After 30 years, Tri-City Dart League still draws a crowd

PERU, Ind. (AP) - The first floor of the Elks Lodge in downtown Peru is quiet. The lights are off, and the front door is locked.

But the side door leading to the basement is open, and that’s where the action is.

Head downstairs and through an old door, and you find yourself inside the sanctuary of the Tri-City Dart League.

Seven regulation-sized dart boards line one wall. Beside each one is a small electronic tablet to keep score.

Marks are drawn on the floor exactly 7 feet, 9.25 inches away from each board - the official throwing distance for players.

A few folding tables sit near the opposite wall, which is lined with old, spotty-brown carpeting.

That’s the extent of the room’s furnishings. But for the dart players who meet there, that’s all they need.

On a recent Tuesday evening, the basement is filled with about a dozen members gearing up for a league tournament. One of the women plugs in some music, playing a mix of country, R&B and pop.

But the thwack of steel darts hitting the heavy cardboard targets can still be heard over the radio.

Kenny Yates is one of the guys throwing. He’s been with the dart league for more than 10 years and said he’s come to love the game that some historians say dates back to 19th century England.

“The thing is, throwing darts is fun if you like to throw darts, and that’s what I’m all about - having fun,” Yates said. “And it’s way cheaper than bowling. It’s cheap fun.”

The league has been providing that cheap fun for the last 30 years, which makes it one of the older dart associations in the country. According to the American Dart Organization, the oldest league is 40 years old and located in Michigan.

Linda Hendrix, a 61-year-old Amboy resident and longtime member of the Tri-City Dart League, said the longevity of their group can be chalked up to its founder, Linda Foote.

Foote founded the club in 1986 at what was then Grissom Air Force Base after moving to the area with her husband. He was an airman, and the two traveled to different parts of the world as part of his military assignments, Hendrix said.

In 1978, they were stationed in England, and that’s where Foote started her dart career. She even started organizing tournaments on the base, including one challenge match with a British rugby team.

Foote and her husband returned to the U.S. in 1982 and were stationed at Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where she helped start the Seascoast Darts Association on the base.

During that time, she participated in a televised challenge match with British sailors from Portsmouth, England, with the airmen from Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Foote arrived at Grissom in 1985 and immediately volunteered to start the Grissom Darts Association - the precursor to the Tri-City Dart League, which was originally founded to serve Peru, Kokomo and Wabash.

“She was the mother hen of everything, and she was a teacher,” Hendrix said. “She’d tell you little things to help. She’d watch you throw and watch your stance, then give you some advice.”

She said one piece of advice that always stuck with her was the best way to hit a double one on the board, which is a notoriously difficult shot to make for a lot of players.

Foote’s advice? Aim for the double three instead.

“That sounds stupid. The one is up top and the three is down there,” Hendrix said. “How is that going to work? But it worked. It was little things like that. She just had a real feel for the game, like those funny little quirks.”

Foote died in 2013. That same year, she was inducted into the National Darts Hall of Fame in Clarksburg, West Virginia.

Now, the league has carried on in her honor, Hendrix said. The first dart board on the basement wall has “Dart Mom” painted above it in remembrance of Foote. In fact, all the dart boards are named after former members who have since passed on. There’s Junebug, Steven, Andy, Helmut and Pappy.

Pappy is the father of 37-year-old Clayton Patrick, who has played in the dart league for the last 18 years.

In that time, he said, the club has become more than just a place to throw darts on Tuesdays. It’s become a family - literally, for Patrick.

Not only did he play in the league with his dad, but he met his wife, Anita, there 11 years ago. The two got teamed up during a blind draw, and the rest is history, he said.

“We just kind of hit it off,” Patrick said. “We shared a wink here and there and ended up talking afterwards.”

Now, the members of the club are some of his closest friends. Patrick said he can call anyone from the group when he needs something, and they’re right there for him.

“This is pretty special to me,” Patrick said. “It’s got a deep place in my heart. I can’t imagine it being a Tuesday and I’m not playing darts.”

The dart league is a tight-knit group, and it’s the game that binds them together.

Patrick said members of the group all have developed their own playing style, and there’s enough friendly competition to keep things interesting when they meet up for tournaments.

Yates said it’s that competition - and the desire to get better at the game each time he plays - that keeps him coming back each week.

“Just to pick darts and go to a dart board and throw is totally different than coming to a dart league,” he said. “It’s just more fun. It’s like going to a baseball game. If you’re sitting in the bleachers, you’re kind of bored. But if you get out there and play the game, it’s exciting.”

The number of people playing in the Tri-City Dart League has dwindled over the years. Patrick said at its height, the club had more than 100 members. Now, there are around 35 dues-paying members.

Yates said they’d like to see more people join up to ensure the league continues on long into the future. But whether that happens or not, one thing is for sure, he said.

“We’d love to keep it going,” Yates said. “But I’m telling you, even if it’s just two people left, there will be two people here throwing darts on Tuesday.”

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Source: Kokomo Tribune, https://bit.ly/2gE6SnZ

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Information from: Kokomo Tribune, https://www.ktonline.com