ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, September 3, 1996 TAG: 9609040028
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ALLENTOWN, PA.
SOURCE: TIM BLANGGER ALLENTOWN MORNING CALL
It has not been the best day for boomerang throwing, with the wind swirling and gusting, but Peter Ruhf and his cousin, Barnaby Ruhe, remain upbeat after their workout of more than an hour.
As a photographer captures the scene of Ruhf and Ruhe seated together, surrounded by dozens of brightly colored boomerangs, Ruhe offers this running dialogue:
``In 20 years, people will look at this picture and say, `That was the Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb of boomerangs.' Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb. I'm serious,'' Ruhe says, without a hint of hyperbole.
``He's right,'' agrees Gregg Snouffer, secretary/treasurer of the sport's main information clearinghouse - the United States Boomerang Association, based in Delaware, Ohio, about 25 miles north of Columbus.
Snouffer, 34, has been throwing boomerangs since he was 6. Snouffer's older brother, Chet, 39, a well-known figure in boomerang competitions, was inspired by a Ruhe, at the time one of the leading boomerang throwers in the world.
``Back then, Barnaby was God,'' Snouffer said, exaggerating slightly.
Things change. As Ruhe and Ruhf, both 49, approach their half-century mark, they want to pass the boomerang to another generation and, in some small way, help transform boomerang throwing from a participant-driven sport, where only the players take an interest, to a spectator sport, where regular competitions are held and watched by nonthrowers.
Neither is interested in professionally promoting the sport - both pursue careers as fine artists - but they recognize that, in the right hands, a professional promoter with energy and vision is exactly what the sport needs.
Boomeranging traces its beginnings in the United States to an uncle of both Ruhf and Ruhe - Ben Ruhe, a former Allentown native who traveled to Australia as part of a vagabond, 26-month world tour in the mid-1950s.
Ben Ruhe learned to throw in Australia and brought back boomerangs from the country and began promoting the sport. Famed sportswriter Red Smith once profiled Ben Ruhe.
In the late 1960s, Ben Ruhe began organizing boomerang events on the Mall in Washington, D.C., events that Snouffer said were responsible for getting large numbers of people interested in the sport.
The extended family connection to boomeranging continues. A nephew of both Ruhf and Barnaby Ruhe, Adam Ruhf, 16, of Amherst, Mass., recently set a world record at a U.S. Boomerang Association tournament in the difficult ``fast catch'' category. In that category, a competitor is timed throwing the boomerang at least 24 yards and catching it five times. Adam Ruhf's record time was 14.98 seconds.
The sport attracts everyone from doctors, lawyers and aerospace engineers to truck drivers, Snouffer said.
Most boomerang enthusiasts also enjoy the camaraderie of the traditional, lengthy competitions, which can take anywhere from six hours to several days to complete.
Those long competitions are changing.
Snouffer also is president of a new organization, The U.S. Head To Head, which is helping promote and organize boomerang events that involve shorter, more dramatic competitions. It is hoped that these shorter competitions, run on a seeding system similar to tennis, will make the sport more appealing to television coverage and, eventually, make the sport appeal to a moneyed sponsor who could really help transform the sport.
The organization will hold its second national championship this October in Phoenix. A head-to-head competition held at the end of last year's world championships in New Zealand ``received much more coverage and larger crowds than the entire week of team championships,'' Snouffer said. ``It was fascinating for both the competitors and for the spectators.''
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Pennsylvanian Peter Ruhf, here with a tri-bladedby CNBmodel, has been been throwing boomerangs i0n competition since
1975.