Russ Gifford. Russ Gifford. Who WAS he?

Oh, yeah. He was that crazy guy who convinced everyone they could put on a game convention in Sioux City and it would be successful! (Well, everyone except some guy named Dave Glewwe, who disagreed constantly!)

Seriously, there are lots of people who need named here. Sioux City Wargames 1 was hatched during a car ride back from Lincoln with Lance Curry and Mike Bohlke, who were really the troika that made SCW 1 happen. They brought it to the other three Sioux City Grand Prix players Mike Warner, Mike Owen and Glewwe, who met weekly to play Speed Circuit in those years.
The convention came together in three months and took place at the Sioux City Hilton, with the above folks joined by Nate Summerside, Rich Jordison and Scott Tucker to provide the manpower to make it happen. In later years, Tim Johannsen joined and provided much needed support.
Of course, Lazette Gifford is the unrecognized co-conspirator in all of this, since she sacrificed many hours, ran registration, and watched the monthly phone charges climb. Of course, she also suffered as the utilities at home went unpaid that first fall – since Russ didnxt believe in charging people to get into Sioux City Wargames I – VII. (The name changed to MAGE after the first seven Sioux City Wargame conventions.) Luckily, only the first one lost money – which is why there is no free coffee, or seminar speakers at the later cons, btw.

About half these “usual suspects” were involved in Sioux City Wargames 0, (AKA The Prequel?) which occurred over a year before in the Southern Hills Mall meeting room. Praying for 25 attendees, it had hundreds of people pass through.

What followed that was the re-invigoration of the regional meetings, and the Sioux Falls contingent stepped up to make the Sioux Falls area a big deal. From there, it was only a step, not a leap, to the actual Sioux City Wargames, which Gifford ran until stepping down after the 1993 convention.
Also deserving recognition here are Bob and Dave Patch, whose support via a preposterously expensive dealer’s fee allowed the convention to continue as a free con. They also spent time in helping plan, and when insurance issues threatened Sioux City Wargames VII, they interceded and placed the liability on the Patch Craft Hobby policy.

This baker’s dozen are the group that made the first seven annual Sioux City Wargames Conventions happen. They are the real heroes, and they deserve their moment on the Hall of Fame – so here it is! (Though many have since found themselves on this electronic version of the post office wall.)
The goal of Sioux City Wargames was to keep the gaming hobby alive. Gaming had gone cold in those years since Jim Lurvey had left. The goal was to bring together the many players one weekend a year, so they could met others and thus promote more gaming the rest of the year. Almost 20 years later, it appears to have met that goal.

Whatever happened to Russ? A chance meeting at Sioux City Wargames introduced him to Advanced Squad Leader, and the rest is history. His ASL columns appeared first on Compuserve and Genie, then in At the Point, Backblast, the Boardgamer, Critical Hit, Fire For Effect, The General and the ASL Annual. Locally, he published Recon and ASL News for years, and started lots of the regional ASL tournaments. After performing as a last minute stand-in for the original Speed Circuit championships at Avaloncon 1991, he became the emergency GM for the 1992 Avaloncon ASL world championships with two weeks notice. He continued in that role from 1992 to 1998, averaging ten percent of the total participants in Avaloncon in his tournaments. He won the Avaloncon Best GM award in 1992, and was the second inductee to the Avaloncon Hall of Fame. (Some guy named Don Greenwood got in first – go figure!) He received five “Top GM” nominations during his eight years. He served on the directing board for Avaloncon and the World Boardgame Championships (WBC) until 1999.
In the words of Arthur Dent, “Most of it seemed to make some sort of sense at the time.”
Of course, now we realize he was just whacked.

Somewhere around 1998, after winning the Sioux City and Sioux Falls ASL tourney, he also entered the top ten ASL AREA players listing. He beat two out of three of the fellow top ten members in a Chicago tourney – and it was all down hill from there.

When his term with the South Sioux City Council, the WBC and Jones Communications all expired, so did Russ’ grasp of normalcy (if it ever really existed!) He has since made his living as a freelance writer, speaker and trainer. In 2002, he was recognized for his ten article history of the Lewis and Clark trip though Nebraska and Iowa. Striking an all-time low, in 2004, twelve years after his last material had appeared on C-SPAN, he became a political commentator. Who would have thunk it?

Respectfully submitted,
The people maintaining Russ’s padded cell.