Winning Pitch : Women’s Horseshoe Champ Gets Trip to White House

“Never in my wildest dreams did I picture myself as a guest of the President in the White House. Yet, there I was. I couldn’t believe it.”

Diane (Buzz Saw) Lopez, 42, proudly showed off a photograph of herself with George Bush on the White House lawn. The President had his arm around her.

“I’m just an average person with a job that doesn’t pay very much, an inspector in a small factory,” Lopez said. “Out of the clear blue, I’m back in Washington with President and Mrs. Bush. I petted Millie, their dog, and saw the new pups. I was at a barbecue at the White House with the First Family. All because of horseshoes. . . .”

It was horseshoes that brought the 5-foot-1, 125-pound Lopez to the White House from this small Central California town. The reigning women’s world champion horseshoe pitcher, Lopez got her nickname because of the speed with which she tosses the iron shoes.

George Bush is the biggest boon to horseshoes since Harry S. Truman. They are the only two Presidents to have horseshoe pits installed on the White House lawn. An avid pitcher, Bush formally unveiled his horseshoe pit earlier this month and invited the world’s five best men players and the four best women to join him. That’s how Diane Lopez happened to be invited to the White House.

A native of Santa Barbara and graduate of Santa Barbara High School’s class of 1965, Lopez didn’t start pitching horseshoes until six years ago.

“No one in my family ever pitched horseshoes that I know of,” recalled Lopez, a divorcee. “I pitched slow-pitch softball for 16 years. On Memorial Day weekend in 1983, I was with my softball coach, Brian Dunavan, and his wife, Debbie, and they introduced me to horseshoes. Brian told me to pitch the horseshoes the same way I pitch baseballs and I did and started making ringers right away.”

Lopez pitches her shoes in an unorthodox manner. She throws a backward 2 1/2 flip, which means she throws the shoe underhand with her thumb down. Most players throw the shoes with their hand and thumb up with a 1 1/4 or 1 3/4 flip.

Two years after throwing her first shoe, Lopez won the 1985 California women’s state championship in Stockton. She was state champion again in 1987 and 1988.

Last year Lopez entered her first world’s championship tournament in Pleasanton, Calif., and placed first, winning $2,400 and a trophy. Jim Knisley of Bremen, Ohio, won $3,500 and a trophy as the men’s world champion.

“It was four days of really grueling competition. To win the world’s championship I won 14 games and lost one in the finals,” Lopez said. “The only game I lost was to 10-time world champion Vickie Winston of La Monte, Mo. She beat me 40 to 25.

“Vickie pitched 34 straight ringers . . . at one point. We had 11 double dead ringers, that is each one of us pitched 22 ringers in a row with our ringers canceling each other’s points.”

But Lopez did better in the overall tournament and won the championship.

Even though she is the top woman professional in her sport, Lopez has won less than $5,000 in prize money. The state championship’s top prize was only $300. In most states, the top players are awarded trophies, not money.

‘Much-Needed Boost’

“No one earns a living pitching horseshoes,” Lopez said. “We’re all hoping the President’s interest in the game will really give it a much-needed boost. I’d like nothing better than to devote my full time to pitching and making a living at it the way people do bowling, playing tennis, golf, baseball and other sports.”

Lopez and the other eight top horseshoe pitchers invited to the White House paid half of their own air fare. The rest was paid by the National Horseshoe Pitchers Assn., which has 15,000 dues-paying members and high hopes that the President’s interest will give the sport a big boost.

Association President Dave Loucks, 51, editor and publisher of the group’s monthly magazine, put Bush on the cover of his January issue. And when Loucks learned that the President was installing a horseshoe court on the White House lawn, he wrote offering technical assistance and thanking Bush for helping the sport.

“President Bush wrote me a letter and in it said when the weather gets a little warmer he wanted to have me and a few others come pitch with him at the White House,” recalled Loucks. Ten days before the dedication of the White House horseshoe pit, the President called Loucks and invited him and the nine top men and women professional players to be with him for the unveiling.

‘Biggest Asset’

“President Bush is the biggest asset to the sport imaginable,” said Loucks. “Our long-range goal is to get sponsors to put a professional tour together with television coverage, to enable professional pitchers to derive an income from the sport which isn’t possible now.”

The makers of horseshoe equipment are equally hopeful.

“It’s wonderful what President Bush is doing for the sport of horseshoe pitching,” said Nanette St. Pierre, 44, marketing director for St. Pierre Manufacturing Corp., of Worcester, Mass., the world’s leading maker of horseshoe pitching gear.

The company is gearing up for an anticipated surge in sales because of the attention focused on President Bush playing the game.

“This is a sport anybody can afford,” St. Pierre insisted. “Our official back yard set that includes horseshoes and two solid steel stakes retails for under $20.”