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Not the biggest toss-up

Conventioneers tried, but failed, to topple a Guinness record for most number of people juggling (and objects juggled) in one place during Field Day activities.

The record of 476 people and 1,867 objects set at the 1983 IJA convention in Purchase, N. Y. withstood the Akron challenge. The 1987 crowd numbered only 359 people and 1,423 objects. Most chose balls or bags (960), or clubs (406). Only 20 rings were juggled, and 37 other objects.

However, when examined on a per-person basis, some progress has been made in the last four years. The Purchase crowd averaged just 3.935 objects per person, while Akron conventioneers handled an average of 3.963 props.

Event statistics were compiled by Glenn and Donna Saums.

No feeding frenzies

Has combat juggling replaced the large feeds as the social juggle of choice? Whereas combat flourished at the Akron convention, it was hard to find anyone passing clubs to more than three colleagues. In previous years, it was common practice for a sole feeder to face a line of a dozen or more people, exhorting them to "throw garbage." The lines sometimes stretched so far they bent themselves into full circles!

Great enough for Guinness

Extraordinary achievements by several conventioneers is earning them entries in the new edition of "The Guinness Book of World Records." Gene Jones, associate editor of the book and former IJA president, witnessed five Akron superlatives.

Tim Nolan stood on a bench to bounce nine small balls on the ground below more than twice around, establishing a record for the bounce juggle.

Joggler Owen Morse broke his own 100meter three ball record with a time of 12.12 seconds, then established a new 100-meter record in the five ball joggle with a time of 15.2 seconds. Morse chalked up a third entry as part of a mile joggle relay team that established a mark of 4:31. His teammates were Bill Giduz, Billy Gillen and Bill Fowle.

In a tense showdown between the two premier cigar box stackers, challenger Bruce Block unseated champion Michael Toro by balancing 134 boxes for the requisite five seconds. Toro's record was 133.

Several heavyweights attempted to juggle three 16-pound bowling balls, but Jones categorized the II-second best time by Bob Whitcomb as 'inconsequential'.

In a related matter, Helaman Ferguson has petitioned Guinness for recognition of the longest distance juggled. The Brigham Young University mathematics professor walked and joggled 50 miles in 16 hr. 12 min. 24 sec. on May 8-9.