LA Kubb Club

A lot has been written about the endearing friendship that has developed over the last several decades between two of the richest men in the world, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.  Their mutual admiration, dedication to philanthropy and shared love of bridge have been well documented.   Not many people know however that bridge was not the first game over which these two titans of industry bonded.

Gates & Buffett first met at a the 1996 “Kubbing to Kick Cancer” charity tournament in Kasson, MN when their teams met in the seeding rounds.  Tournament director Dee Dee Halvorson recalls that the pair seemed to hit it off immediately – chatting at length between rounds about investment strategies, baton rotation, management styles and trading a shocking number of Fireball shots.  After that fateful tourney, the two were inseparable on the kubb pitch.

The new friends immediately started practicing every chance they had.  They got together to practice in person as often as possible, but more often they worked remotely using a very early virtual kubbing solution that Gates had the Microsoft advanced R & D lab develop specifically so he and Buffett could work on their game each night while apart.  It was during these late night virtual kubb practices that the pair established their roles on the team: Gates the driller and sniper and Buffett the surprisingly powerful blaster.

Starting in the 1997 season, the two played every tournament they could fit into their busy schedules. From coast to coast, their team – Kubb-Alt-Delete – slowly but surely began improving their game and by the end of the year, they took home their first trophy, winning the Dallas, WI Oktoberfest kubb tournament and cementing their reputation as serious kubbers!

Kubb had become such an obsession that in the spring of 1998, shortly after winning the West Coast Championship in South Pasadena, CA, Gates shocked the business community when he announced he was relinquishing his role as President of Microsoft in order to focus on this new passion.

For the better part of a decade, the worlds two wealthiest men were also the world’s most successful kubbers. They were unbeatable on the pitch – racking up countless titles and raising millions for good causes at charity events and exhibition matches around the world.  But the life of a touring athlete is exhausting and the heavy drinking and partying for which they were known eventually began to take their toll.  Kubb-Alt-Delete’s amazing run came to a screeching halt in the summer of 2005 when they were kicked out of the US National Kubb Championship in Eau Claire, WI after an embarrassing incident involving a profanity-laden verbal assault on a referee, some ecstasy-spiked Gatorade and two public urination charges which were later dropped. The pair were given an 18-month suspension from competition by USA Kubb.

It was only at this stage that Bill Gates and Warren Buffett decided to try playing bridge.

The two never joined forces to play competitive kubb after that but in recent years, having made amends with the kubb community, Buffet has gotten involved in the local kubb scene in his hometown.  When he’s not managing Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett spends much of his spare time these days working as the commissioner of the Omaha Kubb League.  He no longer drinks or takes drugs during league play, focusing instead on  embracing what he describes as the natural adrenaline rush he gets from “crushing field kubbs.”

Gates, busy running his charitable foundation with wife Melinda, claims he doesn’t get to play much kubb these days, though from time to time he and Buffett will have a backyard friendly when time allows.  Pictured above is one such friendly where we can see the former champions playing in 2015 with friend and Microsoft co-founder, the late Paul Allen in Gates’ Medina, WA back yard.

Within hours of USA Kubb’s December 2012 announcement that TV and radio personality Ryan Seacrest had been chosen to host the upcoming 43rd Annual Kubby Awards gala, kubb enthusiasts around the globe took to social media to protest the decision and call for him to step down.

At issue was a series of tweets Seacrest had made in 2009 that seemed to equate kubb with the children’s party game “corn hole.” While too inflammatory and offensive to quote here, the shockingly vulgar comparison was made just as Seacrest was starting out as a novice kubber and was quickly forgiven by his fans and teammates at the time as an innocent noob mistake. As Seacrest’s star continued to rise on the west coast kubb circuit, the public was wowed by his exuberantly positive on-pitch attitude and his signature outside-in goofy cut inkasting technique and the episode was soon forgotten. It was only after the Kubby Awards announcement that the wider kubb community made it clear that emotions were still raw over the incident and that those kinds of comments aren’t so easily forgiven in many parts of the country.

Reached in Eau Claire, Wisconsin for comment, a shocked USA Kubb director Eric Anderson explained that the organization was not aware of the hateful remarks Seacrest had made and that they would investigate the allegations immediately. “We figured there might be some pushback among the kubb community due to Ryan’s annoyingly up-beat persona on “American Idol” and [Dick Clark’s] “New Years Rockin’ Eve,” said Anderson, “but we certainly had no idea about these ignorant and hurtful comments. For someone to call themselves a kubber and then turn around and make comments comparing our cerebral and sophisticated sport of strategy and skill to some neanderthal tailgating bag toss game is a shock and does not represent the views of USA Kubb.”

In a move that quickly placated the riled-up and disillusioned kubb community, the organization would go on to tap TV personality and kubb champion, Chris Hodges to helm the celebrity-packed awards program.

For his part, a contrite Seacrest took 30 seconds during the next week’s American Idol season finale to address the kubb community live on national television and offered a heartfelt apology.  Out of respect for the community, he withdrew from competition for the following season, skipping the 2013 West Coast Championship, the California Championship and the Malibu Celebrity Classic before returning to tournament play and beginning the arduous task of rehabilitating his kubb career.

In early August 1966, while in Chicago for what would be their final tour as a band, the Beatles paid a surprise visit to Settlers Park in Rockton, IL to enter the 1966 US Kubb Open.  Though registration was already closed, Kubb United founder and event director Jim Fitzgerald quickly made room for the boys in the bracket.  Pictured above warming up shortly after their arrival, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison look on while blaster John Lennon (not pictured) takes some 4 meter practice throws.

Word of the Fab Four’s presence in town quickly spread and it wasn’t long before the fans overwhelmed the park and Winnebago County Sheriffs Deputies had to be called in to keep order at the tourney.  Once the crowds were under control the boys were able to focus on their game and performed admirably.  The team’s run ultimately came to an end when they lost to a multi-generational family team, who’s 10-year-old star David Ellringer dashed his heroes’ hopes by throwing an astonishing seven neighbors over the course of two games and knocking the Brits out in the round of sixteen.

While it was certainly a thrill for the people of Rockton and Beloit to rub shoulders with the international superstars, the feeling turned out to be mutual.  In a post tournament interview, George told Kubbnation Magazine that the band had played kubb extensively during their time living in Hamburg, Germany but due to a demanding tour and recording schedule hadn’t had the time to play much since then.  “We’ve always wanted to play in a big American tournament,” said Harrison in his signature Liverpudlian Scouse, “and to be able to play here at the US Kubb Open is really a dream come true.”

The following week, Tiger Beat magazine ran a piece on the heartthrobs’ visit to the tournament and the resulting exposure of legions of young Beatles fans to the sport sparked a huge – though short-lived – interest in kubb across the country.  It is rumored that the track “Sun King,” released a few years later on their Abby Road LP was inspired by the yellow kings that were used at that 1966 US Kubb Open and the positive energy they experienced at the tourney.

In the spring of 1975, British rock icons Spinal Tap were taking a well-deserved rest after a long and loud tour of North America in support of their critically acclaimed album “Intravenus de Milo.”

The band was spending time in the studio recording a new concept record conceived and written by bassist Derek Smalls.  Inspired by The Who’s wildly successful “Tommy,” Smalls endeavored to write his own rock opera – “Punishment Kubb” –  about a boy who gets revenge on his grade school bullies by becoming a champion kubb player and crushing his former oppressors on the pitch.

It was only six months earlier that that the rockers had been introduced to the game of kubb. At a raucous afterparty following their partly sold-out LA Forum show, promoter Artie Fufkin introduced the band to LA Kubb Club member Alice Cooper who invited them out for a friendly late-night match.  Three hours of horse-tranquilizer-fuelled block tossing later, the lads were hooked!  In a later interview with Rolling Stone magazine, singer David St. Hubbins and guitarist Nigel Tuftnel would count that night among the more important in their spiritual journey as a band. “I like the bit where you throw wood at other wood,” mused Tuftnel.

At the end of that fateful night, Cooper gave the band a kubb set to use for the rest of their tour and the game quickly became a pre-show ritual for them as they made their way across the country.  Kubb turned out to be something of an obsession for Smalls, who immediately started kicking around ideas for his kubb-centered concept album.

Recording was plagued by difficulties from the start.   Early on, during a back garden friendly, the band lost their fourth drummer, Ian “Stumpy” Marshall when he was struck in the temple by a wild baton throw and died instantly.  Additionally, the project was over-budget almost from the beginning due to Smalls’ insistence on having all 86 members of the London Philharmonic play triangle on the 12 minute epic track, “The Outhouse” – an homage to legendary late night South Pasadena kubb spot where Tap had first played the game.

With the death of yet another drummer, the budget overruns and the absence, after 6 weeks in the studio, of any releasable material, Polymer Records decided to pull the plug on the Punishment Kubb sessions.   Recordings from those sessions have never been released but it’s rumored that the free-form “Jazz Odyssey” which Spinal Tap would go on to include in their mid 80’s festival shows was a reworking of “Behind the King,” the 35 minute musical exploration of PK placement from those legendary 1975 sessions.

Kubb historians have long credited viking expeditions for spreading the game of kubb as they conquered their way across Europe and the North Atlantic during the ninth and tenth centuries.  Academics at Nanjing University, however, are developing new theories about a much older and more distant chapter of kubb history that has long been suspected but never proven.  A treasure trove of writings dating back to China’s “warring states” period has been unearthed, shedding new light on Sun Tzu’s classic “Art of War” and strongly suggesting it was originally a strategy manual for kubb rather than the military treatise it has long been thought to be.

Among the findings in these newly discovered documents are descriptions of early Scandinavian traders visiting the area, offering minimalist furniture and kubb sets and teaching the Chinese merchants how to play the game.  There are descriptions of the royal court quickly adopting this exotic new pastime, playing in their palace gardens with bespoke lacquered cedar batons and beautiful jade kubbs.

Perhaps most exciting is the discovery of several early editions of Sun Tzu’s famous work, written in traditional calligraphy, that use in their title an older character for “War” that the same as the one for “kubb.”  Based on these new revelations, it is now believed that Master Sun Tzu was a champion kubber rather than a military strategist.  Researchers suspect that it wasn’t until in the 3rd Century BC (well after Sun Tzu’s death) that his work was co-opted by the bellicose first Qin emperor, who refashioned “The Art of Kubb” into “The Art of War” that we know today.

On the eve of the annual US National Kubb Championship, it seems fitting to look back at the historic and tragic 2007 season when the Los Angeles Kubb Club made it’s debut on the national kubb scene.

With all the attention brought by the the LAKC’s feature on the March 2007 Sports Illustrated cover and the countless ESPN profile pieces and interviews, the expectations for how these six kids from SoCal would fair in Eau Claire could not have been higher.  Sadly, their performance at the big dance that summer could not have been poorer.  Until that point, kubb in California had been primarily a beach sport so, totally unaccustomed as they were to playing in the thick Midwestern turf, neither Kubb LA nor the Kalifornia Kubbers won a single game at nationals that year and quickly became the laughing stock of the sports world.

Once all of the ridicule and mocking in the press and online had subsided, the boys from South Pasadena regrouped and began to rebuild their organization as a grass-based league, with the long-term goal of reclaiming their dignity on the national kubb stage.  It wasn’t until 2015 that they dared re-enter competitive tournament play when they returned to Eau Claire for the first time in eight years.  Since then, the LAKC has been slowly building their reputation as humble but competent kubbers who are just happy to be making some friends and throwing some wood.  The club is excited for Nationals this year, though realistic about their chances given a very competitive field.  “Win or lose, we’re gonna chug some brews!” exclaimed Kubb LA driller Marshall Dostal when reached for comment.

Sidelined by injury for most of the 2016 season, tennis superstar Roger Federer has come back strong in 2017 with big wins in Melbourne, Indian Wells and Miami earlier in the year, but has opted to take much of the spring off to train for the grass court season and Wimbledon.  A new and important part of his grueling training regimen includes playing three-to-four hours a day of one-on-one kubb.  In a recent interview with Kubbnation magazine, Roger said that he has found that repetitive 8m throws and 4m blasting in particular help him greatly with his shot-placement.  “Kubb is really great for my transition to the grass court.  Baton work helps me build strength and improve my ball control.”  “I let (coach) Ivan (Llubicic) handle the inkasting, though,” the star said with a wry smile, “…I’m no good with the kubbs.”

It is unknown at this time whether any other players on the tour incorporate the “sport of kings” into their training routines, but a strong performance by Federer at Wimbledon this summer will certainly cause others to take a closer look at kubb as an effective cross-training option.

In the mid-seventies, the Mount Temple Comprehensive School kubb team was one of the strongest on the greater Dublin junior circuit and it was on that team that the four young lads who would become one of rock ’n roll’s biggest acts first met.  Before any of them had even considered a career in music, Paul “Bono” Hewson, Dave “Edge” Evans, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen, Jr. – pictured here practicing on a snowy winter’s day in 1976 – had developed a synergy on the pitch that made them a dominating force in Irish kubb.

As has been widely reported, U2’s breakthrough 1983 hit “Sunday Bloody Sunday” was in fact written about the social unrest that followed the controversial final match at the 1981 Kubb World Championships in Gotland, Sweden.  Visiting kubb hooligans took to the streets of Gotland that August, smashing windows and throwing molotov cocktails after a line judge controversially ruled that a stake-shunted field kubb was improperly tipped up, a call that cost the upstart American team, Damage Incorporated, the title.  The song was a rallying cry to the kubb community and is viewed by kubb historians as the catalyst that brought about the standardization of rules and regulations that govern the sport today.

Fun fact:  Guitarist Dave Evans first got the nickname “the Edge” during his kubbing days due to his ability to pickup 8-meter baseline doubles by tagging the very edge of the kubb, knocking it sideways into it’s neighbor.

Since World War II, the United States and Britain have often been described as having a “Special Relationship.”  Few realize that the term was first used by Prime Minister Winston Churchill when he and US President Harry Truman teamed up for the 1945 U.S. National Kubb Championship.  While they ended up with a respectable silver-bracket showing, the two statesmen found their on-pitch skill sets complemented each others’ wonderfully: Churchill a formidable blaster and Truman a capable and dependable driller.

It was during a post-tourney interview with the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram that Churchill waxed effusive about his love of kubb and the “special relationship” the two men have while playing.  Over time this term has come to refer to the close diplomatic, economic and military ties between the two nations.

Pictured here discussing the importance of controlled baton rotation with Prime Minister David Cameron during a State Visit in 2011, President Barack Obama was known to be an avid kubber and taking a cue from his idol, Abraham Lincoln, brought the game back as an important tool of statecraft. The two leaders played together on several occasions, both at the White House and on the very pitch set up by Churchill himself behind 10 Downing Street.  Not since the Reagan / Thatcher era had the game of kubb played such an important role in British-American relations.

When asked in a 2013 interview with Foreign Affairs Magazine about his playing style, President Obama was quoted as saying, “Michelle always tells me I should step into my throws, but I find my 4-meter percentages go way down when I do that…  uhhh….so I like to stand still.”

Since the inauguration in January 2017 of Donald Trump as President, many kubb pundits and international affairs experts have been wondering what will become of this historic “special relationship.”  Trump has been known to play some kubb at his Mar-a-Lago resort with a special 3/4-sized set which he had custom-made to accommodate his smaller hand-size.  Since drilling with full-sized kubbs might prove challenging for him, it remains to be seen whether he will abandon this rich tradition of kubbing with foreign dignitaries, or perhaps team up with a drilling specialist that would allow him to play the game without embarrassment.

People often associate California in the 50’s and 60’s with beach and surfing culture, but that period is also widely considered the heyday of kubb on the West Coast. Brought from the Midwest to the backyards and beaches of Southern California by the many aspiring actors, actresses and retirees fleeing the winter snow and summer humidity of Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin, kubb started gaining prominence around Los Angeles in the mid 1940’s. By 1960, it was a staple of every party and picnic from Pacific Palisades to Pasadena; popular among beach bums and Hollywood royalty alike.