JIMMY RISK, Indiana & Florida

Inducted 1971

Player: Jimmy Risk started his pitching career as a “boy wonder” in Montpelier, Indiana, in 1926. Jimmy’s first World Tournament was as a 14-year-old in 1927 at St Petersburg Sunshine Pleasure Club courts in Florida. He won 25 straight games to lead the prelims and then finished 2nd to C.C. Davis in the finals, while winning 28 and losing 5 games. Risk never did win a World title but continued to be a top contender each year thereafter through 1935. In 1930, Risk won a national meet conducted by the soon to be defunct American Horseshoe Association and he won 7 Indiana State Championships.

Meanwhile Jimmy had built up a reputation and following by his exhibitions featuring trick and fancy ringer tossing and by performing on the stage, at fairs, local horseshoe clubs, schools, and YMCA’s. Jimmy traveled the entire country including Canada and became a great ambassador of the game. With the coming of World War II, Jimmy joined a USO entertainment troupe and gave exhibitions for the armed forces all over the world including Europe, Japan, the Philippines, Africa, and Asia. Risk passed away May 26, 1974, at age 65.