7th Annual Thanksgiving (Paul Weber Induction)

November 24 – 26, 2006
Oskar’s Sports Bar and Grill
Bellflower, California

The annual Thanksgiving tournament and the induction of Paul Weber into the California Shuffleboard Hall of Fame went great. As reported by the tournament director, Rich “Bubba” Warren, we had 39 paid shufflers that participated in the ABC and open doubles events. Susie Jones was the treasurer and taker of all the money. Their was approximately $3600 total prize money in each event. Jeff Posthumus was the brackteer.

The ABC event was won by John Fisher, HL Lee and our newcomer and his first tournament, Firman Alvarez. Second place went to Hall of Famer Bob Hunt, Gary Jones and Mike “Yard Sale” Huber. And third was Eric Chiles, Chris Brown and Jan Manes.

In the open doubles it was John Fisher (what a weekend for John) and Robert “Cowboy” Wade. This was Robert’s first win in an open doubles. Congratulation Cowboy! John and Cowboy did not lose a game the entire tournament. Way to go team! Second place was JR Noel and Bob Crum. It was a hard fought two games, but John and Cowboy prevailed. The dual of Jerry “Humdinger” Harp and Gary Jones came in third. Jerry and Gary was the next to the lowest Calcutta at $120. Way to go you guys!

The induction of  Paul Webber went off without any hitches. Flowers were giving to Mrs. Weber by Jeff Posthumus and to Paul from Siobhan Posthumus. Master of ceremonies, Tim Obrien handled the great induction with such grace and still and I would like to thank Tim for his support. I also want to thank Wes Martin, Joe Muniz, Vern Booth, Ken Hawkes, Dave Brennan, Marion Bailey and Mike Huber all for speaking at the induction. I want to send out a BIG THANKS to Kathy Thomas for her great job she done on the program booklets. If anyone out there would want to order their programs for any tournament or other events, I would highly recommend Kathy’s work. What a first class job Kathy. Thanks for taking on the work and your support.

I would like to thank Jan Manes for taking care of the 50/50 drawing and those that participated. If not for our drawings we would not have the funds to pay for our induction’s and other things that go un-noticed. And last but certainly not least, I want to thank everyone that did get involved in bringing all that wonderful food. That would be the following people: Susie Jones, Hope Weber, Mo Harley, Jan Manes, Bonnie Turmbo, Ernie Alvarez, Tommy Yoshiyama, Betsy Crier and Oscar Ugarte. I heard nothing but good things about the food at this tournament all weekend.

ABC	Bring Partner
1st	1st
2nd	2nd
3rd	3rd

Paul Weber Induction:

Considered by many as one of the co-founders of the modern shuffleboard mega-tournament, Paul Weber has been a strong supporter of west coast shuffleboard for the past 20 years.

EARLY YEARS

Paul was born on December 11, 1939 in Pittsburgh, PA. His father was the City Circulation Manager for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette until he enlisted in the Merchant Marines during WWII. Unfortunately, he was killed when his boat blew up near Anzio. Paul’s mother worked as a secretary until she retired. Paul moved her to California in 1972. She passed away in 1989. Paul didn’t have any brothers or sisters. According to Paul, his parents said, “This guy’s goofy enough. We don’t want any more like him.”

Paul went to Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh and graduated in 1958. He worked for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette for three years and then moved to California for the 1st time in 1961. This is when Paul first played the game of shuffleboard at a place called The Stein. For the next six years he moved back and forth between Pennsylvania and California, working various jobs such as pipe inspector, car salesman and bar tender.

Paul came back to California permanently in 1967 and worked for Farmer John’s in Vernon, California. From 1969-1983 he worked in the freight business until there was a mass layoff. “Haven’t turned a lick since,” says Paul. “Around this time I got into ‘sports speculation’ which has paid my way ever since.”

SHUFFLEBOARD BEGINNINGS

After Paul’s brief introduction to shuffleboard in 1961, he didn’t have any more to do with the game until he moved to Bellflower, Ca in 1973. He began playing at the Edgewood and met Billy Chiles. He went on the road, backing Billy for six years. Paul says, “This is where I really began to learn how to play the game. When you watch a player like Billy, you learn a lot.” Later, he began backing and taking road trips with Jimmy Allis. He started to improve his own game in 1987. He was living in Downey, California and began playing Jimmy Anderson four practice games every day at the Dixie Belle. “Then I’d stay and play about 20 more games. I got to where I was half decent.”

PCSA

Joe Muniz attended a tournament in Las Vegas that had been run by Billy Mays. He came back and told Paul that he thought they could do a better job. Joe asked Paul if he would be the “money man.” They, along with Lou Lucero and Karl Spickelmier ran the first PCSA Las Vegas Tournament in 1989. They had 12 new boards, 6 American and 6 Play Fair. “We had no more idea of what we were doing than the Man in the Moon,” Paul remembers. Paul helped to negotiate room rates with the Showboat, and figured out the logistics of the calcuttas, money handling, events and rankings.

“It was a nightmare. We managed to get through it to the doubles semi-finals, when the Showboat screwed us out of a day.