Tip O’ Texas, Home to Horseshoe Champion
by Eryn Reddell Wingert | Photos courtesy of Tom Routh
Pitching horseshoes is a game of warriors. The sport dates back to the Roman Empire, according to the National Horseshoe Pitching Association’s (NHPA) website, horseshoepitching.com, which references “soldiers pitched horseshoes discarded from the horses used to drive their chariots.”
There’s a warrior right here in the Rio Grande Valley–at Tip O’ Texas in Pharr. Tom Routh, who spends seven months a year here with his wife, Patricia, is a state, national, and world horseshoe pitcher champion.
Routh played casually and even organized company picnic games before taking part in his first tournament; he placed second and was hooked.
Routh won his first world trophy in 1997, and at 81, he’s still pitching. “I just like to do it,” he says explaining how, in his home state of Kansas, “people in rural areas put a couple points in their yard and pitch on Sundays or whenever.”
That’s exactly what Routh does at Tip O’ Texas, except his “whenever” is every day in his backyard court.
“It’s like bowling or any other hand-eye sport; repetition and practice,” he says. Each day after he walks two miles, he pitches 200 horseshoes. “It’s something I can do, and if health lets me pitch, I’ll pitch.”
It pays off. Routh took first place in Texas last October and is currently ranked in the top 10 nationally in the Elder Men 30-Foot Division.
The NHPA awards patches for various wins and accomplishments. Routh says he averages four to eight patches, with two state championships under his belt.
His highest sanctioned ringer game was a 90% , which means 90% of the horseshoes he pitched encircled the stake.
One of the first years he pitched in a Golden Age Olympics tournament–hosted annually by the City of McAllen–Routh says organizers confused his average, 75% at that time, for his age.
It’s the camaraderie, good-natured rivalry, and helping others in the sport that Routh enjoys most, with a twinge of competitiveness in the mix. “I thought this year [2024] was going to be the last, but I won state.” But,” he continues, “I can’t win and walk off the court.”
His most memorable pitching moments also include losses, which he credits with helping him improve, and he readily shares advice with other players to help them improve their game. He has even passed along his knowledge—and, arguably, innate talent–to one of his nine grandchildren, Josh, who garnered his own world championship win.
Routh has more ringers in his sights, with plans to take part in more tournaments in the new year. One of his goals: a 100% average game.
On his already impressive status as a horseshoe pitcher, Routh humbly quipped, “I’m pretty proud of it, for my age.”
