Dead Men Don’t Win Cribbage Tournaments

In going through fam­i­ly heir­looms, great and small, we came across a small tro­phy in the form of a cup.

“O. F. D. / Crib­bage Tro­phy / Won By / Hill & Hallen”

I am not sure who the win­ners are, or what the year was, but my moth­er told me, years ago, that this was won by her father, Ernie Hill, and his bud­dy Hallen. My guess is that “O. F. D.” is the Ord Fire Depart­ment in my moth­er’s home town of Ord, Nebras­ka.

The only way to find out more about this is to search the Ord Quiz, and pos­si­bly oth­er local papers work­ing back­wards from Ernie Hill’s death in 1933. I know he did­n’t win it after 1933, as dead men don’t win crib­bage tour­na­ments.

Will I find out much? Pos­si­bly not. Will I find out any­thing? Prob­a­bly so.

It is all part of the “rea­son­ably exhaus­tive search.” When one finds a clue, one must fol­low it where it leads.