Curt Day
1966 World Champion - 86.2% (86.6% in Finals) at Murray, UT
1971 World Champion - 84.9% at Middlesex, NJ
1974 World Champion - 81.8% at Keene, NH
18 Times Indiana State Champion 1953 * 1955 * 1957 * 1959 thru 1972 * 1974

3 World Champion Tournaments of Curt Day

1966 at Murray, Utah
In the 1966 World Championship, Curt qualified with 552 points out of 200 shoes.  Curt likely pitched about 90% in throwing his qualifying 200 shoes.  180 ringers (200 X .90) would be 540 points (180 X 3), plus 12 out of 20 shoes close to the stake (within 6") would be an additional 12 points to make 552 total points.   The defending champion from the previous year's World does not have to qualify for the World Tounament.  Elmer Hohl (Wellesley, Ontario, Canada) was the 1965 defending champion.

There were three groups of 12 pitchers in each group pitching in the preliminaries.  Curt Day won 11 matches and lost only 1 with 708 ringers out of 828 shoes pitched at 85.5% in his group.  The top six pitchers from each of the three groups advanced to the finals tournament.  In the finals, Curt won 16 encounters and lost only 1, while hitting 1443 ringers out of 1666 shoes pitched at 86.6%.  In the tournament (preliminaries and finals), Curt Day won 26 and lost 2, while hitting a total of 2151 ringers out of 2494 shoes thrown at 86.2%.  He pitched 7 games at 90% or better.  In the finals, out of 18 pitchers, the lowest percent average for the finals was 72.4%.

Finishing 2nd in the 1966 tournament was Dan Kuchcinski (Erie, PA) 23-5 (13-4 in the finals) with a ringer percent of 80.6%.  Kuchcinski, World tournament rookie in 1965 would go on to win three world titles of his own in the next four years (1967, 1969 & 1970).  Kuchcinski would be listed as living in Bryant, Indiana in 1972, 1973 & 1974 and Portland, Indiana from the 1975, 1979 & 1980 World Championship Tournaments.
 

Finishing 2nd in the 1971 World Championship Tournament was two times (1965 & 1968) World Champion Elmer Hohl with a record of 34-4 and a ringer percent average of 83.9%.  This championship tournament was within an eleven years era between 1965 and 1975 of Hohl, Day & Kuchcinski; where Hohl won 5 championships and Day and Kuchcinski won 3 each.  Hohl won his 6th World Tounament in 1977 after Carl Steinfeldt (Rochester, NY) won in 1976.  The last such period of years (1933 thru 1959) dominated by two horseshoe pitchers was accomplished by Ted Allen (Boulder, CO) winning 10 World Titles and Fernando Isais winning 8 World Titles; interupted in 1954 by Guy Zimmerman (Danville, CA) winning one World Title.  Fernando Isais won 6 consecutive World Titles from 1947 thru 1952.  Isais won his first World Title in 1941 and did not compete between 1942 thru 1946, so he actually won 7 consecutive tournaments that he competed in.
 

Curt's son Paul Day appeared as a rookie pitcher in this World Tournament and finished a fine 10th place with a 77.3% ringer percent.  Paul put his college education over horseshoe pitching and halted his World Tournament horseshoe pitching while attending college.  The other Hoosier pitcher in the 1974 World Tournament was Dan Kuchcinski, who finished 22nd with 74.3%.

Curt Day won this his 3rd World Title with a record of 32 wins and 3 losses.  He hit 2386 ringers out of 2842 shoes for an average ringer percent of 81.8%.  The top ringer percent pitcher at Keene was Elmer Hohl with 85.4%, but Hohl's tournament record was 29-6.  Curt Day's consistency paid off.  Seibold also had a 29-6 record along with Hohl and two other pitchers, but Mark finished 5th place based on his 79.3% ringer percent being less than Hohl's and the #4 man Ray Martin (Philo, IL) at 80.7%.  The other man finishing 6th was Glen Henton (Maquoketa, IA) with a ringer percent of 79.1%.  Finishing 2nd place was Carl Steinfeldt (Rochester, NY) at 30-5 and a ringer percent of 80.5%.