- Yes, shuffleboard is fun.

(chuckles) This club is important to the history of tourism and recreation in St. Pete.

There's no place like this anywhere else, and when it's something so special like this, it's really important to fight for it and make sure that the generations after you can experience it in the same way that you're fortunate to be able to do.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (people chuckling) (whimsical music) Shuffleboard is a quintessential activity here in St. Petersburg.

We are the world's oldest and largest shuffleboard club.

We were founded here in St. Pete in 1924.

I like to say we're the Wimbledon of shuffleboard.

This is where all the important stuff happens.

In 1924, St. Petersburg was experiencing its boom.

More people were coming down here for the winter who wanted recreation and fun.

- [Narrator] Florida, they claim, is the next best thing to complete rejuvenation.

- [Christine] Shuffleboard kept growing and growing, and by the 30s and 40s there were about 5,000 to 6,000 members here in St. Petersburg.

(relaxing music) Anywhere around the world, they play shuffleboard.

Play shuffleboard with the rules that were developed here.

- [Speaker] All you really need to play this game is a court, cue, disc and a lot of desire.

- It is one of those games that is really easy to pick up and learn the rules of.

You can get playing in about five minutes.

If you get really serious about it, it'll take you years to master.

There's a lot of strategy to it.

It's definitely a mental game.

- [Mary] These are pretty.

Yeah, this was the medals we used to get.

When I first started playing in Sebring, Florida, I was 19.

Everybody said if anybody wants to be a good player, you have to go to St. Pete.

I was an amateur as soon as I walked into the club, and then I became a pro at 22.

There she is again.

- Mary was taken under the wing of May Hall who was the reigning women's champion.

I don't think any woman has actually earned as many masters points as she has still to this day.

- I played her in a singles and I won.

About a couple days later she said, "You wanna play in the national doubles?"

And I said yes.

And I was scared to death, but we won.

From then on, everything was the first singles I won was the masters.

I played 10 years, then I took 15 years off.

When I came back in '91, I said, "What's happened to the players?"

When I left the club had close to 2000 members, but when I came back it had barely 100 members.

So whatever happened in the 80s?

- [Christine] Our membership started to decline.

A lot more competition for things to do around St. Pete as the city grows.

Perhaps the perception that shuffleboard was for older people, and there were a lot of factors.

- [Mary] In '98, that was when I became president.

It was important to save the club because it was the original club.

I don't care what we have to do, this club is gonna stay.

- [Christine] In 2005, the organization was in jeopardy and the continued use of the club was in jeopardy.

Then one day a group of artists and preservation people approached Mary Eldridge and said, "We have an idea."

- And I said, "Well, please sit down.

Let's talk."

We developed this idea of Friday night.

- [Christine] They said, "We wanna open up Friday nights to the community and just have free shuffleboard and it's a simple concept, just try to get people from the community in and discovering how great this place is."

The Friday nights started out as just a combination of shuffleboard and music and art.

It started the ball rolling.

It started getting the community interested.

- [Mary] We opened the courts, we helped them learn how to play.

- There you go.

- We had our first night and we had 28 people.

It wasn't too long before we had 500.

- [Christine] Before the Friday nights there were 35 members and then today we have 2,700 now.

Anybody from the community can come and play and all walks of life just enjoying the place and enjoying each other's company.

That's ultimately what Friday nights does best.

- [Kimberly] This is just a really special club.

There's a lot of history here and you can feel that.

And when you're here on a Friday, it's just got a really great vibe to it that I think just keeps bringing people back.

- People think, "Oh, you know, just push the disc down there and bounce 'em around and whatever."

But there's a lot of strategy, and I like the people.

The people, everybody I meet down here is just super friendly.

- I think that more people need to know about shuffleboard.

My friends are visiting from Oregon right now and they thought we were going to table shuffleboard and then we show up to this beautiful outdoor location and they were shocked that there's so many courts and we've had a lot of fun.

(person laughing) - [Mary] This club helped people coming from far distant places to become a community.

The best end result is the club is going strong.

- [Speaker] I didn't think I'd ever say that.

It was our 100th birthday.

(people applauding) - [Christine] The club turned 100 this year, and we buried a time capsule.

It was especially significant considering the history of the resurgence of the sport here in St. Pete.

It makes it especially meaningful.

- I think that there's a new wave coming with shuffleboard.

I think it's starting to hit the hearts of people who do not live in retirement communities and we're really excited about that.

- [Christine] My goal is to have a membership that's really truly reflective of the entire St. Pete population.

It's such a fun sport.

This place should be for everybody.

I like to think that in 100 years the people opening up the time capsule or people still running the club are gonna be able to look back at us in 2024 and see where we were and then see the progress that we've made too, And I hope we make them proud.

Cheers to a hundred 100 years of St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club.

- [Mary] I just like to see people have a good time, and I said what I wanna do, if I should ever get to be 100 is come in here, sit on that bench there by the courts and watch people playing.

They don't know me, I don't know them, but they're playing the game.

Then I will say, "Did a good job.

You won your tournament."

So that would make me happy.

(uplifting music) (uplifting music) (uplifting music) - [Narrator] Support for Greater St. Petersburg is provided by Curtis Anderson.