Posted ByScissormeister on December 26, 2000 at 17:53:00:
I have just recieved word that Burton "Sizz" Conrad, the former North American RPS champion best known for the firestorm of controversy surrounding his famous "long count" victory at the 1954 Western Regional Championship in Kansas City, has died in Englewood, Colorado at the age of 74.
Sizz was already a rising star by 1954, having piled up a string of victories due to his intense style of play, powerful throws, and the unorthodox underhand scissors throw that gave him his nickname. Sizz advanced rapidly through the preliminaries at Regionals and was paired up with Bill "Snowy" Fosdick in the final match, who kept up with him every step of the way until the match was tied at 14-14--match point, under the Helsinki Rules that were in fashion at the time.
What happened next is a story familiar to every RPS player with an interest in the history of the game. Referee Cal Donaldson, who was recovering from a bad cold, called the familiar "One... Two... Three..." but then coughed loudly before croaking "Throw!" Snowy Fosdick, anticipating the call, threw scissors when Donaldson coughed, instead of waiting for the call to throw. But Sizz, displaying the lightning-quick reflexes for which he was famous, stopped short and waited for Donaldson's call to throw rock. Donaldson judged Sizz the winner of the match and the championship.
The arena erupted in mayhem. The two line judges immediately protested Donaldson's decision, arguing that Sizz was preparing to throw paper on his wind-up before changing to rock upon seeing Fosdick's throw. (Kinescopes of the match are inconclusive on this point.) One of the line judges, Bob McCaffrey, became so emotional that he started screaming at the referee and was removed from the hall. The fans in the stands threatened to devolve into a riot as arguments broke out between partisans of Sizz and Fosdick. Donaldson was first upheld, then reversed, by officials in the booth; eventually, the badly divided officiating crew announced that no decision would be made that evening, and the fans were ordered to leave the building under the watchful eye of the Kansas City police.
It was not until four days later that the World RPS Standing Committee on Play of the Game ruled in favor of Donaldson's original decision and declared Sizz Conrad the Western Regional Champion. Sizz went on to Nationals in New York, where he lost to 17-year-old wunderkind Barbara St. Clair in the semifinals. The World RPS society subsequently changed the rules to state that "[i]f, in the considered opinion of ... the officiating crew, the referee breaks from a consistent cadence when calling for a throw, ... the play shall be declared dead, and any resultant throws shall not be valid."
Sizz stayed in the game for many years, and in 1960 easily won the North American RPS Championship in Montreal, but was dogged by the "long count" controversy for the remainder of his career. Ironically, one of his defenders was Snowy Fosdick, who in 1965 told Roshambo World magazine "I screwed up. I should have waited for the call before I threw, but I didn't, and [Sizz] took advantage of that, which was exactly what I would have done. I never understood what the controversy was about."
Sizz is survived by his wife Laura, his sons Charlie and Seth, and four grandchildren.