The American Contract Bridge League is one of the largest organizations representing the beloved game of bridge – and for this, we thank you!

Thanks to the ACBL and its cooperation with other bridge organizations and clubs, the game of bridge can be enjoyed legally, ethically, and freely.

The ACBL website is one of the first recommendations I make to anyone who asks about bridge. It’s filled with resources, including lessons, apps, and information for teachers – and that’s just the tip of the bridge.

For this post, I thought it would be fun to take a journey through the ACBL’s history. You don’t have to take my hand or anything, but let’s do it, shall we?

Here are some facts from the ACBL (you might not know yet).

The ACBL was founded in 1937

This little bit of history makes the ACBL one of the oldest bridge organizations in the world, even though there were bridge clubs founded some time before.

For some perspective on time, the famous Portland Club was founded just before 1815. Hartford Bridge Club was instead founded in 1931.

It was a great time for bridge, much like right now.

An ACBL membership number has seven digits

And if you are not an ACBL member, you probably don’t know this yet.

ACBL Life Masters will have the first digit on their membership number swopped out for a letter.

What does this teach you? When you see a fellow bridge player, approach your game with careful precision where you see a letter in their membership number…

Just kidding!

Or was I?

The ACBL is on Twitter

Depending on how much time you spend on Twitter yourself, this is either useful to you (or not quite).

Twitter users can find the ACBL at their official handle, which is @acblbridge.

If you didn’t know that yet, you heard it on BBO Prime first!

The ACBL Museum is located in Horn Lake

The ACBL Museum is home to a truly incredible selection of bridge history, artefacts, and culture. While I haven’t visited myself, I’ve had many questions for the team (and they’ve always been happy to provide answers).

As an added fact, they were also featured in this MPB Little Museum segment (ACBL Museum starts at ~7:45)

BBO was inducted into the Hall Of Fame in 2018

The ACBL Hall Of Fame was established to record bridge players of special contribution and note. If a person has done something important for the game, they might make their way to the Hall – and if you’re new to bridge, know that great players are recorded here.

Their Hall Of Fame also includes BBO, the only non-human member so far.

Now you know!