Texas Koi & Fancy Gold Fish
Society Show History
By
Ray Jordan
It occurred to me that we should
try to document some of the history of our club. This is the first of a two part
series to document the history of our TKFGS
shows. Before any of you goldfish or long fin lovers call me of course I know we
have also had a goldfish show every year and for the past 8 years we have also
had a longfin competition. I was able to pull much of the koi statistics and
photos from back issues of KOIUSA magazine articles. Goldfish are not included
in those articles and until recently longfin koi were not included either. I
hope that someone will volunteer to compile similar information for goldfish and
longfins champions and write a article about them as well (hint-hint).
1st Annual Show -
Oct. 1992:
First
show at Water Garden Gems was made possible by financial assistance from Water
Garden Gems, John Shackleford, and Poppa Jims. We borrowed 100 and 150 black
Rubbermaid tubs to display koi the first two shows. Bob Spindola was our first
and only Head koi judge for six consecutive shows. Bob was also the featured
speaker for the show seminars. The San Antonio Bonsai Society also had a club
event as part of our show for the first several years. A total of 37 koi were
entered in the show and Grand Champion was a sanke owned by Mac McGreevy of Port
Author Texas. I believe Mac is the only entrant to have shown koi in every
single TKFGS show
2nd
Annual Show - Oct. 1993:
Martha
& my first experience with Texas Koi & Fancy Goldfish Society was at the
2nd annual show at Water Garden Gems in 1993. We attended several of
the show seminars and were shooed away from the koi show area several times by
guards (likely Mac) that kept the public away from viewing the koi while they
were being judged as was common in those days. We got to met Bob Spindola who
was the koi judge for our only head koi judge and along with his wife Pam
Spindola were our chief koi mentors for early koi years. A total of 42 koi were
entered and Grand Champion was a Kohaku owned by Beth and Bruce Grunden of the
Lone Star Koi Club in Houston
3rd Annual Show
- Oct. 1994:
Martha
& I had joined TKFGS, entered koi in the show for the first time, and I was
asked to assist with the koi handling. I was spellbound to be able stand
alongside Bob Spindola as he discussed judging the koi entered in the show. On
this day I learned more about how to evaluate koi than at any other time as a
hobbyist. Club had purchased above ground swimming pools to use as show tanks
instead of the smaller Rubbermaid tanks borrowed from Water Garden Gems. Also
first show to use new flow through water system with well water provided by
WWGems and 1st show tshirts. Oh
yes, I also officially met Mac for the 1st time and he was very
excited to win Grand Champion with a Shiro Utsuri. 52 koi were entered this
year.
4th
Annual Show – Oct. 1995:
Earlier
that spring Megumi Yoshida made his first trip to Texas to sell koi at our
spring event directly from Japan. As a result the number and quality of koi
entered rose by more than 300% to 163 koi.
We had a special show visitor from Barbados Island in the Caribbean. This
year the only non-gosanke/utsuri Grand Champion was selected. It was a beautiful
large well finished Kujaku owned by Sherry Short.
I remember that Bob Spindola was thrilled when he learned that the Grand
Champion koi was raised from a tiny baby by the hobbyist and only cost $50 when
purchased. Bob loved to give seminars on buying baby koi and felt that for the
average hobbyist raising baby koi to win a top award was the highest achievement
possible. We started hosting our show banquets on the famous San Antonio Dinner
River boats for several years until costs got to be too high.
5th Annual Show
1996:
We
replaced about half of our tanks with regular soft sided koi show tanks. We also
had a significant show vendor area including koi vendors for the first time. The
size of our show tent was increased to the largest available which was 150 X 60
feet. Grand Champion was won by Charles and Carolyn Phelps at attended with
several other member from their club in Louisville, KY. We also exceeded 200 koi
entered in the show for the first time and increased the number of sizes to six
with three inches between sizes.
6th Annual Show
1997:
Grand
Champion was won by Bruce and Beth Grunden with a beautiful large kohaku. This
was the last show that Bob Spindola was able to judge. He had been diagnosed
with a rare blood cancer about 15 years earlier. Bob credited koi and Pam for
his many additional productive years beyond what his doctors thought possible.
This show was plagued by 12 inches of rain all week the entire week before and
during the show which caused everything to become muddy. The outdoor show
banquet was doubtful on the riverboats and backup plans were made to eat in a
restaurant. I decided to wait until the last possible minute to cancel the river
boats and miraculously about 5 minutes before the dinner boats we to arrive the
rain stopped. We boarded the boats for a wonderful time and banquet dinner. This
proved to be the only time it wasn’t raining for almost two weeks. As we left
the boats the rain began pouring again and kept raining for several more days.
7th Annual Show
1998:
Grand
Champion was won the 2nd year in a row by Bruce and Beth Grunden of
Houston with a beautiful large Showa. This was our first show without Bob
Spindola as head judge who passed away two months before our show. Debbie Young
had assisted Bob and been a Candidate koi judge at our 5th and 6th
shows and She was selected to be our Head judge for this show.
8th
Annual Show – Oct. 1999:
Grand
Champion was won the 3rd year in a row by Bruce and Beth Grunden of
Houston with a beautiful large Sanke. Burt Ballou from Fountain Valley,
California was our Head koi judge for this show. This was the last show where
the koi tanks, goldfish aquariums and show vendors were all under a single tent
that was 60 feet wide by 150 ft long. There were a total of 150 koi entered in
the show.
9th
Annual Show Oct. 2000:
Grand Champion was won the
4th year in a row by Bruce and Beth Grunden of Houston with a beautiful large
Showa. Charles Phelps from Louisville, Kentucky was our Head koi judge. This was
the last show where we hosted our Saturday night banquet on the San Antonio
Dinner boats. There were a total of 153 koi entered in the show.
10th
Annual Show – Oct. 2001:
Grand
Champion was won by Chuck and Kimberly Downs of Norman Oklahoma with a beautiful
large Kohaku. This marks the second time someone from outside the State of Texas
won Grand Champion Koi. Art Lembke of Harwood, Maryland was our Head koi judge.
This was the first show where we set up the koi tanks in the new concrete slab
area at the end of the fish building. We purchased special high intensity lights
to simulate natural sunlight. Permanent plumbing for water and air were placed
overhead. Only the plumbing for the drains would need to be installed on the
floor for each show. The show vendors and goldfish aquariums were located under
a nearby 60ft by 90 ft. tent. The Saturday night show banquet was held in a
private dining room at the La
Margarita restaurant in the Mexican Market in Downtown San Antonio. Special
Awards were given to Mc McGreevy for being the only entrant to show koi in all
ten shows. Likewise Tony Reynolds was given a special award for being our head
Goldfish judge for all our shows to date. Special awards were also given to Dr.
Ron Malone of L.S.U. and Dr. Ken Johnson of Texas A & M who had been seminar
speakers at all of our 10 shows. There were a total of 173 koi entered in the
show.
11th
Annual Show - Sept. 2002:
Grand
Champion was won by Bruce and Beth Grunden of Houston with a beautiful large
Showa. This marked the sixth time out of eleven shows that the Grundens have won
Grand Champion Koi. Galen Hansen of El Cajon, California was our Head koi judge.
There were a total of 198 koi entered in the show.
12th
Annual Show – Sept. 2003:
Grand
Champion was won by Ray & Martha Jordan of San Antonio, Texas with a
beautiful large Kohaku. Art Lembke of Harwood, Maryland was our Head koi judge.
We dedicated a special show memorial which was a large rock with a bronze plaque
to Bob Spindola to commemorate his mentoring of our first six shows. This was
the first show where the previous Grand Champion Koi & Goldfish were placed
on the show pins and t-shirts. Tom Graham of Koi USA was the official show
photographerThis was also the first show where Water Garden Gems hosted a large
vendor craft show to enhance the event. There were a total of 139 koi entered in
the show.
13th Annual Show – Sept. 2004:
Grand Champion was won by
Bruce and Beth Grunden of Houston with a beautiful large Showa. This marked the
seventh time out of thirteen shows that the Grundens have won Grand Champion
Koi. Jim Reilly of Morris Township New Jersey was our Head koi judge. There were
a total of 122 koi entered in the show.
(Our
2005 show was cancelled due to Hurricane Rita that threatened our area but
turned east at the last minute and caused lots of damage and loss of many koi
owned by our east Texas members.)
14th Annual Show
Sept. 2006:
Grand
Champion was won by Gene Smith and Dan Charnes of Dallas Texas with a beautiful
large Kohaku. We were very excited to have Pam Spindola of Santa Ana California
return as our Head koi judge. Bob Brudd took the offical koi photos for KOI USA
magazine. Debbie Young received a
special gift for her many years of volunteer service running the computer show
program which tracks all the koi winners and move up for the club. There were a
total of 136 koi entered in the show.
Hope you enjoyed this little
snapshot of club show history. Our 15th annual show with be this fall
October 13 – 14, 2007.
Please mark your calendars and come out and help us make some more history.
TKFGS
Show Stats