For All The Marbles (For Real)

Wildwood is prepared to host the 86th Annual National Marbles Tournament.

Posted May 5, 2009 by Jessica Kitchin

Fourteen-year-old Gerald Robinson earned the crown at the 1941 edition of the National Marbles Tournament in Wildwood. Below: 2008 boys winner John Leffakis shows his appreciation to girls champ Amber Ricci.

Photo by King-Bettmann/Corbis.

They’re known as mibsters, and they have descended on the Jersey Shore in droves since 1922, when the first-ever National Marbles Tournament was held in Atlantic City. Through the years, the competition moved to Wildwood, then Asbury Park, and then back to Wildwood for good in 1960. This year’s 86th annual competition hits the beach June 21 to 25 (nationalmarblestournament.org).

Ten 12-foot-square concrete platforms, each with a 10-foot-diameter yellow playing circle, are arrayed across the Wildwood beach, comprising a venue known as Ringer Stadium. There, champion marble shooters (mibsters) ages 8 to 14 from all over the country will face off in two divisions (one for boys, one for girls), playing about 1,200 games over four days.

“It’s really an exciting time for the kids and a very enjoyable week,” says tournament director Rick Mawhinney, 52, who was a champion himself at age 14. “The rings are right on the beach next to the boardwalk, so it attracts people who stop and watch and reminisce and talk about it with each other.”

The game of choice is known as Ringer. It starts with thirteen marbles at the center of the playing space in the form of an X; competitors alternate shots, and the winner is the first to shoot seven marbles out of the ring. Players will compete in a round-robin tournament on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings; the semi-final and final rounds take center stage on Thursday, drawing the biggest crowds. (Past champions such as Mawhinney compete just for fun in a single-elimination tournament.)

Last year’s champions both hailed from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, which Mawhinney says has been a hotbed for top-notch mibsters. He can’t recall New Jersey producing a champion in the nearly four decades he has been involved with the tournament. But the Garden State has provided the venue for 87 years—and the mibsters keep returning.

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