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Fifteen years ago, I traveled to Burlington, Massachusetts to observe and to write something about a weekend darts tournament that was scheduled to take place there. Here is some of what I wrote:
“By six o’clock on the evening of November 11, 1994, a Friday, the central ballroom of the Marriott Hotel in Burlington, Massachusetts is already host to a hundred or so darts shooters and observers. Some have taken occupancy of the several large round tables scattered about the vast open space in the middle of the room. Most of the early arrivals are wandering around the ballroom and hallways or are hanging out in the lobby.
“There are 34 portable dart courts lining three walls of the ballroom. In front of the courts, a solid line of three-by-five-foot folding tables provide spectator seating and a place for the shooters to put their drinks and ashtrays and personal paraphernalia.
“The ballroom’s front wall has no dart courts. Between the two wide double doors that provide entrance and egress is a large raised platform that looms in the dim light like the command deck of an aircraft carrier. Three large banners, proclaiming ‘The Witch City Open’ and ‘Bud Light’ and ‘Budweiser’ billow overhead. In the hall outside the ballroom, the Manchester Dart Company, out of Manchester, New Hampshire is displaying a city-block-long counter of dart merchandise.
“At the far end of the hallway a busy service bar is pouring beer and booze at a brisk clip. Just past it, in a huge cloak room, a sandwich and coffee bar has been established. It too is doing a robust business”.
It was to the side of the service bar on that evening, that I met Glenn Remick for the first time. He was talking with Emmett Halpin, a well known New England darts promoter, and Larry Butler, the Ohio-based darts shooter who had just that August, in Blackpool, England, become the first American to win a World Masters title.
Emmett, whom I had met some months before, introduced me to Glenn and Larry and I took a photograph of the three of them. That photograph would eventually appear on page 224 of the book that I subsequently wrote, To The Point: The Story of Darts in America.
Larry Butler soon wandered away in deep discussion with someone from England. The bitter dispute between the British Darts Organisation and the international community of darts professionals and organizations, sometimes characterized as “The World War of Darts” was then just brewing and was much the talk among the battalion of British Dart Pro’s in attendance at the tournament. It was a good story and Butler appeared to be in the thick of things.
But I wanted to be sure to get an interview with Glenn Remick and he readily agreed. I had heard a lot about him. Most of my informants had seemed uncertain as to what to make of his then recent accomplishment – the founding of the American Darters Association in 1990.
Glenn was highly respected by the darts community. He had been an officer in most of the major associations and had founded the Western Massachusetts Darting Association. It was generally acknowledged that he was a master promoter and business operator. After all, the subtext went, how else could he have convinced Anheuser-Busch to underwrite his enterprise? Many of the amateur darts promoters of the time seemed to regard the relationship with Budweiser with uncertain awe, as if it would never have occurred to them to even attempt something like that. And he was expanding the ADA nationally through franchising. Amazing.
From some of what I had heard, a reasonable expectation would have been that he would be handing me a business card and franchise prospectus immediately after the first handshake. But, that is not at all what happened.
It became clear very soon that Glenn was there for the tournament. For one thing, his polo shirt had “Witch City Open” emblazoned above the darts pocket and he was entered in the evening’s blind draw. There was not a hint of ADA merchandise or franchise brochure about his person.
He was looking forward to competing. And to spending time with old friends from around the globe at the tournament. (In those days, an amateur steel-tip tournament like the “Witch City” could and did draw competitors from all across North America, the British Isles, Ireland and Europe).
Glenn asked what I was writing and I told him that I expected to end up with a feature length magazine article. He said something to the effect that darts was a big story. I asked him to tell me about how he got involved in the sport and what would become a 15-year-long conversation, and friendship, commenced.
Glenn, at some point that weekend, told me the story about how, in the mid-1970's, he and Gloria had driven to California from Massachusetts. Every evening they would stop, find a darts pub and shoot darts with the locals through the evenings. They never met a stranger in darts, even staying overnight with some of their new friends. After hearing that story, told with much fondness of memory, I realized that the story of darts in America was, indeed, bigger than a magazine piece. And I decided to write a book about it instead.
Glenn is a pivotal figure in the history of darts. He and Gloria started their career in darts as storefront distributors in the early 1970’s. He was the first promoter to operate darts tournaments and leagues as for-profit businesses. He was several times an officer of the ADO, at one time its president. And he was the lead marketer at Merit Industries when that company entered the electronic darts machine business in the mid-1980s. And of course, he, in 1990, cut the deal with Anheuser-Busch to sponsor the establishment of an national franchised darts league that, when I met him in 1994, had exploded into a organization with more than 11,000 members across the country.
In short, Glenn Remick was always at the leading edge of the sport, always the leader.
For me, Glenn became a touchstone source, someone that I could run dart stories by before pursuing them. He also became a good friend. When I moved from Massachusetts to Columbia, Missouri – about an hour and a half from ADA headquarters in Lake St. Louis - in 2000, we hung out when we could.
We hung out at Blueberry Hill, where the owner, Joe Edwards, had contracted with Glenn to run the April tournaments and at other tournaments around the country.
And when Glenn and, his daughter, Sarah were in Columbia a few years ago, we had lunch downtown in the afternoon and met up later for drinks at a south Columbia pub. We had a great time.
And there was the time a couple of years ago, when Joy and I persuaded Glenn and Gloria to come to our place at the Lake of the Ozarks for a weekend. It was great company and the excellent photo Glenn took of Joy and me at "Jolly Rogers" accorded a place of honor on the wall at our lake house. Glenn brought along some of his home brew and it was truly good beer.
Then there were Glenn, Joy and I at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut for the "World Series of Darts" a few years ago. Once again, having Glenn at the table was to have an expert commentator on the sport.
I will miss Glenn. He was my friend. He always had time for a visit or a phone conversation. And always had something interesting to talk about. He was the master of narrative and story line and I appreciated that very much.
I'll tell you a story that I think really reveals the unique and charming aspect of Glenn's character that made him such a perfect sports competitor and promoter and such a good friend. A few years ago, I stopped in the ADA office and we decided to go to lunch. There was a little restaurant across the way that overlooked Lake St. Louis and had an outdoor patio. The sky was clear and temperate so we sat outside for lunch. To take our leave, we had to go back through the interior of the restaurant and as we got close to the exit, Glenn stopped me and pointed to a pinball machine beside the door. It was an old fashioned machine, with a spring pin and a hair-trigger tilt mechanism. Glenn marveled at it and went into some detail about how it worked. Then he insisted we play a game or two. I knew he was not leaving without doing so, so we did.
That was the essential Glenn, he took such joy and enjoyment in sport, in the competition and companionship of the contest. And he saw to it that we all shared that joy and enjoyment. That joy is one of the things that attracted people to Glenn and it is really what animated the ADA.
And it is one of the things I admired most about Glenn, his intuitive understanding of the nature of competition. The root of the word, “compete”, is from the Latin and translates as, “to seek together”. And I think Glenn would advise that the word “joyfully” be added to the definition to make it complete.
And he would ask the question. Could it get any better than this?
I don’t think so and I ‘m very grateful to Glenn for making sure so many people shared in that joy. He will be missed.
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