Dan's Papers - August 31, 2007 - The SCRABBLE Capital Of The World

The man behind the word magic was Alfred Mosher Butts, an architect, from Upstate New York who decided to invent a board game. Intensely analyzing a slew of games dealing with numbers, moves, and words, Butts combined those elements together in the creation of SCRABBLE, previously called LEXIKO and CRISS CROSS words.

As stated by the National SCRABBLE Association's website, "As so often happens in the game business, the SCRABBLE game gained slow but steady popularity among a comparative handful of consumers. Then in the early 1950s, as legend has it, the president of Macy's discovered the game on vacation and ordered some for his store. Within a year, everyone "had to have one" to the point that SCRABBLE games were being rationed to stores around the country."

With SCRABBLE's newly sparked demand and success, James Brunot, game entrepreneur, licensed the Long Island based Selchow & Righter Company to manufacture the game in 1952. Production went full steam ahead to support this popular culture phenomena. SCRABBLE was being nationally advertised on TV, newspapers, and magazines and became a household name and commodity. With the Bay Shore company cranking out these games for over three decades, licensing was turned over to Hasbro, Inc. a large American gaming company.

According to the National SCRABBLE Association, the game has become a staple in one of every three homes nationally. As a sign of contemporary times, SCRABBLE has also been transformed in computerized versions for both children and adults and many educational SCRABBLE programs have been adapted for school use.

Take a moment and think about your experiences playing SCRABBLE. Has a dispute over words ever occurred? Did you find yourself in a heated argument, making a mad dash to the dictionary for word verification? In 1978, the National SCRABBLE Association (NSA) was established and has provided ongoing support for people from all walks of life engaging in the game. In 1987, the NSA was taken over by husband and wife team John D. Williams, Jr., NSA Executive Director, and Jane Williams with the support of an advisory board of appointed national volunteers. The headquarters is based out the couple's Greenport home in which the e-mails and a ringing phone occurs 24/7 with questions, concerns, and thoughts of avid SCRABBLE players seeking answers and guidance.

So you ask, how does one find his/herself as the NSA Executive Director? It simply has to do with passion and a lifetime of playing the game. Williams initially connected with SCRABBLE executives in 1982 to write for SCRABBLE NEWS. "I was doing freelance writing and advertising at the time, so I decided to do it. I was more of a poker, backgammon and crossword guy at the time. In 1987, they needed a new Executive Director of the National SCRABBLE Association - there were two before me - and I was offered the job. I decided to take it. I moved the National SCRABBLE Champion from San Francisco to help me and teach me to become a tournament player."

Two decades later, the NSA is going strong in Greenport with 40 million players. With that said, the association must be ready to resolve and help determine ruling amongst SCRABBLE participants. As said by Williams, he's certainly up for the challenge. "Scrabble has a fixed set of rules for almost any situation, so we're usually ready. We also have an extensive dictionary collection because people love to call and argue about words and/or try to catch us with a trick question." Sounds like a pretty tough crowd to me.

As for Williams' most memorable East End experiences regarding SCRABBLE, he talks about the documentary WORD WARS, which was mainly filmed in Greenport and focuses on NSA players and the SCRABBLE culture. The film was a success at the Sundance Film Festival and received an Emmy nomination when aired on TV. Another highlight Williams recalls was playing SCRABBLE with East Ender Martha Stewart as a guest on her talk show.

As for the NSA's biggest success, would be the airing of the National School SCRABBLE Championship in which the association pictured and helped produce the show. Additionally the NSA is proud of their accomplishments of contributing to the start of the World SCRABBLE Championship. Williams added, "It was pretty amazing to be in Melbourne, Australia watching players from 40 countries competing in English - guys in turbans, women in saris, players from Thailand who could not speak English but had memorized our complete dictionary!"

Luckily for us, if we're ever in doubt a local phone call will do the trick. For all of your SCRABBLE needs, call NSA at (631) 477-0033.