The roots of the Erie Horseshoe club can be traced as far back as 1921. The creation of the Erie Horseshoe Pitchers League, by Samuel A. White, in 1921, was the beginning of organized horseshoe pitching in Erie County. Until then, there were just small groups of players scattered all over the city and county, playing on mostly one and two court setups. They played at city parks, schoolyards and backyards all over the area.

Sam happened to have a lighted court (It was very rare to find such a thing back then.) set up in the alley behind his home—The lighting came from a billboard that happened to be there—Nice bonus! This court became a hot spot for horseshoes in the city. All the hardcore horseshoe pitchers played there every night in the summer.

Because his court was such a crossroads for horseshoes in the Erie area, Sam quickly became familiar with all the small groups of players within and surrounding Erie. It was his idea to start a summer long competition between all these small groups. In the spring of 1921, Sam contacted local industrial shops to find sponsors for teams, including both local newspapers. The Erie Horseshoe Pitchers League was officially formed and was off and running with Sam White as President (1921 – 1935).

Since the newspapers were sponsors, the league always got great press coverage, which helped it to grow very quickly in the early years. The summer league always concluded with a singles competition called the Erie City and County Championships, a tradition that continues today as the annual Erie County Horseshoe Tournament.

1921 George Wright (2 consecutive wins) at the Erie Stadium
1922 No Tournament
1923 George Wright at Perry School Courts
1924 Francis Sullivan at Perry School Courts
1925 Tony Lucanio at Irving School Courts
1926 Francis Sullivan at Glenwood Courts
1927 Sam Confer (of Northeast, PA) at Glenwood
1928 Sam White (3 consecutive wins) at Glenwood
1929 Same
1930 Same
1931 Paul Hewitt at Glenwood
1932 Clarence White (2 consecutive wins) at Glenwood
1933 Same
1934 Ed Wurst at Glenwood
1935 thru 1940 Francis White (6 consecutive wins) all at Glenwood

The Erie Horseshoe League grew very rapidly in the early 1920’s. The number of teams grew substantially when a merchant’s circuit was added to compete with the existing industrial circuit. In 1926, the city (at the urging of Sam White) responded to the growing popularity of the game by building a six court setup in the park at the corner of 38^th and Cherry Streets (approximately where the JMC Ice Arena stands today.).

As horseshoes continued to grow, Sam White petitioned the city to add more courts. The layout was expanded in 1930 with the addition of 6 courts and floodlights for playing after dark. This facility was used extensively for the next seven years until noise complaints from Cherry Street residents forced the city to find a more secluded spot. They chose a large vacant tract of land just a couple of blocks east of that site on the corner of 38^th and Shunpike. They initially built 12 courts here with the intention of hosting the 1936 PA State Tournament.

In the spring of 1936, a new organization (the Erie Horseshoe Pitchers Club) was formed under a state sanctioned NHPA charter, with Paul Hewitt as President of the Club. We recognize this as the official beginning of our club. That group hosted the first of many state championships at the courts on Shunpike. Again, at the urging of Sam White (club President (1937 – 1939), lights were added in 1938 to accommodate a second shift of play on summer nights.  Jack Luther was elected club President in the spring of 1939.  Unfortunately, no records exist from his time as club President.

The late 1930’s turned out to be the climax of organized horseshoe pitching in the early years of the club. Many horseshoe exhibitions were held in Erie. World champions and trick shot artists were brought into town. Sam White sought them out and convinced them to come to Erie. He promoted the events himself, with the help of his son Francis. Our local champs played in many exhibition matches against world champions such as Ted Allen, Putt Mossman, Casey Jones, C.C. Davis, Jimmy Risk, Frank Jackson and others. It was a grand time for horseshoes in Erie.

After the 1940 season, all organized play was halted for five years, due to World War II. This was totally devastating to the club. The late 1940’s and early 1950’s are almost a complete blank spot in the club’s history. There are scattered records of some county championships and a few meetings but not much of anything is on record.

In the early 1950’s, a small group consisting of Jack Potter, Glen Sebring, Joe Peters, Ed Wurst, Francis White and others formed a nucleus of organizers that started hosting leagues and tournaments. By 1956, the club was officially reformed as the Erie Horseshoe Club for the purpose of holding NHPA sanctioned tournaments. At some point right around this time, the city added eight new courts, expanding it to twenty. The current Constitution and By-Laws were enacted and Frank Beniasz was elected President for the 1956 season.  In 1958, Francis White was elected President of the club and held that position through the end of the decade.

Paul Beer was the next man to head the club. He was elected President at the start of the 1960 season. The late 1950’s was also the beginning of the club’s modern day family dynasty—the Kuchcinski family. As much as the White family dominated the first thirty years of the club, the Kuchcinski family would dominate the next thirty. Wes, Joe and Ed Kuchcinski became the backbone of this club along with the other previously mentioned members. Under the skilled leadership of Paul Beer, and the help of a shining star-- three-time World Champion, Dan Kuchcinski, the 1960’s would become some of the brightest years of our club’s history.

In 1967, after Dan Kuchcinski won his first World title in Fargo, ND, the club voted to place a bid on hosting the World Championships in Erie. They won the bid for the 1969 World Tournament and elected Joe Abbott as Tournament Director. Dan Kuchcinski went undefeated, 35-0, averaging over 84% ringers, winning before his hometown crowd of thousands of onlookers against some of the greatest players of all time! It is still remembered as one of the greatest World Horseshoe Tournaments in history! Joe Abbott was awarded the prestigious NHPA Achievement Award for his outstanding effort as World Tournament Director.

The club had spent the previous two and a half years preparing for the 1969 World Tournament. This proved to be a very profitable, but, in the end, a very costly venture for the club. For the first time, the club had a decent treasury established. But it came at the expense of many key members. The membership was simply burnt out after such huge amounts of preparation for that event. What could have boosted the club into becoming one of the premier clubs in the nation, instead, had the opposite effect. The club nearly dissolved several times in the early and mid 1970’s. Beer, Potter, Sebring, Abbott, Peters, the Kuchinskis and newcomer Harvey Hayes, were able to hold it together, but just barely.

When the club rebounded in the mid 1950's, it started an era of separation in the club's history.  The people who reorganized the club were some of the best players in the city and were the only members at first.  In those days, if you study the tournament and league results from that time, you can see that 60% or higher was common for an Erie Horseshoe Club member, with a dozen or so that could throw over 70%.  Consequently, 50% barely got you noticed and not many club members were under 35%! 

As always, most of the people who played the game, especially league players, were not up to that level of pitching.  The Erie Horseshoe Club had quickly and unintentionally developed a reputation as a club for only the better players.  After a while, it was a common attitude amongst other leagues in the city that the Erie Horseshoe Club was only for those who were serious about the game and could pitch well.  The club didn't do a lot to discourage that kind of thinking.  The membership numbers dwindled to where it was just the elite players only.  This lasted through the late 1970's, so breaking away from that image became a very difficult task.

Clarence Butcher and Harvey Hayes were the first to break out of that mold and develop new membership at all levels of player ability, from beginners on up.  It was very difficult at first, because when new members would come to watch the club leagues, they would be very intimidated because the players were so good.  Clarence and Harvey developed a league of beginning players (largely made up of family members to start) that played on a different night of the week from the regular club leagues.  Bringing in new members to this group was much easier.  This was the bridge that the club needed to rebuild the membership to its current levels.

Since the early 1960’s, Erie had become firmly established as the home of the Eastern National Tournament, but even that came into jeopardy. In 1979 and 1981, the Eastern Nationals were moved to Lockport, NY because our club had shrunk so much that we couldn’t handle a tournament of those proportions.

The club was able to rebound by 1982 under the great leadership of Clarence Butcher, the club’s new tournament director. The year before, in 1981, a small group of twelve members, headed by Hayes and Butcher, ventured outside the club and rented a space for indoor wintertime horseshoe pitching. That same group had rented indoor bocce courts at a local club for a couple of winters in previous years, but found it too difficult to set up and tear down the portable courts every week. A permanent location was needed. The 25^th and Ash Streets location was found and was then later assimilated into the Erie Horseshoe Club once it was proven to be successful. The indoor, winter pitching, which started out as a separate entity from the club, turned out to be its savior.

Incidentally, indoor pitching was not a new concept in Erie. The club had indoor winter pitching established back in the late 1920’s and all through the 1930’s-- at the Central Recreation Center’s Bowling Alleys (130 W. 10^th Street in downtown Erie). This was a private venture outside the club, by Paul Hewitt (It was more expensive to play horseshoes than to bowl!  But, it was a success anyway.).  In fact, in the winter of 1934, Sam Sorenson, a very beloved league member and top player in the area, suffered a massive heart attack and died on those courts, horseshoes still in hand—as reported by the Erie Dispatch Herald. In the late 1930's, the Erie Horseshoe Club actually tried to compete with Hewitt's expensive setup by building several courts in an old warehouse on 12th Street,  but this failed because they didn't have any heat in the building.

With indoor pitching firmly established, the club had a whole new nucleus of very active members to draw on. Clarence Butcher was able to win back the Eastern Nationals and held a pretty good tournament in 1982. After a long absence in horseshoes, Francis White returned as a player and as the club’s publicity director in the early 1980’s. He was able to re-establish a good relationship with the Erie Times News, getting some nice press for horseshoes for the first time since 1969. He also went on to win the 1989 40 Ft. Elders World Championship! His son, Robert F. White, took over as tournament director for Clarence Butcher, who was elected Club President in 1984. With the help of long time club officers, George Rhea, Harvey Hayes, and, as always, the Kuchcinski Family, the club was resurrected for a second time and has stayed strong since then.

Also, in the mid 1980’s, the City of Erie realized that the park that housed the horseshoe courts was unnamed. They asked our club to provide them with a name for the park. The club held a special meeting and voted to name it “Kuchcinski Family Park”, a fitting tribute to a family that has done so much for the sport in recent years.

Butcher held the top spot in the club until he opted to not run for President at the end of the 1980’s. Long time member, George Schiller, was elected President for a short term, until his sudden death, when Vice-President Harvey Hayes moved into the top spot.

The 1990’s turned out to be a time of restructuring within the club—The indoor club melted into the Erie Horseshoe Club. This proved to be a total redefining of the club. Previously, the club was focused on hosting sanctioned tournaments. The addition of indoor pitching caused the interests of the club membership to become more focused on league play and development of its indoor membership, than on hosting tournaments—All the club’s income was from leagues. Tournaments generated very little, if any, revenues for the club. So, when faced with the obligations of maintaining an indoor facility year round, tournaments had to take a back seat for a while. Harvey Hayes held the club together through this tumultuous time until 1995 when he declined to run due to the fact that it was conflicting with his duties as Vice-President of the WPHPA.

Tom Roberts was then elected President and served as such through 1996. Robert D. White served one year as club President in 1997. Paul Miller was elected President in 1998 and held the office for two seasons. During this time, the club made some significant strides in fund raising and also established a junior pitchers league, which had been absent in the club for many years. Robert F. White became President at the end of 1999—Making it four generations of Whites to have held the office of President.

Also, in the 1990’s, club member Frank Bohun moved from the 40 foot pitching distance to 30 feet and became virtually unbeatable—not that he was beatable at 40 feet, but he became deadly at 30 feet! He has won several World Titles at the 30 foot mark and has set numerous World Records that are sure to stand for a long time. Frank continues to pitch over his age in ringer percentage—commonly over 85%!

The club has been set on a steady course of fund raising since the mid 1980’s, with the hopes of someday building its own indoor pitching facility. We have now reached a point where tournaments have come back into focus for the club. This was sparked by the 50^th Anniversary of the Eastern Nationals in 2001. Under strong leadership from R.F. White and Tournament Director, Sally Siegel, the club was able to organize a very successful and profitable tournament. The club now hosts, in addition to the Eastern nationals, at least five other sanctioned tournaments a year.

Once again, the city of Erie has shown its unending support of the sport of horseshoes in Erie. After over sixty-five years of use, the public courts have been relocated from the Shunpike location to a brand new spot in Glenwood Park. They built twenty-four brand new courts. The club officers worked closely with the city engineers in designing the new facility, making it into one of the best in the country. We can’t say enough about the cooperation the city has shown our club over the years. It’s been great having that kind of support.

The 1990’s proved to be another decade of advancement for our club. We built a strong membership of women players and organizers. For the first time, women played an active roll in the management of club affairs, having at least one woman officer and as many as three in the six available positions for almost the entire decade. Some women members in recent years have made some very tremendous accomplishments as players—most note worthy were Aileen Drayer, 1994 PA State Champ and Kathy Burkett, 2000 PA State Champ.

The 1990’s were a good decade for all divisions of tournament pitchers in our club, especially at the state tournament level. We had champs in just about every division. 1994-- Steve Kuchcinski became the third in his family to win the Men’s State title (Dan was first in 1966 & 67; then Don in 1983 & 87). Frank Bohun won 6 straight Elders’ titles. Junior pitchers did pretty well also—Paul Butcher was Junior State Champ in 1993. Recently, in 2001, Tony White (great, great grandson of Sam White) won the Indoor Junior State Title.

Many other members have made significant contributions of time and effort that seem to go un-noticed at times.  We chose to focus mostly on the past Presidents in this publication, but we certainly appreciate the efforts of all those who have pitched in and helped over the years.  It's the simple contributions like turning courts, cutting the grass, keeping score, working the concession, etc. that might seem insignificant, but are, in reality, the most help to the club.  We hope and expect that the 21^st Century will be as memorable, exciting and successful as the 20^th Century. If every member contributes a little bit to the benefit of the club, then this is sure to happen.

--Historical information and facts were obtained from the following sources and individuals:

The Erie Dispatch Herald archives
The Erie Times News archives
WPHPA website
NHPA website
The journals & scrapbooks of Sam White
The works of Don Witt, EHC & WPHPA Historian
Glen Sebring & Francis White