NEWSLINE STORY

published May-June 2016

Hall of Fame Inductees

by Vicki Winston, Hall of Fame Committee Chairperson

The Hall of Fame Committee has completed the 2016 voting process and, as I announced recently in the Hall of Fame category on the NHPA Forum, we have elected two individuals who will be inducted into the NHPA Hall of Fame during the Hall of Fame and Awards Banquet to be held in Montgomery, Alabama on Sunday evening, July 31st.

In the Promoter/Organizer Category we have elected a man whose name will be recognized by many people in the horseshoe world.  It was an enjoyable experience to be able to telephone Bob Dunn one morning and surprise him with the news. 

Bob is a current member of the Hall of Fame committee, so I must tell you that a committee member is never allowed to cast any votes in a category where their own name, or that of a family member, appears on the ballot. 

Bob resides in Brooklyn, Minnesota and it would take a very long article to tell you all of his contributions to the sport of horseshoe pitching.  Therefore, I will mention just a few of them that pertain mostly to what he has done on the national level.  He has also been involved in many projects on the Minnesota charter level, where he first became involved with our sport.  However, it wasn’t long until he was also getting involved on the national level and worked to promote the NHPA Sanctioned Club/League Program.  This earned him an NHPA Achievement Award in 1990.  He suggested to then NHPA President, Dave Loucks, that there should be Junior Promotion Director and Bob was appointed to the position.  His work in that position earned him the NHPA Presidential Award in 1995. 

As Junior Promotion Director, Bob was in to writing various articles for Newsline and had become involved in horseshoe collecting and trading.  He soon became recognized as somewhat of an expert in the field of antique horseshoes.  He was keeping a roster of over 80 collectors and traders and he sent out a yearly newsletter to everyone on the list.  The newsletter included inventories of all collectors who furnished that information to Bob.  His collection of horseshoes grew to over 350 different shoes, which he proudly displayed at several World Tournaments.  For his continued service to the NHPA, Bob was chosen to receive the coveted Stokes Award in 1998. 

When a Hall of Fame building became a reality, much of Bob’s horseshoe collection was donated to the NHPA and is on display at the Hall of Fame in Wentzville, MO.  When Gary Kline passed away in 2008, NHPA President, Paul Stewart, appointed Bob Dunn as the NHPA Historian.  Bob’s love of the history of our sport made him a natural for this position, as he had been doing much research and writing articles and books involving the history of the sport for quite some time.  He jumped right in and began assisting with the design of and providing information for various displays at the Hall of Fame.  He also assisted with the inventory process of items contained in the archives at the Hall of Fame facility. 

He has traveled many times from Minnesota to Missouri to continue his work.  He worked many hours to catalog contents of the various DVD’s that are available for viewing in the Winston Theater.  He has also continued to write books, the largest being a 650-page book entitled “World Champions of Horseshoe Pitching 1920-2010.”  This book covers the women’s, juniors and all World Tournament divisions that were not covered during that time period in Gary Kline’s book.  He has written and published “AAU National Amateur Horseshoe Pitching Championships” and “The Lee Rose Story.”  As of this writing, there are yet more books in progress.  His interest in the history of our sport never ceases and he is most deserving of the high honor that has been bestowed upon him this year. 

The other Hall of Fame inductee for 2016 is Clive Wahlin, who was on the ballot in the Historic Era Player Category.  Clive lived in Utah and was still alive when the World Tournament was held in St. George, UT in 2013.  However, he was getting up in years and has since passed away. 

The State of Utah was very proud of him and a life-sized photo of Clive was displayed at their booth during the 2013 World Tournament.  Clive was born May 24, 1928 and learned the sport of horseshoe pitching from his father.  As luck would have it, the World Tournament was held for 11 consecutive years in Murray, UT during the years when Clive was beginning his pitching career. 

This created an incentive for him to get involved on a higher level.  He qualified for his first Men’s Championship Class in 1954 and would go on to compete in 8 more.  He pitched in the Men’s Championship Class in Murray from 1954 through 1959 and again in 1966 when the tournament returned to Murray for one year.  In 1963 and 1964 he did travel out of state and also qualified for the Men’s Championship Class both of those years.  He qualified for the Men’s Championship Class every year that he attended the World Tournament.  His highest finish was 4th place in 1958, but his highest WT average was in 1957 when he averaged 80.16% for 30 games.  That year he was tied with the great Fernando Isais for high qualifying score.  He had 546 points with 175 ringers out of 200 shoes for an 87.5% ringer average. 

Clive participated in the Greatest World Tournament of all time (1964) when 14 players out of the 36 participants averaged over 80%.  He was not one of them, as he averaged 76.12% that year, but he did have a winning record of 20 - 15, which put him in 17th place in the field of 36 men.  Of the nine World Tournaments Clive attended, he finished in the top 10 four times and has a ringer average of 74.63% for those nine events.

Clive was also very successful on the state level and during a 26 year period, he was the Utah Men’s State Champion a total of 16 times.  For his pitching accomplishments, Clive Wahlin was inducted into the Utah Hall of Fame in 1977.

I was able to make contact with one of Clive’s sons, Brian Wahlin, and he was very excited to learn of his father’s election to the NHPA Hall of Fame.  At the time I talked with him, he indicated that he was certain that some family members would travel to Montgomery, AL to attend the induction ceremony.  If I am able to attend, I will look forward to meeting them.  I have been around long enough that I did see Clive pitch several times.

One nomination has already been received for the 2017 voting and in the months ahead I will work with the NHPA Webmaster to get the list of nominees updated.  You can find it on the Hall of Fame link of the NHPA website.  A printable nomination form also appears on that link.  If you know someone that you think meets the eligibility requirements of one of the categories, and you don’t see their name on the list of nominees, I urge you to get to work gathering the necessary data and send in a nomination for them.  If you want to contact me before you go to all of that work, just to make sure the list is up to date, feel free to do so. 

All of the information that you need on how to submit a nomination is on the nomination form.  The worst that can happen is that the screening committee might reject the nomination, but that doesn’t happen too often.  Give it a shot.  Someday there might be a grateful person who will be glad that you did!