cork1..
Thanks for your question. From Bridgeguys.com,
http://www.bridgeguys.com/Bios/OswaldJacoby.html :
"Mr. Oswald Jacoby was born in Brooklyn on December 8, 1902, and died
June 27, 1984, and is buried at the Calvary Hill Cemetery in Dallas,
Texas. He was a bridge columnist and first achieved international
preeminence as partner of Mr. Sidney Lenz in the Culbertson Match, but
he had already established himself` as a champion at Auction and
Contract. He next became a member of the famed FOUR HORSEMEN and FOUR
ACES teams. His selection by Mr. Sidney Lenz over players of greater
experience and with whom Mr. Sidney Lenz had practiced partnerships
was early recognition of the brilliance and skill that were later to
bring Oswald Jacoby to the top of the ACBL's list of all time
masterpoint winners.
He left Columbia in his junior year to become an Actuary, completing
the examination of the Society of Actuaries in 1924 to become, at age
21, the youngest person ever to do so. After four years with
Metropolitan Life, he went into business for himself, but his success
was cut short by the 1929 stock marker crash. Oswald Jacoby's
victory-studded career includes many oddities. He played in (and won)
his first auction tournament in July 1929, the National Team
Championship of the American Whist League. But he had already won the
first big contract pair tournament ever played, the Goldman Pairs
event in the Eastern States Championship held in February of that
year.
Later on, he set a record by winning the Goldman Trophy three times in
20 years, the only occasions on which he entered. Afterward, he became
a national champion by winning two AWL pair and team events. After the
Culbertson-Lenz match, Jacoby was secretary of the United States
Bridge Association for nearly two years, thus being associated with
Mr. Ely Culbertson. Late in l933, however, he helped to form the
original Four Aces team, which dominated the bridge world for the next
several years. During this period, in addition to American Bridge
League triumphs, he won two pair championships and four team
championships of the USBA. Mr. Oswald Jacoby had two months of Army
service in World War 1, when he was 15, and he was awarded the Victory
Medal. On December 7, 1941 he was playing in the Open Pairs in
Richmond, Virginia, when the Pearl Harbor attack was announced. He
immediately left the tournament and did not play again for four years.
During most of that time he served as a specialist in the Navy, with
the rank of lieutenant commander.
When he returned to competition in 1945, he found Mr. Charles Goren
far ahead in the masterpoint rankings. He had done very little about
returning to the top when he again returned to active duty in 1950 for
service in the Korean War. He served as a commander in intelligence
and was a member of the original staff at the Panmunjom armistice
conference. This return to service cost him his place on the American
team in the first Bermuda Bowl matches. However, he had represented
the ABL, in international competition as far back as 1935 when the
Four Aces team defeated the French, champions of Europe, in the first
official World Championship encounter.
Returning from two years of Korean service. Mr. Oswald Jacoby found he
had dropped out of the top 19 masterpoint holders. By 1958 he had
managed to move back into sixth place, still far behind Mr. Charles
Goren. At that time he decided to make a determined effort to regain
the Number 1 position. By 1962 he had done so. Between 1959 and 1963,
he won the McKenney Trophy four times in five years; the only player
at that time older than 50 to win the trophy. He won it at ages 57,
59, 60 and 61. In 1963 he became the first player to acquire more than
1,000 points in a single year. His winning total that year was 1,034.
In 1967, he surpassed the 10,000-point mark, at which time he retired
from active competition for the McKenney Trophy. Almost exactly one
year later he relinquished his position as top masterpoint holder to
Barry Crane.
In 1950, Mr. Jacoby became the daily bridge columnist for Newspaper
Enterprise Association, serving several hundred newspapers. He
established a record on April 22, 1982 when his 10,000th article was
printed. (Goren's name appeared on more than this number, but he had
not written any columns for many years before his death in 1991.) Mr.
Oswald Jacoby wrote books on poker, canasta, gin rummy and
mathematical odds. He also continuously maintained a practice as a
Consulting Actuary, served for six years as a member of the Board of
Visitors of Harvard Observatory (for the last three, under the
chairmanship of then Senator John F. Kennedy), became an expert on
computers and was frequently consulted on questions of tournament
movements, elimination schedules and scoring. He won a North American
Championship (the Chicago in 1955) with his son, James Jacoby, and
scored many victories with his wife of 50 years, Mary Zita Jacoby.
He was hoping to add to his titles the missing victory of most
masterpoints earned by any husband and wife team, regardless of when
acquired. Mr. Oswald Jacoby was elected to the Bridge Hall Of Fame in
1965 and was named ACBL Honorary Member in 1967. As npc of the North
American teams for 1969, 1970 and 1971, Jacoby captained the first
North American Bermuda Bowl champion teams (1970 and 1971) in more
than a decade.
Personality of the Year. This Award is presented annually by the
International Bridge Press Association and was known as The Charles H.
Goren Award until 1989. Beginning in the year 1990, the award has been
strictly an award presented by the International Bridge Press
Association. The Award was presented to Mr. Oswald Jacoby 1982/1983.
His North American Championship titles are: Spingold 1934, 1936, 1938,
1939, 1945, 1950, 1959; Vanderbilt 1931, 1934, 1935, 1937, 1938, 1946,
1965; Chicago (now the Reisinger) 1955; Reisinger 1983; Master
Individual 1935; Master Mixed Teams 1968; Life Master Pairs 1936; Mens
Teams 1952 and 1959; Open Pairs 1935, 1960, 1964; Mens Pairs 1934,
1939, 1949. He also won USBA Grand National Open Teams 1934, 1935,
1937, Open Pairs 1936, 1937; he won ABL Mens Teams 1931, 1932; AWL
Team-of-Four 1929, 1931, 1933, Open Pairs 1933, and the HERMAN TROPHY
in 1960. He placed second in many NABC events and won countless
regional titles including the MARCUS CUP 1955. In 1973 he won the
World Championship of Backgammon. Mr. Oswald Jacoby pioneered many
bidding concepts, including Forcing 2 No Trump, Jacoby Transfer Bids
and Weak Jump Overcalls.
His innovations have included developments of Gerber and Blackwood and
a specialized use of Two No Trump and Three No Trump Responses. His
most recent innovations were the use of Two-Way Stayman in connection
with Jacoby Transfer Bids after 2 No Trump opening and after 2
-anything- 2 No Trump. He invented the use of 3 Clubs as a double
negative response to 2 Clubs with 2 No Trump a positive Heart response
and 2 Diamonds the usual waiting bid. Among his writings are The Four
Aces System, What is New in Bridge, Win at Bridge with Oswald Jacoby,
Win at Bridge with Jacoby Modern, Win At Bridge With Jacoby and Son,
Improve Your Bridge With Oswald Jacoby: 125 Bridge Hands from the
Master, The Backgammon Book (with John Crawford). He also had many
books on mathematics, gambling, poker and other card games, including
canasta, in which he had the two best-selling books."
Thanks again for your question and I hope the above information is
helpful. Please let me know if you need any additional clarification
prior to rating my answer.
Regards,
-THV
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