HALL OF
Fame
JOHN DAVID GRIFFIN
Had there been no John David Griffin there would probably be no U.S. Croquet Association or Hall of Fame. Flamboyant, fun loving, audacious, energetic and creative John's flair for publicity (exemplified by the 1960 challenge to Presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon to play a competitive croquet match, issued by the fledgling Westhamptom Mallet Club that he had just co-founded) was probably due to his having been born into the newspaper business with a publisher for a father.
FULL BIO
Had there been no John David Griffin there would probably be no U.S. Croquet Association or Hall of Fame. Flamboyant, fun loving, audacious, energetic and creative John's flair for publicity (exemplified by the 1960 challenge to Presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon to play a competitive croquet match, issued by the fledgling Westhamptom Mallet Club that he had just co-founded) was probably due to his having been born into the newspaper business with a publisher for a father.
A natural athlete, John quickly became a crack croquet player but his irrepressible efforts to publicize the game will outlive his prowess on the courts. After several years of raising the awareness of the Westhampton Mallet Club's existence through stories in the New York and Long Island press, John moved to New Canaan and set about organizing the Connecticut Croquet Club.
John's media and show business friends, developed through his work as a radio and television columnist with the New York Mirror and his weekly radio show on Mutual, were frequently drawn into games on his new home court.
In 1966 a press release issued by John announced the intended formation on the U.S. Croquet Association. His untimely death by heart attack soon after that release postponed his dream for a decade.
John David Griffin was inducted into the United States Croquet Hall of Fame in 1980.