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History of NSA Club #494

National SCRABBLE® Association Club #494 – Columbus, OH was founded in the fall of 1995. Warren McPherson rallied a group of about 20 people to play the popular board game while at a retreat. Seeing the potential for a regular club, McPherson organized regular meetings.

In 1999, Dan Brinkley formalized the group as a sanctioned chapter of the National SCRABBLE® Association (NSA), the body which governs club and tournament play in North America. In 2000, the club disbanded due to waning interest.

A few players continued to meet regularly to play SCRABBLE® at Cup O Joe in German Village. Others learned about the informal group by word of mouth or passersby joined in, and the core group grew to six or eight players. The group was informally led by Joe Miccio, a retired school teacher.

The chapter was reactivated with the former chapter number (#494) in February 2003. Since then, several new members have found the group on the NSA’s club roster, or heard about the NSA from sources like ESPN’s documentary “2003 Scrabble All-Stars”, or Stefan Fatsis’ book Word Freak.

In September 2003, the group hosted the first-ever SCRABBLE® tournament in the Columbus area, and held five more tournaments in the following year and a half.

The group lost official status again in July 2004, however, the core members still continue to meet.

Revised: 01/30/07