John Yocum Randolph Crawford
'' TIME''. September 29, 1958. (August 4, 1915 – February 14, 1976) was an American bridge and backgammon player. In bridge, he was a member of United States teams that won the first three Bermuda Bowls, 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 cube 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 nearly 5,000 years to the regions of Mesopotamia and Pe ...

in match play.

Life

Crawford was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania and died in Manhattan at age 60. He was married to

Carol Crawford Carol Ann Crawford (February 22, 1934 – August 10, 1982), also known as Carol Stolkin and Carol Ross, was an American backgammon and Contract bridge, bridge player from Buffalo, New York who spent many years in Detroit, Detroit, Michigan. In 197 ...

Books

* ''Canasta'' (New York: JCS Associates, 1950; London: Faber, 1951) * ''Samba, three-deck canasta'' ( Doubleday, 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. Today, through the Penguin Gro ...

, 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, 1970), Oswald Jacoby 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 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

* Bermuda Bowl (3) 1950, 1951, 1953 * North American Bridge Championships (37) ** Vanderbilt (9) 1941, 1946, 1950, 1951, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1960 ** Spingold (5) 1943, 1948, 1950, 1952, 1957 ** Chicago (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 (3) 1948, 1949, 1959 ** Hilliard Mixed Pairs (1) 1945 **

Master Individual The Master Individual national bridge championship was held at the fall American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC); it was held from 1931 until 1960 after which it was discontinued. Trophy The event was co ...

(1) 1956

Runners-up

* Bermuda Bowl (1) 1958 * North American Bridge Championships (27) ** Vanderbilt (1) 1952 ** Spingold (4) 1939, 1947, 1955, 1961 ** Chicago (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 ** Rockwell Mixed Pairs (1) 1947 ** Hilliard Mixed Pairs (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 American backgammon players American contract bridge players Bermuda Bowl players Contract bridge writers Sportspeople from New York City People from Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania Card game book writers