‘Horse’play
This is the third in a six-part series showcasing ways to have summer fun in Mount Pleasant.
Trash talk can be heard outside the Phi Kappa Tau social fraternity house when the brothers are outside on a sunny day playing horseshoes.
“Believe me,” said Waterford alumnus Chaz Millard, “If you are winning, you let everyone know.”
The guys usually play horseshoes two or three times a week with a group of friends, and they sometimes have a barbecue. They enjoy the game because it’s easy and it’s something to do in their spare time.
The sport’s popularity has opened doors for different versions of the game to be hatched. Students in house yards or apartment complexes throughout Mount Pleasant can be seen playing these newer versions – usually with a beer in one hand.
“Hold a horseshoe in one hand, beer in another,” said Midland alumnus John Kaczynski.
Team “Robin Williams,” made up of Millard and Kaczynski, played team “Young’ns,” composed of Plymouth junior Dominic D’aguanno and Oxford senior Josh Havener, over the weekend at the PKT house.
The point of the game is to encircle the horseshoe around a stake by tossing it. Two teams of two compete up to 21 points. Points are distributed either by a ringer for three points or by throwing the horseshoe closest to the stake for one point.
Points are not given to shoes that bounce off the backboard, and it’s common for shoes that lean on the post – “leaners” – to garner two points.
The newer games are modeled after the same rules.
One game, commonly called “washers,” involves teams of two tossing large, industrial washers into a makeshift wooden box. The box’s middle usually contains a PVC pipe.
Normally, three points are awarded if the washer makes it into the pipe, two if the washer lands on the edge of the box and one if it makes it in the box.
Another game, sometimes called “ladder golf” or “Monkeyball,” involves a pair of golf balls tied together with rope. Then, much like horseshoes, teams of two toss them back and forth to goals.
The goals are composed of the rungs, roughly a foot apart. Each rung represents a different point total.
Other similar games students partake in include beanbag tossing and bocce ball.
However, no matter what type of game, beer and trash talk are almost always involved.
The trash talk between the fraternity’s alumni and active members this weekend included topics like amount of body hair and usage of Viagra, as well as the sun being in players’ eyes and bees that buzz around them.
An added element to the game is a New York Yankee Jason Giambi bobble head. It stands on the stake before being placed in front of the stake.
“We like to hit him, just for fun,” Millard said. “It’s a side game for us.”
The brothers said they aren’t big fans of the Yankees. At one point during their game, Millard rings the bobble head.
“You don’t get any points for that,” D’aguanno said.
After several tosses hit the backboard, some are overshot and a few land far right and left of the pit, the game ends in the alumni’s favor with a final score of 21 to 10.
“At least we made double digits,” D’aguanno said.
Kaczynski said there are several houses on Main Street with horseshoe pits.
“Whenever you’re riding your bike down in the summer, you hear people hitting the pole,” Kaczynski said.
The game is so popular that there is a National Horseshoe Pitchers Association of America.
According to the association, an estimated 15 million enthusiasts throughout just the United States and Canada alone play in tournaments, leagues, recreation areas and backyards.
The sport also is played internationally in such countries like South Africa, Italy, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Poland, England and Russia, to name a few
