"Perfection in the Horseshoe Pit"

NY Times front page story by John Branch (photo by Doug Benz for the NY Times)
(Click on above picture to read the corresponding story)

Click Here for the NY Times follow-up sports brief by John Branch, covering Francis' 8th straight World Title win in Cedar Rapids, IA
 

 "How to Pitch a Ringer" story in ESPN the Magazine

Alan Francis Demonstrates how to pitch various turns and the flip for ESPN the Magazine. 
(Click on above picture to watch video and read corresponding ESPN Mag story)
 

Live appearance on ESPN HD's "First Take" 9/1/10

Alan Francis takes on the ESPN "First Take" broadcasters in horseshoes and other games at ESPN HD in Bristol, CT
(Click on above picture to watch ESPN video)

A professional line-up of unique, top quality pitching shoes

 

Signature Shoe	Legacy	Bullseye	All-On
Details on each model: Signature Shoe: This is the shoe Alan designed with us in 2005... this horseshoe bears his signature, hence the name "Signature Shoe."  He's pitched it since it's inception, steadily improving in performance to the point of an undefeated (19 - 0) world record performance in the 2009 World Horseshoe Pitching Championships at Springfield, IL, averaging 90.26% ringers with this shoe!  Obviously, this horseshoe has superb balance.  Its pointed ringer break helps it to hook more ringers.  It has a deadsoft body that receives ringers extremely well and its hardened tips will maximize its ringer count throughout the life of the shoe.  It is made from WD's unique and very strong iron alloy which carries a one year warranty against breakage... Alan has improved his pitching about 5% since starting with this shoe and that's tough to do considering he was already averaging 85% ringers!  It's a great shoe for any turn and some have found it to be a great flip shoe too! Legacy: At first glance, the Legacy looks a lot like the Signature Shoe, but without a ringer break... and that's primarily what it is!  With all three of the other Alan Francis horseshoes heavily favoring the turn style of pitching, the idea for the Legacy was to make a version of the Signature Shoe that was even more suitable for flip style pitching... It has all the features of the Signature Shoe, except it has a reverse ringer break, which is much preferred by flip pitchers.  But we didn't stop there!  On top of that, it is made from a greatly strengthened version of our unique iron alloy... this is the toughest stuff we have!  We've been testing it since 1996 with amazing results!  We are so sure of it that we are willing to warrant these shoes for an unprecedented three years! You can't go wrong with this shoe... it throws great for any turn and just as great for the flip and it will hold its shape for years to come... With a life-expectancy twice that of a normal horseshoe, Legacy is by far the best value in our extensive line of pitching horseshoes! Bullseye: We killed a few birds with one stone when we made this one... The goal with Bullseye was to come up with a horseshoe to compete head to head with the Deadeye Clydesdale.  But as you can probably tell, we don't usually like to just "compete."  We prefer to put some thought into it and make an even better product than what we're going up against.  The Bullseye Horseshoe does all that and more... It has that thin, wide-blade feel of the Clydesdale that everyone likes... But we took and rounded the edges and put our famous Six Shooter ringer break, hooks and tips on this one to make it one of the most aggressive shoes out there!  This is a superior shoe in every way... We hit exactly what we were aiming for with this horseshoe, so we called it Bullseye!  This one will not disappoint. All-On: There's no hiding it... The two shoes we went after with this horseshoe were the ever popular Ted Allen and Deadeye's E-Z Grip... Over the years, we have received many, many requests for a horseshoe that was a "Ted Allen body with Imperial hooks and tips."  Well, that's what this is... but with an added twist of a diamond plate style recessed texture that blows away the E-Z Grip's gripping surface!  The criss-crossed grooves on the surface of the shoe form a diamond pattern that really enhances the grip during the swing... But the edges of the center nodules are all beveled so the shoe can pull away cleanly once it is released.  This grip really works and so does the Allen/Imperial combo shape... The turn action of this shoe is like no other... all it wants to do is land open end first and you can't hardly make it do anything else!  It's exactly what you would expect from a blend of two of the most popular shoes of all-time... it is near perfection, to say the least!  Yes, after throwing this shoe for the first time, we were all scratching our heads wondering why we didn't do this sooner!  If you throw a turn, this horseshoe is worth trying...  You'll be a step closer to getting them all on with this horseshoe!

Men's championship horseshoe pitching moved into its modern era in 1940, breaking the 80% ringer average barrier for the first time that year.  Since then, it has taken an average of over 83.5% ringers to win the world title.  Alan Francis has won 15 of them!  In nearly a hundred tries, it's a short list of six players who've pitched better than 85% ringers to win the title... the greatest of the greats... Fernando Isais, Ted Allen, Curt Day, Elmer Hohl, Walter Ray Williams Jr. and Alan Francis...  Alan has done this six times!  As of 2009, he's made 22 appearances in the Men's Championship Division at the World Championships and including all the bad days (there haven't been very many), he still has an overall lifetime average over 81% in the championship... In 2009, in Springfield, IL he set the all-time record for highest ringer average in the Men's World Championship Division bettering last year's world record of 89.4% with an astonishing 90.26% ringer average, putting Alan in a class of his own being the first world champion to ever average over 90%!  He's arguably one of the greatest to ever compete in this sport and he pitches this shoe that bares his signature!

For the most astounding 15th time, Alan Francis of Defiance, OH  won the 2009 Men's World Championship in Springlfield, IL... He was undefeated all the way through the finals at 19-0 with a world record performance of 90.26% ringers!  That's 917 ringers out of 1,016 shoes pitched!  With that performance, Alan now tops an elite club of just three men who have pitched over 88% in the world championships, the other two being horseshoe legends Elmer Hohl and Walter Ray Williams Jr... what an accomplishment!  And yes, he pitches his "signature shoe"    ...maybe you should too!

Click Here to watch a nice full-size video of the unprecedented 12-time world champion Alan Francis pitching in the 2005 Greenville Ringer Classic on July 3, 2005, warming up for his record-breaking 11th World Title (approximately 1 1/2 minutes)... There's another video link at the bottom of this page for another look at Alan pitching.

Here's a nice photo of Alan displaying his championship form, pitching his way to winning his 10th men's world title in Pocatello, ID on August 8th, 2004.  This shot really captures his perfectly straight forward pitching style and shows him deeply concentrating on the target, obviously all the way through his delivery.  Notice how his eyes are trained on the stake, not the shoe he just let go of?  This tenth victory tied the all time record holder, the great Ted Allen, who's record had stood since 1959.  Alan has now broken that record, winning two more titles since then... the only question now is how many titles will he win by the time he's finished???

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