Bridge
Vanderbilt was also a card game enthusiast who, in 1925, helped develop the scoring system by which the game of contract bridge supplanted auction bridge in popularity. Three years later, he heavily endowed the Vanderbilt Trophy which goes to the winners of the national team-of-four championship. In 1932 and again in 1940 he was part of a team that won his own trophy. He also penned several books on the subject of bridge, most notably "The Vanderbilt Club."
Not one to rest on his laurels, Vanderbilt also invented the first forcing club bidding system which has perennially dominated world championship play ever since. Nottingham Club, Neapolitan Club, Blue Club, Precision Club, and other strong forcing club systems are an outgrowth of the Vanderbilt Club. Polish Club, Unassuming Club and other weak club systems are an outgrowth from the Vienna System (Stern Austrian System, 1938).
In 1969, the World Bridge Federation (WBF) made Vanderbilt its first honorary member. When the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) Hall of Fame was inaugurated in 1964, Vanderbilt was one of the first three persons elected. His trophy remains one of the most prized in the game.
Read more about this topic: Harold Stirling Vanderbilt
Famous quotes containing the word bridge:
“What need the bridge much broader than the flood?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“I was at work that morning. Someone came riding like mad
Over the bridge and up the road—Farmer Rouf’s little lad.
Bareback he rode; he had no hat; he hardly stopped to say,
“Morgan’s men are coming, Frau, they’re galloping on this way.”
—Constance Fenimore Woolson (1840–1894)
“London Bridge is broken down,
Dance o’er my lady lee,
London Bridge is broken down,
With a gay lady.
How shall we build it up again?
Dance o’er my lady lee,”
—Unknown. London Bridge (l. 1–6)