John Yocum Randolph Crawford"Sport: Four Other Bridge Masters". 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 die in match play.
Life Of Scots descent, the younger son of Andrew Wright Crawford Sr. (1873–1929), a town planner, he was born at Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and died in Manhattan 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, 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, 1995"Induction by Year" . Hall of Fame. ACBL. Retrieved 2014-12-22.
Awards Fishbein Trophy 1952, 1957 Herman Trophy 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 (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 Master Individual (2) 1951, 1958
See also Clan Crawford
References
External links
"John Crawford – The Table Games Genius" at Backgammon Portal (backgommoned.com)