The Loss of a Horseshoe Club

This is my story about a loss of a
three-year-old horseshoe pitching club.

The Mount Clemens Indoor Horseshoe Pitchers Club began play in October 1999. With the help of the St. Clair Shores, Berkley, and Lincoln Park Clubs, four portable courts with real blue clay from Harrison Township, were set up using Wilson Gym on Friday afternoons and Friday evenings. The membership grew so rapidly that Thursday evening was also added to the schedule.

During the first year, all new portable pits and safety fences were built for easier storage. The first league on Thursday set up the courts, and the last league on Friday took them down. Volunteers took down the courts after a Saturday tournament. Doubles leagues were made up of teams of fathers/sons, brothers-in-law, husbands/wives, brothers, sisters, fathers-in-law/sons-in-law, and many friends. We were bringing horseshoe pitching back as a family sport. The singles league consisted of many state and world champions from this area.

The singles trophy was named after a pitcher who was an original member, a horseshoe collector, and historian (Cay A. Newhouse, Jr.). Another, "For the Love of Horseshoe Pitching" award, was started by honoring deserving horseshoe pitchers. It was given to someone devoted to horseshoe pitching in southeast Michigan and was named after an original member, Ted Kowalski, whom we honored with the first award. Shortly after he died of cancer, at age 82, the family contributed $300 to the MCIHPC.

Last summer over $18,000 was invested by the City of Mount Clemens, in a new floor for Wilson Gym. After the first week of pitching in October 2002, the new floor proved that it would not hold up to the weekly pounding from horseshoe pitching. To protect the investment of the new floor, all league play, sanctioned and charity tournaments and other horseshoe activity had to stop, after three great years of using Wilson Gym. The Mount Clemens Indoor Horseshoe Pitchers Club had proven that horseshoe pitchers do enjoy pitching year-round.

(Update: The City officially closed the recreation department in September 2003. With the economy the way it is and cities not receiving money form state and federal governments, many older cities have to cut back to balance the budget. Eliminating the recreation. department is one of those cutbacks.)

A Few Good Things About The MCIHPC:

1. We were known nationally by newspaper articles, the National Horseshoe Pitchers Association's Newsline Magazine and the Internet.

2. The club grew to 163 members and maintained a data base of over 450 interested horseshoe pitchers living in southeast Michigan.

3. The MCIHPC is the only club in the USA that had a complete horseshoe pitching guide book for its members.

4. We educated people about the great sport by holding three clinics. The Wolverine State Horseshoe Pitchers Association's men's and women's state champions put on an exhibition, and a group of Mount Clemens Middle School students took part in learning the game. Leaders of the National Horseshoe Pitchers Association placed the clinic material, developed by the MCHIPC, on the NHPA web site for all clubs to use.

5. Seventy-nine people pitched in sanctioned tournaments, many of them first time visitors to Mount Clemens. The first indoor charity tournament had over 60 participants.

6. The MCIHPC Director was honored by the National Horseshoe Pitchers Association's achievement award in 2001.

7. We made a lot of people aware of the great sport of horseshoe pitching.

8. Many friendships were created, and people started to take notice of what Mount Clemens had to offer. The Mount Clemens Recreation Department was very good to the Club, and we had set high goals.

9. Our goals were set so high as to think that we would eventually collect enough money in donations, in cooperation with the Mount Clemens Recreation Department, to eventually put up a pole building with seven courts. The plans and rationale are in our guide book.

10. During the past three years, MCIHPC donated $250 to the Mount Clemens Recreation Department, $550 to the Southeastern Michigan Horseshoe Pitchers Charity Club, $550 to the National Horseshoe Pitchers Foundation and $900 to Special Olympics.

The MCIHPC had to cease play in Wilson Gym, but we still dream of getting a permanent building to pitch in. If not in Mount Clemens, somewhere in southeast Michigan.

October 2002, updated September 2003