Bucknell University Athletics
Hal Richman '58 Celebrates 50 Years with His Famous Invention: Strat-O-Matic
2/9/2011 7:00:00 AM | Baseball
Feb. 9, 2011
LEWISBURG, Pa. -- Most serious baseball fans spanning multiple generations know of Strat-O-Matic, the popular board game that uses dice and statistical cards to simulate real baseball games. What Bison fans may not have known, however, is that the game was invented by a Bucknellian, Hal Richman '58, and was perfected during his days as a mathematics major at Bucknell. This Saturday, Richman and Strat-O-Matic fans from all over will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the game with a Gala Opening Day Celebration in New York City.
Thirty years ago, before the advent of overnight delivery, customers decided that the 3-4 days it took for the new baseball player cards to arrive via UPS was just too long to wait. So without an invitation, Strat-O-Matic fanatics from across America lined up outside the company's Long Island offices in the middle of the winter to pick-up the new baseball player cards for themselves and their league members. And once it began, the tradition of Strat-O-Matic Opening Day was born.
To recognize the Company's 50th Anniversary, this year Opening Day will be held in New York City this Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Community Church of New York (40 East 35th Street). Hundreds of Strat-O-Matic Fanatics from across America are expected to attend the free event. In addition to allowing people to pick-up their baseball player cards and computer games for the 2011 season, the event will be more like a convention, with a variety of speakers, panels, celebrity Strat-O-Matic guests and interactive discussions about the game. The venue will even have a game room for fans to play pick-up games.
The highlight of the festivities will be a state of the company address by Richman. Other speakers and panel discussions will include Glenn Guzzo, author of the book Strat-O-Matic Fanatics, a Q&A with board game and video game researchers and developers; plus a few celebrity Strat-O players and sports fantasy game icons including Doug Glanville, John Dewan, Bill Daughtry and others to be announced.
All attendees to the 50th Anniversary Celebration/Opening Day 2011 will receive a limited-edition special collectable gift, available exclusively at the event. Guests will also be able to purchase additional products, including a limited signed and numbered reproduction of the very first Strat-O-Matic Baseball board game produced in 1961 and a 50th Anniversary commemorative t-shirt.
Richman invented Strat-O-Matic as an 11-year-old in his bedroom in Great Neck, N.Y., in 1948 because he became frustrated by the statistical randomness of other baseball board games. He discovered the statistical predictability of dice would give his game the realism he craved. Over the next decade he perfected the game at summer camp and then as a student at Bucknell. After producing All-Star sets in 1961 and '62, he parlayed a $5,000 loan from his father (and made a deal that if it didn't work out he would work for his father's insurance company) into the original 1962 Strat-O-Matic Baseball season game. Needless to say, Hal never had to take a job with his father.
For more information, visit http://www.strat-o-matic.com/.
