wing a year later and the rest is history. I left Iowa City in 1980, occasionally coming back to visit, but played little bridge until 2010 after I retired from teaching in North Carolina. Bob Otto asked me to partner him and for ten wonderful years I had a great guy to show me the way, so to speak. Bob and I knew each other well back in the 70s and occasionally played together. One neat piece of trivia. Bob and I won the open pairs in Dubuque. Back then they had prizes. Mark Patton, an excellent wood worker, made two wine cabinets for prizes. Mine still hangs in my kitchen to this day. Thanks to Bob, I was able to catch up on all the modern conventions and Bob taught me matchpoint bidding strategy. I miss him greatly. As you read the rest of these stories, it should not surprise you to see how many bridge players reference Bob!
I think you’ll greatly enjoy these reminiscences. Plus, you’ll probably come across some names you haven’t thought of for some years. If you haven’t sent anything in yet on how you got your start, please do. I’ll begin with Bill Kent’s story, one of the best players ever to play bridge in Iowa.
Bill Kent writes: I was very fortunate to have lots of people give me opportunities, too many to name. Vern Nunnally gave me a steady Iowa high level partner, Mark Patton. Bob Otto pushed me into directing (You’re directing Thursday – just wing it!). Candy Fowler and Walt Schafer gave me entry into top level bridge. Peg Kaplan gave me a regular partner with whom to play at high levels. Vern and Monty Evans provided steady team support. Dennis Cordle gave me confidence. Paulette Koontz helped me enjoy bridge. Oh I miss her. Also too many to name are the people who give me hope. Which I am using right now! My father, Tom Kent, was also very important to my development. He gave me his time. We practiced bidding with him taking certain cards from the deck, playing Bridgette, and of course, all the old Bridge Worlds from which I learned Standard American. “Challenge the Champs” was a useful tool.
Mark Patton writes: Roger Meyer was my first partner, and he made me interested in competing. Jim Humke (now deceased) and Tony Frommelt, two Dubuque guys in college sharpened my technical game. Tony To, a Chinese student at the U of DBQ, taught me temperament at the table, among other things. Important lessons. I played around quite a bit….Joe Verbick and Vern and Arlene, Ron Danielson, Tait Cummins were partners. Royce, Keith Hansen. Once with Al Stout when he was in DBQ on an overnight assignment, and there was a Unit Wide Championship on, and he asked me to play. We won. Frank Hellenthal and I competed together in the 70’s. Frank’s a great player. I learned a lot from Frank, my first 2/1 partner, which was advanced for the time, right after we competed together in the 70’s. Then, Bill Kent and I “grew up together”, and I got seriously better. When Bob Shapley moved to California, we became “partners” when he would come back for the Lake Geneva Regional, and a few others. Joe Pieper is my regular partner now after he moved back to the area in 2006. Of course, my early instruction came from my books. I have my Bridge Worlds to 1969 (first duplicate year).
Noni Myers writes: Husband Lynn and I joined the 21st Bridge Century in the early 2000’s by taking Bob Otto’s class at SE Jr. High on Tues nights. Lynn had played in college, and I had tried to learn in kitchens in Hawaii. Lynn and I married in 2003 and needed to meld our playing perspectives. Thank you to Bob’s patience in providing alternatives to two different styles, and the opportunity of getting to know many local players!
Ron Truhlar writes: The person who put the Bridge passion in me was a friend by the name of “Oogie” (Lawrence) Davis (since passed away). Back in the late 60’s we used to play Pinnocle at lunch and one day he decided to teach us all bridge Ever since then I always wanted to learn. In my travels back from Cal to Chicago, I was unable to find a Bridge club that teaches. It wasn’t until I moved to IC that I came across Bridge lessons at the Senior Center. I signed up and my first couple of lessons were taught by Phil Cummins … after that it was Bob Otto.I still have his catalog of bridge protocols. That’s how I learned.
Jan Hinrichs writes: I stumbled onto duplicate on BBO in 2009, the year that I had to give up golf because of back issues. A kind BBO player offered to teach me how to play. Bob Chambers, an elderly Texan, played with me daily for many months. I went to Roger Welty’s game that same year, and that was my first club game. And because Barb Skogman wouldn’t take no for an answer, I joined ACBL!
Carol Baldes writes: I got my first nudge into duplicate bridge in AZ when I signed up to take a class and found out they taught it in duplicate style and insisted that we play in duplicate games at the social centers. Then in Iowa, I took Bob Otto’s class and had even more encouragement to continue. Bob was indeed brilliant, patient with me and unrelenting. I’m sure many of you miss him as I do.
Nancy Klein writes: We had played social bridge since we first started dating 55 years ago. We took lessons at one time in Omaha, NE at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. I don’t remember the gentleman’s name but it was the basics and I was pregnant with our daughter and really couldn’t concentrate. When we moved back here to Cedar Rapids after retiring we played at a Longest Day meeting and joined ACBL with the encouragement of Barbara Skogman who was a good friend of on of my cousins. Shortly after that we took a couple classes from MaryAnn Boardman and started playing regularly at the Cedar Rapids clubs and in the local sectionals. Through these we me many more experienced players. One that took us under her wing and always gave us pointers and encouragement was Paulette Koontz. We traveled to many tournaments with her and teamed with her and her sister Sally as well as with Bill Kent on many occasions. Some more successful than others but all came with “lessons”. We continued to take classes from MaryAnn Boardman and then we started playing on Tuesday evening in Iowa City. Through this we took classes from Bob Otto. We have many players that have encouraged us and made bridge a fun and rewarding pastime for our retirement. We look forward to returning to bridge activities when this quarantine is over.
John Morano writes: My bridge “career” began in 1983. I took a class from Kirkwood. Lo and behold John Kempf was the instructor and Linda Edwards happened to be in the same class. I joined the ACBL in June 1984. The points given away at the time were meager, I was a total novice and I played with very poor players. The funny (sad) thing is it took me almost a year to earn one point. I was excited to send that in. Phil Cummins ran a 0-20 game at the Elks which was usually 5-6 tables. That was the beginning of my obsession. Since nobody good would play with me I used to hold bridge parties at my house where I could play 50 hands or more with the people who stayed late. I invited the likes of Bill Kent and Bob Otto and I listened to them without arguing. The rest is history.
Doug Torson writes: Judy got started in rubber bridge right after college taking lessons from Ivah Vater. She has been involved with several groups over the years and has always enjoyed the game. Back in the late sixties a neighbor had us over for a meal and afterwards thought a game of bridge was in order. This was my first try at the game and they thought I done well for my first attempt. A few games here and there but I had no real interest in the game. We moved to Oklahoma and discovered our neighbors played bridge every Friday night, 6 – 8 tables. The person that that enticed me to play happen to be one of the people (Stan Gustus) that wanted me to move to OK. Between him & Judy I played bridge. After spending 10 years in OK we moved back to IA and of course Judy got involved again and I found out about Bob Otto and lessons started. To me duplicate bridge is the game. I will always thank Bob for his help in getting Judy and me involved in duplicate. The Tuesday evening group has been enjoyable and fun. We hope to play again at the Wednesday noon group. Thanks to Carol and John for stepping up and heading up the Tuesday night games.
Carol Panzer writes: I became interested in bridge as an undergraduate at Cornell University. I enrolled in a class taught by a grad student who was an avid bridge player, but my course load was so intense I had to drop out. Years later I met John, who had stopped playing duplicate after literally playing for decades. One day a friend called and said we ought to learn how to play bridge. I thought it was a great idea, so I asked John if he would teach us, to which he readily agreed. So we had my friend and her husband over. My friend is a very talented artist and writer, and not exactly what I would call analytical. She had a very tough time with the game… every time John mentioned the word “trump”, she would sing “Toodle-oodle-oodle.” However, I became utterly smitten. That year we had a long, cold, snowy winter, and John and I spent numerous hours playing hands each weekend. After some time, we started playing at a small duplicate club in Ottumwa (unfortunately now defunct.) I am very grateful to the players at that little club, who were warm, welcoming, and very patient with a newbie. In 2012 we moved to Iowa City, and I began playing more frequently. My biggest influence, and most patient teacher, has been John, but many others have helped me in my bridge journey. Despite what Bill Kent says (“You don’t learn anything at club games”), I have learned a great deal from Bill at club games, and I appreciate his willingness to answer just about any question I might have (although he does occasionally respond, “Why are you asking me?”) I also appreciate several people who asked me to play in my early days in Iowa City, all of them kind and patient: Bill Whiteis, Cherry Sparks, Sally Fink, Bob Benson and Linda Edwards. Also many thanks to Bob Otto, Martha Bailie, Rich Bailie, Denny Cordle, Diane Roush and Ardee Cushing for their insights and expertise. I can’t end without thanking Martha Peterson – we’ve played together regularly and attended several regionals, earning gold points, allowing me to achieve the rank of life master – and even when we got nothing, we had a blast.
John Kempf writes: I like to say that I majored in bridge at the University of Iowa. Between classes, I would head down to the student union, where I could always find at least one table of bridge players going at it. I tried to watch and learn. One day, I arrived at the union to find that the usual table was missing a player. Bill Haney told me to sit down and play. I told him I didn’t know how to play. Bill said, “You’ve been watching long enough”, and proceeded to run through the basic tenets, e.g., lead top from an honor sequence, or fourth from longest and strongest, etc. So I sat down to play. Eventually, Bill and his partner got to a 7NT contract, which I promptly doubled. Ultimately it became apparent that all that the partnership was missing was a queen. Bill had a two-way finesse, and I was on his left. Bill gave me a smug look, and led up to the King – Jack on dummy. Lo and behold, my partner showed up with the missing queen. Bill was so furious that he bit through his corncob pipe. He said, “Why on earth did you double?” to which I innocently replied, “You told me to always count on my partner for one trick.”
Roger Johanson writes:Judy Vopava and I got started with bridge at Luther College when a group of students led a short course during our Winter term — Interim— class. It was maybe 4 evening sessions. Many of us became almost fanatical about bridge and played a lot. Duplicate came later (after getting married) when we were students at Cornell University. We couldn’t find anybody to play bridge, but someone mentioned the Ithaca, NY duplicate bridge club. We built up enough courage to try it. Everyone was helpful and we got hooked. I think we played there for 6 years as we both earned our doctorate degrees.
John Hartson writes: Anne was my girlfriend when we began our sophomore years at UNI. She and her best friend rented an apartment that was across the alley from my house and 1/2 block from her best friend’s boyfriend (who happened to be my best friend). To say the least we were close. We started playing bridge as couples and developed our own set of bidding rules (e.g.: if you “inkeled” a spade that meant you had 4 or 5 spades and a fairly weak hand). We became addicted to the game, to the point where our grades began to reflect the time we were playing. With the prospect of getting drafted, the guys curtailed our playing time, but only just enough to graduate three years later. We continued to play together until Anne and I moved to Iowa City. Then our friends moved to Mount Vernon and we were at it again. Graduate school finally separated us. Bridge became a fond memory while we raised a family and pursued our careers. When retirement was on the horizon we joined a class taught by Carol and John and continue in the learning process. I learned during the second class that I couldn’t “inkel”. We continue to gradually improve.
If you’d like to share your story, please put it into a short paragraph and email it to me. Many thanks and keep on trucking.