Family Foosball Tourney XIX

Last week on my dad's birthday I wrote about how he, his brother and his sister all share the exact same birthday, 12-30, all three being exactly one year apart in age.  I also mentioned that we have a giant birthday party for them every year, complete with a Foosball Tournament.  This event is NO JOKE, people! Its hard to believe that our family has been doing this for 19 years now!  I can remember back to 1987 when we held the 1st ever Sauer Family Foosball Tournament.  The party was held at my parent's house after we had just received our first little wobbly, rinky-dink foosball table from Santa Claus.  Since this tradition started in my home, my dad naturally became the "Commissioner of Foosball"....and boy does he eat this job up!  He is in charge of keeping the record of who wins every year, along with matching up the partners and making a gaint bracket for the tourney.  He even has made up the rules....

If you read #6 and said to yourself, "Hall of Fame"? or #7 "Ring of Honor"? Yep, you've read that correctly.  Those are the awards given to any member who has won multiple championships over the past 19 years.  We have a very large family....there would probably be around 50 people each year if everyone could make it. Some of us are die-hard foosball fanatics and practice all year at home...probably half the households in the family have an authentic wooden foosball table.  The other half of us play just once a year...at the tourney.  I have never once in 19 years made it to the finals, yet alone won the darn thing.  So you can see that I am one of the ones who takes this real seriously ;)

The best part about winning the Foosball Tournament is (of course!) taking home the coveted Toilet Bowl Trophy.  My uncle Joe had a friend cast the toilet on this little trophy in bronze after the first tournament and it has been the prize every year since.  One individual from the winning pair takes home the trophy and is responsible for re-painting it for the next year.  This is this year's paint-job.  This thing is super shiny and has about 19 coats of paint underneath this top coat! I had to turn the flash off for this one or the glare would've blinded you!

Here are a few shots of the this year's game in action. Can you see the tournament bracket on the wall behind them? We had probably only half of our crew, so it was a smaller tourney than usual.  My dad is on left and Uncle Gene on right.

and this one of Natalie and Mary...

Here is me, teamed up with my cousin Nick....we lost in the 1st round to the pair that went on to be this year's Champions.

and this year's big winner's were....my brother Brian and my Uncle Steve (pictured on the left).  They played my other brother Jeff and my cousin Angie for the Championship.

Since I still had no voice to socialize with, I played with and took pictures of my niece, Annika, most of the time.  Here she is with her daddy.  They both have the most gorgeous blue eyes!

And that is all for this year's Foosball Tourney re-cap! I think it is awesome that I have such a large family and that we have such a fun tournament as this one every year! Does anyone else have a family event that even comes close to ours?? Just curious!

Now pray with me that my voice comes back ASAP! Have a great week everyone :)

Comments

[Adrienne]

Looks like you all had a BLAST!!!!!

[Valerie]

WOW!! That is way too fun!! Love the trophy!! Looks like you all had fun!! I am horrible at foosball!!

[Jeff]

I was robbed! I should have won the tournament, but once again I lost. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride.

[Maria]

It looks like a lot of fun!

[Greta]

That is so awesome that you guys have this tournament that has gone on for all these years. I wish I had a big family to do stuff like this with. Annika is such as gorgeous baby.

[Debbie Cook]

hilarious trophy! ha! sounds like so much fun. lovin' your blog :)debbie