William Albert Rosen (September 12, 1928 in

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

– April 7, 2019) 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 ...

player, best known for winning the 1954

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 ...

world championship. He started playing bridge while attending

De Paul University DePaul University is a private university, private, Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th-centu ...

. Rosen won his first national title in 1952, the National Men's Pairs in partnership with Arthur Grau. In August 1953, Rosen and Milton Ellenby made the pages of ''Life'' magazine as the youngest winners of the

von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs The Von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs national bridge championship is held at the summer American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). Usually called simply the "Life Master Pairs" or "LM Pairs", this is a six-ses ...

. (annual from 1930). The same year he won the McKenney Trophy which the

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 the largest such organization in North America having the stated mission ''"to promote, grow and sustain th ...

gives to the player earning the most

masterpoints Masterpoints or master points are points awarded by bridge organizations to individuals for success in competitive bridge tournaments run under their auspices. Generally, recipients must be members in good standing of the issuing organization. At t ...

in a calendar year. Rosen won the

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 ...

tournament twice in a row, in 1953 and 1954, the latter helping him qualify for that year's

world team championship. The Bermuda win made him, at 25 years old, the youngest world champion ever to do so; a record broken by

Bobby Levin Robert J. (Bobby) Levin (born November 19, 1957) is an American professional bridge player, from Aventura, Florida. He was the youngest winner of the Bermuda Bowl world championship for national teams from 1981 until 2015, when 19-year old Michal K ...

in 1981 at the age of 23. Rosen's win earned him the title of

World Bridge Federation The World Bridge Federation (WBF) is the international governing body of contract bridge. The WBF is responsible for world championship competitions, most of which are conducted at a few multi-event meets on a four-year cycle. The most prestigiou ...

World Life Master . The September 1954 issue of ''

Playboy Magazine ''Playboy'' is an American men's Lifestyle magazine, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from H ...

'' the editors wrote, "If bridge has a world's champion, he's a twenty four year old guy named William Rosen." Rosen contributed a column on "Tournament Bridge" for the issue. He wrote, "The game holds a beguiling interest to most people because it is undoubtedly the most challenging of all card games, combining skill in bidding, play of the hand and also, the subtle art of gamesmanship." In 1958, Rosen won the Lebhar Trophy for winning the Master Mixed Pairs at the North American Championships. He won the prize playing with his wife

Eunice Rosen Eunice Marya Rosen (born September 6, 1930) is an American bridge player. She is married to fellow bridge champion William Rosen. In 1958 and in 1966, Eunice and Bill won the Master Mixed Teams, now known as the Chicago Mixed Board-a-Match tourn ...

, also a champion bridge player. In 1965, Rosen was on the Chicago Team that captured the Sports Illustrated Trophy. Bridge guru

Charles Goren Charles Henry Goren (March 4, 1901 – April 3, 1991) was an American bridge player and writer who significantly developed and popularized the game. He was the leading American bridge personality in the 1950s and 1960s – or 1940s and 1950s, as " ...

called Rosen the "star performer of the Chicago team." In 1978 Rosen won the

Grand National Teams The Grand National Teams (GNT) North American bridge championship is held at the summer American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). The Grand National Teams is a team knockout event. The event is broken into ...

. Rosen won his last national championship in 1980. Rosen worked as an options trader at the

Chicago Board Options Exchange The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), located at 433 West Van Buren Street in Chicago, is the largest U.S. options exchange with an annual trading volume of around 1.27 billion at the end of 2014. CBOE offers options on over 2,200 companies ...

before retiring in 1994. He lives in

Highland Park, Illinois Highland Park is a suburban city located in the southeastern part of Lake County, Illinois, United States, about north of downtown Chicago. Per the 2020 census, the population was 30,176. Highland Park is one of several municipalities located o ...

. Rosen was Inducted into the

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 ...

in 2014 as a recipient of the von Zedtwitz Award.

Tributes

* In a 1983 column,

Alan Truscott Alan Fraser Truscott (16 April 1925 – 4 September 2005) was a British-American bridge player, writer, and editor. He wrote the daily bridge column for ''The New York Times'' for 41 years, from 1964 to 2005, and served as Executive Editor for th ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' called Bill Rosen " neof the greatest names in the game". *

Bob Hamman Robert David "Bob" Hamman (born August 6, 1938 in Pasadena, California) is an American professional bridge player, among the greatest players of all time. He is from Dallas, Texas. Hamman and Bobby Wolff played as partners for nearly three decade ...

, one of the world's greatest players, named Rosen as one of "three players that I'd call really intimidating – if you could see some obscure way declarer could work it out (to make his contract), you had to be afraid he would work it out."

Bridge accomplishments

Awards and honors

* McKenney Trophy, 1953 * ACBL Hall of Fame, von Zedtwitz Award 2014"Induction by Year"
. ''Hall of Fame''. ACBL. Retrieved 2014-11-10.

Wins

(1) 1954 *

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 ...

(8) **

(2) 1953, 1954 **

(1) 1978 ** Men's Board-a-Match Teams (1) 1980 ** Master Mixed Teams (2) 1958, 1966 ** Life Master Pairs (1) 1953 ** Men's Pairs (1) 1952

Runners-up

(1) 1955 *

(1) ** Master Mixed Teams (1) 1965

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rosen, Billy American contract bridge players Bermuda Bowl players People from Highland Park, Illinois People from Chicago 1928 births 2019 deaths