John Yocum Randolph Crawford
''

TIME Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

''. September 29, 1958. (August 4, 1915 – February 14, 1976) was an American

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

and

backgammon Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back at least 1,600 years. The earliest record of backgammo ...

player. In bridge, he was a member of United States teams that won the first three

Bermuda Bowl The Bermuda Bowl is a biennial contract bridge world championship for national . It is contested every odd-numbered year under the auspices of the World Bridge Federation (WBF), alongside the Venice Cup (women), the d'Orsi Senior Bowl and the Wu ...

s, or world championships, in 1950, 1951 and 1953; a wholly new team represented the US in 1954. In backgammon, Crawford is known as the inventor of the "Crawford rule", a regulation that restricts use of the doubling die in match play.

Life

Of Scots descent, the younger son of Andrew Wright Crawford Sr. (1873–1929), a

town planner An urban planner (also known as town planner) is a professional who practices in the field of town planning, urban planning or city planning. An urban planner may focus on a specific area of practice and have a title such as city planner, tow ...

, he was born at

Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania Bryn Mawr (, from Welsh language, Welsh for 'big hill') is a census-designated place (CDP) located in Pennsylvania, United States. It is located just west of Philadelphia along Lancaster Avenue, also known as U.S. Route 30 in Pennsylvania, U.S. ...

, and died in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

aged 60. He was married to Carol Stolkin, née Ross, also a celebrated backgammon player.

Books

* ''Canasta'' (New York: JCS Associates, 1950; London: Faber, 1951) * ''Samba, three-deck canasta'' (

Doubleday Doubleday may refer to: * Doubleday (surname), including a list of people with the name Publishing imprints * Doubleday (publisher), imprint of Knopf Doubleday, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House * Doubleday Canada, imprint of Penguin Random ...

, 1951) * ''How to be a consistent winner in the most popular card games'' (Doubleday, 1953); revised 1961 * ''Contract bridge'' (

Grosset & Dunlap Grosset & Dunlap is a New York City-based publishing house founded in 1898. The company was purchased by G. P. Putnam's Sons in 1982 and today is part of Penguin Random House through its subsidiary Penguin Group. In recent years, through the P ...

, 1953), Crawford assisted by Fred L. Karpin * ''Calypso: how to play and win the fascinating new card game'' (Doubleday, 1955) * ''The backgammon book'' (

Viking Press Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheimer and then acqu ...

, 1970),

Oswald Jacoby Oswald "Ozzie", "Jake" Jacoby (December 8, 1902 – June 27, 1984) was an American contract bridge player and author, considered one of the greatest bridge players of all time and a key innovator in the game, having helped popularize widely used b ...

and Crawford The latter was soon translated. * ''Das Backgammonbuch'', German transl. by Jens Schmidt-Prange and Suzanne Gangloff (Munich: Keyser, 1974) * ''Le livre du backgammon'', French transl. by René Orléan, 1975

Bridge accomplishments

Honors

ACBL Hall of Fame This list is a compilation of contract bridge players, writers, administrators and personalities who have been recognized for their skills, achievements or contributions to the game as identified by various specific sources. People recognized by ...

, 1995"Induction by Year"
. ''Hall of Fame''. ACBL. Retrieved 2014-12-22.

Awards

Fishbein Trophy The Fishbein Trophy is awarded to the player who wins the greatest number of masterpoints at the summer American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championships, North American Bridge Championship (NABC). History The Fishbein Tr ...

1952, 1957 *

Herman Trophy The Goren Trophy (formerly the Herman Trophy) is awarded to the player who wins the greatest number of masterpoints at the fall American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). History The Herman Trophy was do ...

1953

Wins

(3) 1950, 1951, 1953 *

North American Bridge Championships North American Bridge Championships (NABC) are three annual contract bridge, bridge tournaments sponsored by the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL). The "Spring", "Summer", and "Fall" NABCs are usually scheduled in March, July, and November fo ...

(37) ** Vanderbilt (9) 1941, 1946, 1950, 1951, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1960 **

Spingold The Spingold national bridge championship is held at the summer American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). The Spingold is a knock-out team event that attracts the top contract bridge players in the world. T ...

(5) 1943, 1948, 1950, 1952, 1957 **

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

(now Reisinger) (10) 1937, 1938, 1939, 1942, 1946, 1947, 1953, 1954, 1956, 1961 ** Men's Board-a-Match Teams (2) 1956, 1961 ** Master Mixed Teams (4) 1942, 1945, 1948, 1957 ** Life Master Pairs (1) 1943 ** Men's Pairs (1) 1939 **

Rockwell Mixed Pairs The Rockwell Mixed Pairs is a national bridge championship held regularly at the Spring American Contract Bridge League The American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) is a governing body for contract bridge in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and ...

(3) 1948, 1949, 1959 **

Hilliard Mixed Pairs The Hilliard Mixed Pairs national bridge championship was last held at the spring American Contract Bridge League The American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) is a governing body for contract bridge in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Bermud ...

(1) 1945 **

Master Individual The Master Individual national bridge championship was held at the fall American Contract Bridge League The American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) is a governing body for contract bridge in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Bermuda. It is t ...

(1) 1956

Runners-up

(1) 1958 *

(27) ** Vanderbilt (1) 1952 **

(4) 1939, 1947, 1955, 1961 **

(now Reisinger) (2) 1948, 1950 ** Men's Board-a-Match Teams (4) 1946, 1948, 1959, 1973 ** Master Mixed Teams (6) 1944, 1949, 1950, 1952, 1973, 1975 ** Life Master Pairs (5) 1938, 1941, 1947, 1952, 1956 ** Men's Pairs (1) 1953 **

(1) 1947 **

(1) 1942 **

(2) 1951, 1958

References

External links

* *
"John Crawford – The Table Games Genius"
at Backgammon Portal (backgommoned.com) {{DEFAULTSORT:Crawford, John R. 1915 births 1976 deaths People from Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania American backgammon players American contract bridge players Bermuda Bowl players American contract bridge writers Game players from New York City Card game book writers