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The
St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club was organized January
24, 1924 and was originally known as the Mirror Lake
Shuffleboard Club because it was (and is) located
in the Mirror Lake Park Shuffleboard Complex in downtown St. Pete.
Our address is: 559 Mirror Lake Dr N, Saint
Petersburg, Florida 33701.
In
February, 1932, the club was incorporated as a 501c(7)
non-profit organization with the official name of the "St. Petersburg
Shuffleboard Club, Inc.". However, the club
is still referred to as "Mirror
Lake".
Mirror Lake Shuffleboard
Champions
The St. Petersburg Shuffleboard
Club (Mirror Lake) has always promoted and sponsored tournament-style
shuffleboard. While the club has encouraged
recreational play since it's earliest days, it has
prided itself on
the quality of it's players and their accomplishments in
the tournament game. Many of
shuffleboard's legendary players, such as Carl Spillman
and Mae Hall, successfully represented Mirror Lake (St.
Pete) as their home club in many local, state, national
and Masters shuffleboard
championships.
The Tournament
Courts, in front
of the covered grandstand, have been the scene of many
championship matches throughout the years. A picture of those courts and the grandstand is
available from the Local
Historic Landmarks site along with some additional history.
World's Largest Shuffleboard
Club
The
club gained worldwide fame as "The World's Largest
Shuffleboard Club" by virtue of having 110 playing
courts (at it's maximum) and an annual membership of over 5000
in it's heydays of the 1930s, 40s, 50s and
60s. It was the largest shuffleboard club in terms of playing
facilities as well as membership.
Nothing Stays The Same
Times have changed. We
now have 65 courts available for our full
schedule of state, local and club shuffleboard
tournaments and our membership hovers in the
hundreds instead of the thousands.
One reason that the membership
numbers have changed is that years ago the club provided
not only shuffleboard action, but also a host of social
activities such as dancing, card parties (especially
bridge), movies, music
and more for it's members. In those days there
were few community centers (and no malls) to meet the
recreational needs of residents and tourists.
Therefore, when visitors to the club saw what was
available for the members, they were happy to join
in the fun. Then word of mouth
caused the membership to balloon and the club became a
local recreation hub. Even though the core
membership of the club has always been dedicated
shuffleboard players, the huge membership numbers of the
past reflected a large number of fun seekers
for whom shuffleboard was one of many recreational
options. It was
estimated that serious shuffleboard players
constituted about 50 percent of the annual
membership each year, which was still a respectable
number. Today our members and guests come to the
club to play shuffleboard - they find their
non-shuffleboard recreation opportunities in the larger
community. We have the
occasional social event, but because the world has
changed, we no longer provide a smorgasbord of
activities..
Another reason that the
membership numbers are significantly lower is that many of the shuffleboard members lived
geographically close to the club in years past. Many
could take a short drive to the club or even walk to the
club for a match.
Now, with urban sprawl, most
shuffleboard players in Pinellas County live in condos or mobile home parks
far removed from the downtown area of St.
Petersburg. And most of these residential communities have their own
amenities which often include shuffleboard courts.
With the changes in downtown demographics and various
other influences, the club membership numbers have
changed over the years. However, the participation
of district and statewide players in our seasonal
tournaments has remained at a passable level.
New Times - New Plans
We have recently begun to
develop programs designed for the families and youth
that now live in our neighborhood. Many of our
neighbors work and have young children so we are planning
classes and special kid's and
family-oriented activities to attract new local
members.
Our Mirror Lake Park
Neighbors
Mirror Lake Park's
clubs provide a variety of recreational opportunities.
On the east side of the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club
is the historic St. Petersburg Lawn Bowling Club with a busy seasonal schedule and
northeast of
the Shuffleboard Club is the St. Petersburg Chess Club, with it's year-round
competitions and activities.
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Our club's chartered
objective is to promote the play of shuffleboard. Today
we meet our objective by hosting and sponsoring tournaments
for amateur and pro players during the
"season". And we offer
recreational play in our daily games on a year-round basis. We also periodically hold
classes and tournaments for novices and we
encourage drop-ins to try their hand at the game.
We have additional activities for visiting groups such as at-risk youth,
group homes, Special Olympics and the Good Life Games.
We have spent over 80 years
promoting the game of shuffleboard and now, as we move our efforts online,
we hope to find fresh ways to promote the play of shuffleboard
and bring its fun and recreation to the larger "virtual" community.
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The
club is open Monday through Saturday
from 9:30 am to noon during the summer (April through September). The
office is usually closed on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays in the
summer.
In the "season"
(October through March) the club is open 10 am to the end of
the day's activities. The club is open at 7:30 am
on days that we have a tournament scheduled and it is
open until play is
completed for the day, which may be as late as 7
pm. It is also open on the Sundays (Noon to 5 pm)
immediately preceding scheduled state tournaments.
We are closed on most Sundays as well as Thanksgiving and Christmas.
We
welcome visitors (kids, too) and we have all necessary
equipment available that may be borrowed on a daily
basis. The cost for a visitor's daily membership
is a nominal $1.00 per person.
Our
telephone number is: 727-822-2083. Please
leave a message.
Our e-mail
address is:
stpete@shuffleboardclub.org
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