The Rush Buckley Award

The Rush Buckley award is given to the NVBA player who started the year or joined the NVBA during the year as a non-Life Master with more than 20 MPs, and won the most Masterpoints in the year playing in NVBA-sponsored events. This award is presented at the NVBA annual meeting in May.

The following story comes to us via Terry Lavender, a long-time director in Northern Virginia....

Rush Buckley was an experienced player who took it upon himself to create his own mentoring program. He made a point to play with lots of different newer players. He was quite deaf and spoke loudly because of that. Many directors told him people were overhearing him and using the information inappropriately. This greatly upset him that people would take advantage of an old man’s problem. One night, he yelled at his partner “How can you pass on board 8? 6 clubs is cold." After the game, he couldn’t wait to grab the traveler to see. Three pairs had bid 6 clubs on board 8. As it turned out, you couldn’t even make 3 clubs on the board! That's how he got his revenge. The trophy came about because of his willingness to play with up and coming intermediate and novice players.

His full given name was John T. Buckley. No one knows where the nick-name "Rush" came from. Rush passed away on June 19, 1972 in Alexandria, Virginia.

Point your cursor at a name in color below to see pictures of the winners.


2017 John Wertman
2016 Richard Bingham
2015 Adam Gann
2014 Richard Bingham
2013 Richard Bingham
2012 Eric Poskanzer
2011 Fred Gramlich
2010 Stephen Drodge
2009 Tony Cincotta
2008 Amanda Carter

2007 Bob Silverstein
2006 Bob Silverstein
2005 David Bahn
2004 David Chechelashvili
2003 Prah Rajkumar
2002 Leo Cardillo
2001 Paul Krueger & Frank Cardillo
2000 Mel Yudkin
1999 Jenny Rose
1998 Patricia Winterbauer