Three Times World Champion
Curt Day

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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
curt day holding shoe 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.
 

1971 at Middlesex, NJ
curt day addressing stake Curt qualified for the 1971 World Tournament with 529 points out of 200 shoes thrown.  Dan Kuchcinski was the defending World Champion from 1970.  In this 36 man round robin tournament, Curt Day swept the entire field with a perfect 35 wins and 0 losses.  Curt averaged 85.0% with 2387 ringers out of 2810 shoes thrown (an average of 80.3 shoes per game).  In this tournament, Curt earned the title of "Mr. Consistency".  During his 2810 shoes, there were no ten consecutive shoes in which Curt had fewer than seven ringers.  Curt Day pitched only 3 games under 80% and he did not pitch any games below 75%.

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.
 

1974at Keene, NH
curt day end of day 1974 was another 36 man round robin tournament.  Curt Day qualified with 535 points out of 200 shoes.  The 1973 defending champion was Elmer Hohl.  Mark Seibold (Huntington, IN) had tied Hohl for first place in the 1973 World with a 32-3 record and an 80.9% ringer percent.  Hohl defeated Seibold in a best of three playoff in two games for the World Title (52-27 & 50-46; 83.7%-76.1% & 82.4%-81.5%).  Seibold's rookie year was 1971 where he finished 4th behind Curt Day, Elmer Hohl and John Walker (Chula Vista, CA).  In 1972 Mark Seibold finished 3rd with a record of 32-3 behind Elmer Hohl and Curt Day who both tied for 1st with a record of 33-2 (Hohl winning the playoff with Day 2 games to 1 with an 84.4% average versus Day's 82.78% average.  Mark Seibold went on to win two World Titles of his own in 1979 with a record of 27 wins and 4 losses, pitching an 82.6% average and again in 1986 while averaging 82.2% and sweeping the field with a record of 31 wins and 0 losses.

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%.

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All World Tournament Performances of Curt Day
Year Place Win-Loss Record Ringer Percent Qualifying Points
1956 4th 28-7 77.0 490
1957 6th 22-8 81.2 506
1958 5th 19-11 77.5 494
1959 8th 28-7 80.4 540
1960 3rd 30-5 80.9 545
1961 5th 28-7 83.1 536
1962 2nd 31-4 81.7 540
1964 5th 28-7 84.4 555
1965 4th 29-6 86.0 535
1966 World Champion 26-2 86.2 552
1967 2nd 32-3 81.4 Defending
1969 4th 30-5 85.3 548
1971 World Champion 35-0 85.0 529
1972 2nd (lost playoff) 33-2 83.5 Defending
1974 World Champion 32-3 81.8 535
1975 2nd 31-4 81.9 Defending
1976 2nd (lost playoff) 33-2 84.1 556
Beginning with the 1966 World Tournament, Curt Day competed in 8 World Championship Tournaments; becoming World Champion in 3 of them, tied for 1st in two others (losing both playoffs), finishing 2nd in two of them and finishing 4th in 1969.  A pretty solid performance for an athelete aged between 49 years old and 59 years old.  During this period of time, it was a real challenge to play and try to beat Curt Day!  His win-loss record in the last eleven years of his World Tournament play was an impressive 252 wins and 21 losses (or 254 wins and 25 losses if the two playoffs for 1st are counted).  His overall win-loss record for World Championship Tournament play from 1956 to 1976 was 495 wins - 83 losses (85.6% winning percent).  If the two playoffs are included, then the win-loss record was 497 wins - 87 losses (85.1% winning percent).

Another accomplishment of Curt Day is to have the top ringer percentage average of all horseshoe pitchers in 4 or more World Championship Tournaments.  Curt pitched in 17 World Tounaments, from 1956 to 1976, with an overall ringer average of 82.7%.  Go to the NHPA Publicity Records/Stats page: http://www.horseshoepitching.com/publicity/worldrecords/overall.html to see how 99 World Championship Tournament pitchers are rated according to overall ringer %. Other Indiana horseshoe pitchers on this list are #18 Mark Seibold 78.1% (actively pitching since 1971 WT), #34 Clarence Bellman 75.7% (1961-1981), #83 Marvin Craig 72.0% (1960-1977) and #85 Karl Van Sant 71.7% (1961-1987).


18 Indiana State Tournament Championships of Curt Day
Year Place Win-Loss Record Ringer Percent Ringers / Shoes
1953 1st 15 - 0 77.1 771 / 1002
1955 1st 13 - 0 76.6 734 / 958
1957 1st 14 - 1 76.5 742 / 970
1959 1st 19 - 0 82.0 1007 / 1228
1960 1st 15 - 0 78.5 776 / 988
1961 1st 14 - 1 80.1 796 / 996
1962 1st 11 - 0 85.1 937 /1100
1963 1st 11 - 0 85.8 558 / 650
1964 1st
playoff game
10 - 1
1 - 0
84.3
89.7
740 /878
79 / 88
1965 1st 9 - 0 86.4 627 / 726
1966 1st 9 - 0 82.5 476 / 574
1967 1st 9 - 0 85.7 610 / 712
1968 1st 8 - 1 81.1 522 / 644
1969 1st 9 - 0 88.8 547 / 616
1970 1st 8 - 1 81.9 672 / 820
1971 1st 8 - 1 80.4 450 / 560
1972 1st 7 - 0 85.9 421 / 490
1974
1st
9 - 0
86.0
544 / 644
Mark Seibold (Huntington, IN) won the 1973 Indiana State Tournament and has been the man to beat since the Curt Day era.
 

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