American Darts History

There are many theories about how darts found its way across the Atlantic; the most popular being that the Pilgrim Fathers took the game with them – and indeed played it - on the Mayflower when they sailing into self-imposed, permanent exile in the ‘New World’ back in 1620.

One darts writer, Keith Turner, challenged the ‘facts’ back in 1980 in his book Darts - The Complete Book of the Game and stated that he could find no evidence to support the theory. Keith added, “In view of their beliefs and code of living it is extremely unlikely that they played any other sort of games either.” Their credo would simply not have allowed it.

Determined came as no surprise to me that the Curator of Exhibits replied that he could find no evidence whatsoever to support such a theory stating “We have researched this in depth and have to confess that we have found no mention or hint of this in our records.” More recently, to close the book on this, Dan William Peek (2001) undertook research with The Pilgrim Society and knocked the ‘fact’ back into the realms of fiction.
It was Dan who set out on an epic journey to seek out the true history of the sport of darts in America. His book To the Point: The Story of Darts in America is an essential work and should be read by anyone interested in darts ‘across the pond.’ It is not my intention here to lift sections of Dan’s work into this article.

When the Americans joined the Second World War, they ‘invaded’ Britain and thousands were stationed in towns and villages up and down the country. One of the activities that appealed to the ‘Yanks’ whilst they were ‘over here’ was visiting the local pub and what did they find in the pub? Yes, darts. A great number of those servicemen and women took darts back home with them and helped spread the word of darts in the post-war years across North America.

American Darts Organization With the coming of the British Darts Organization and the World Darts Federation in the 1970s, darts went well and truly international. In the USA the lead was taken by the late, much-lamented Tom Fleetwood who founded the American Darts Organization (ADO) and with his wife Della and many other colleagues worked great things for US darts for many years.
In addition to Dan William Peek, who has researched the broad history of the sport of darts in the USA, there are a few enthusiasts out there that have recorded the history of their own darts organizations. One of these is Ed Otjen who, in 1999, wrote an 18-page history of the Twin City Darts Association especially to celebrate the TCDA’s 25th Anniversary and was presented at the special Anniversary Dinner in the fall of that year.

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