John Yocum Randolph Crawford
''

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

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

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

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 nearly 5,000 years to the regions of Mesopotamia and Pe ...

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 Wuh ...

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, town ...

, he was born at

Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania Bryn Mawr, pronounced , from Welsh for big hill, is a census-designated place (CDP) located across three townships: Radnor Township and Haverford Township in Delaware County, and Lower Merion Township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It i ...

, and died in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

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, 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 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. Oppenheim and then acquire ...

, 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 bi ...

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 Championship (NABC). History The Fishbein Trophy was donated by the ACBL in memo ...

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 bridge tournaments sponsored by the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL). The "Spring", "Summer", and "Fall" NABCs are usually scheduled in March, July, and November for about eleven da ...

(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 (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

(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 (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). The Rockwell Trophy, donated by Helen Rockwell in 1946, is presented to the w ...

(3) 1948, 1949, 1959 **

Hilliard Mixed Pairs The Hilliard Mixed Pairs national bridge championship was last held at the spring American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). History This was the original national mixed pairs event. It was contested at the ...

(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

(1) 1958 *

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

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

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

(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 Contract bridge writers Game players from New York City Card game book writers