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| Click here for the current WAKA Leaders Cup World Kickball Championship info! |
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Tournament Program
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Saturday November 19, 2005
My Left Foot (3)
(DC Capital Division)
vs
Kick Asphalt (2)
(VA Vienna Division)
My Left Foot
2005 Leaders Cup
World Kickball Champions
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Tournament Program
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Saturday November 20, 2004
Kick Asphalt (8)
(VA Vienna Division)
vs
Gym Class Allstars (1)
(DC Monument Division)
Kick Asphalt
2004 Leaders Cup
World Kickball Champions
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Tournament Program
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Saturday November 22, 2003
Kick Asphalt (9)
(VA Vienna Division)
vs
M.I.K.E.Y. (2)
(DC Dupont Division)
Kick Asphalt
2003 Leaders Cup
World Kickball Champions
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The History of the Leaders Cup
The WAKA Leaders Cup is awarded annually to the kickball team winning the World Kickball Championship in the Fall season.
While not a part of kickball tradition as long as the Founders Cup, WAKA's Leaders Cup has an illustrious history and
grandeur all its own. Said to have been originally fashioned by hand and forged from raw silver ingot by George Smith
(silversmith apprentice to Thomas Chawner in 1765) in Sheffield, England, its documented history begins in 1871 as the
championship trophy for the first annual English SA Football (American soccer) competition. The Royal Stonemasons were
the first sports team to hold the Cup high.
Several annual tournaments followed that first championship in 1871 until the point at which SA Football, due to ever
bizarre rule changes including one where the game's referees could join in the play on whichever side they chose (opening
the way for many a fixed game), merged with FA Football and adopted their banner. The trophy ended up resting on a shelf
in a Sheffield pub named The Rogue Tankard and used for many various and sundry drinking events, until rescued some 50-odd
years later by Zander Schipper, an emigrant from Holland. Schipper feared that this priceless historical treasure might be
lost to the Nazis when they invaded the island and so, with the pub owner's permission, made off with it under the cover of
darkness after it was used in a particularly messy game of Bobbing for Tripe. Making his way to port, Schipper booked passage
on an American Merchant Marine cargo ship figuring that taking a chance against U-boats was a better option than waiting for
the inevitable occupation. Weeks later he found himself in Portsmouth, Rhode Island ready to embark on a new life and still
securely clutching the coveted Cup. We would like to take this opportunity to formally put to rest the rumor that Zander Schipper
formed the basis for J.R.R. Tolkien's character Gollum. Extensive research has shown that Tolkien wrote most of his stories
before Schipper left England.
Schipper's memoirs are long and detailed, covering his movement from Rhode Island through Connecticut, New Jersey, and Delaware
until his eventual settlement in Columbia, MD. Mostly, though, the memoirs document in exhaustive detail the condition and care of
the trophy every single day of Zander's life. Schipper passed away in late 1967 and the executor of his estate, Susan Ryan, took
it upon herself to care for the Cup. On March 17, 1969, Ryan presented the fine silver bowl to her sister, Pat Nixon for her first
birthday celebration in the White House. Richard Nixon was so enamored with the Cup's history and rescue during World War II that
he gave it a special place right in the Oval Office. It is this same Cup that can be seen in the lower right side of this famous
picture of Nixon and Elvis shaking hands.
From there the Cup mysteriously made its way to a presidential memorabilia shop in 2003 where Johnny LeHane, one of WAKA's
National Directors, discovered it and brought it to its new home - the World Adult Kickball Association. Thus, the Cup's more
recent history starts, of course, with kickball. To pay tribute to the sweat and tears cast by the many WAKA Kickball division
Presidents that help to move the organization forward in an ever tumultuous world, the WAKA National Council named the trophy
in their honor in 2003. One of the key differences between the Founders Cup and the Leaders Cup is that the latter, rather than
enjoying a tradition of being filled with fine ale, harkens back to its roots at the Rogue Tavern and is used by the champion
team with several straws to enjoy whatever concoction the bartender comes up with. In this way, WAKA celebrates the grand history
of the Cup's original charisma and brilliance while simultaneously upholding the glory that is WAKA Kickball. "The true beauty of
the Leaders Cup is that it is both very old, and very new.," relates Jimmy Walicek, another of WAKA's National Directors.
This Cup's exquisite and magical silver shine has beguiled the world many times over and still stands today as a symbol of
perseverance and true triumph over adversity. WAKA Kickball is proud to bestow it on the fall champions of the world's most
beloved playground sport - kickball.
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