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BGonline.org Forums
Jake's History of Young Giants
Posted By: Jake Jacobs In Response To: Jake's History of Young Giants (phil Simborg)
Date: Monday, 3 May 2010, at 2:04 a.m.
I was reflecting on the fact that I never moved a checker until I was older than any of the prodigies we've discussed, and three decades later I am still not as good as Nack. But since I am four years (and twenty-nine days) older than Nack, I was about to claim the senescence crown when I realized that backgammon is crawling with creaky old wrecks. X, Senk, Wachtel: all are in their sixties. Perry, Kit, and Ed are all, um, no longer in their sixties. Larry Liebster and Emil Mortuk are, um, no longer as young as Perry and Kit and Ed. Phil may seem sprightly, and it seems like only yesterday that he was taking lessons from Paul Franks, but mark my words, one of these days we'll check his web site and learn his first mentors were Grovesnor Nicholas and John Longacre.
Yesterday Bill Davis dug up the "original" Giants list, from the March, 1981 issue of the Las Vegas Backgammon Magazine. Among the thirty-two names was the man who was probably the oldest player to still be considered a Giant. I don't know how old he was then, but think he was close to eighty. And no, by 1981 Ozzie was no longer considered a Giant, so it wasn't Jacoby. (But good guess, if he was your first thought. Two years later, over eighty and dying of cancer, Jacoby played on a championship bridge team.) (And if we are talking bridge, I think Waldmar Von Zedwitz was playing in major tournaments at 93, after he went blind!)
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