The Lizzard's History

 

The History of The Laid Back Lounge Lizzards
(as recalled by the Head Lizzard)

    Well, let me start off by saying this was all Juanita Taylor’s fault. She was the owner/bartender/cook at the Laid Back Club and crazy enough to agree to sponsoring my dart team. I don't recall the exact date but it was around 1991 when Brad Phillips and I (Jim Dunham) found ourselves in need of players to fill out our team which had lost several players at the end of the previous league session. I began talking to people to find shooters that could throw a good game but more importantly would be fun to have on a team.This was the informal beginning of what was to become the Lounge Lizzards. My recollection may be off slightly since it was many beers ago but this is the story as I recall it. At the time I didn't know Ron Barrows all that well. We had competed against each other however and were acquainted. Ron threw a good game and was a nice guy.I spoke with Brad and we agreed Ron would be a good choice. I asked Ron to join us and he agreed. Every player with the exception of Brad and myself since the inception of the Lounge Lizzards has been discussed and accepted by all team members before being brought in as a member. The next person we approached and chose as our fourth player was Dennis Mchugh. We had all known Dennis for some time and knew he would be a good teammate. We had a solid team, did well, and had a great time. This was the lineup for a couple of sessions. Somewhere along the way we picked up a fifth player by the name of Dan Asplen who was a scout for the Baltimore Orioles and was in Wichita temporarily. With this roster we won the first known trophy awarded to the Lizzards that actually carried the team name. As I recall Dan played one session and when he had to leave we asked Kenny Chamberlain to be our fifth player. After a time Dennis McHugh dropped out and we were left with Kenny Chamberlain, Ron Barrows, Brad Phillips and myself. After all these years of play, Ron and I have played every season the Lizzards have been together. After picking up Kenny he also became a permanent fixture and has played nearly every season since. Many variations of the Lizzards came and went but the three of us remained good friends and active as Lizzards.
    Some of the other teams we were playing had team names and I thought we should have a team name to identify with as well. I signed the team up as the Laid Back Lounge Lizzards and informed the team the first night of the season. They were of course curious as to where I had come up with that particular name. I explained that I had named us after a computer game by the name of "Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizzards" that I had been playing. I got a few strange looks from my teammates (which were not the first and would not be the last time) but the name was accepted. For me personally it made darts more fun to have an identity that we and others could identify us with.I recall one season that the WDA was actually going to do away with team names claiming they were to much of a nuisance. I opposed this strongly enough to actually threaten to drop out of the WDA and the names were reinstated the next season. My belief was if teams had identities it was more fun and exciting for all. For example if you looked at the schedule and all you saw was that team #3 was playing team #7 so what. On the other hand if you saw a schedule listing the Lizzards playing the Rat Bastards you knew exactly who you were playing and their team members. This also over time created some classic rivalries.The names have a tendency to reflect the personality of the team as well. Many variations of the Lizzard name have been used over the years but we were always The Lizzards. I will list all variations I can recall towards the end of this history.
    Each season I took it upon myself to make sure the team had a full roster and would continue playing year round. If any Lizzards dropped out for the summer or permanently I would consult with the current active Lizzards and recruit replacements to fill spots as they opened up. I will not go through the roster of all the Lizzards that have played over the years individually because I would probably screw it up. I will though, list all Lizzards past and present that I can recall at the end of the story.
    My goal was to keep the team going, build a loyal, fun loving, crazy team that everyone would be proud of and enjoy being a part of. I don’t want to sound big headed but I believe I have succeeded. I made it part of my duties as the team captain to try and come up with ideas to make us unique and keep the team interesting. I wanted my teammates to want to be Lizzards. Many of you will remember some off the antics I would dream up to keep us in perspective. Meaning the game comes second, the opportunity to laugh and have a good time with good friends came first. In the beginning it started with silly little things like adding pennies to the WDA (Wichita Darting Association) checks to pay our weekly team fees. This drove the WDA secretary nuts. Each month at the captains meeting sure enough those pennies would appear on the treasurer’s report and someone would pipe up "Where are those pennies comin’ from"? Just as quickly someone would yell out that it was Little Arnie (my old nickname and another story completely)and those damn Lizzards again and everyone would get a good laugh.That, I believe was our first trademark as a team. I then started filling out the league fee checks in various ways. One that comes to mind is one that I wrote for "One Thousand Itty Bitty Pennies". It got to the point the other teams would come over at the end of our matches just get see how the check was written for that week. Another one of our antics was to sign "Little Arnie" as the team captain on the league results sheet. This, as I mentioned was an earlier nickname that I used in computer gaming.I thought what the heck I might as well use it in darts. This went on for several seasons until the WDA decided it was against the rules to have a fictitious non-member sign the league score sheets. When I informed the Lizzards of this we immediately resolved the problem on the spot during a Thursday night league at Cy’s club. I took up a collection and gave it to the WDA Secretary who happened to be present that evening. I requested a membership for Little Arnie. I still have the membership card. This I think was the same night I noticed that all my team members including myself were staring across the bar at a young lady sitting in a compromising position and I coined the phrase "how many Lizzards does it take to stare down a beaver". The answer I believe is however many are present but it is still somewhat of a mystery. Somewhere during this period the most well known Lizzard trademark was born. I took a liking and made it a point to shoot double one outs while bypassing the traditional outs. I found I had pretty good success with this, got a kick out of doing it and at seeing people’s reactions. I also received a lot of strange looks. Most folks thought I was nuts. I kept up my crusade and continued proclaiming to all who would listen to make double one your friend. Well soon I started encouraging the other Lizzards to go after the elusive double one and before long we were rewarding each other with shots of liquor for any Lizzard taking out an 01 game on double one (The Lizzard Out). The whole damn league thought we were crazy, and rightly so. It was not too long after that you would hear people talking about hitting the Lizzard Out in a dart match they had played against someone who may not even have been a Lizzard. Guess what? They were always smiling and thinking good thoughts about those crazy Lounge Lizzards. In 2008 the WDA created a "Double One Out" pin, from our Larry The Lizzard artwork. These were awarded to each player that hit a double one out in the course of league play! Who’d a thunk it?

Over the years some of the Lizzards have gone on the roard to attend Chuck and Stick's Chicken Coop Open. The Coooooop is held the first full weekend of June each year in Noel, Missouri. There are too many stories to tell and some things that happen at the Coop must stay at the Coop. I will however relate a few of my favorites. The first Coop story that comes to mind involves a plastic Lizzard that has resided on the dashboard of my Honda CRV since about 1997. I purchased the Lizzard in Tucson, AZ. on a business trip and immediately dubbed him the team mascot. He has since appeared on Lizzard fliers, T-Shirts, stationary etc… The first LizzardPalooza tee shirt is actually a picture of my little plastic friend that I took outside of my office at work one day. Linda Lu Waggoner digitized the image for our shirts. Anyway, each year I would show up with my little plastic Lizzard at the Coop. The first order of business upon my arrival would be to put our little friend on the hood of my car, put a lit cigarrette in his mouth, and the Lizzards in attendance would down a shot of tequila. Every once in awhile someone would stop by the campsite light another cigarette and put it in his mouth. It wasn't long after that my teammates were showing up at the Coop with their Lizzards. You gotta love a bunch of grown men who are running around a showing off their little plastic lizzards. The Chicken Coop antics did not stop there. One year way back when Ginny Donley (Cap’n Ginny of the Rat Bastards) shot Kenny a moon at the Coop. The Lizzards n not to be out done formulated a plan for the next Coop. If I recall correctly Ron Barrows, Kenny Chamberlain, Jimmie Fleetwood and myself (H.L) were sitting at the end of the bar at the Laid Back Club discussing the possibilities when Ron came up with a brilliant idea. Why not write our team name on our butts and do a mass mooning of Ginny’s team at the next Coop? I quickly did the math and discovered we had exactly the right number of cheeks to spell out Lizzards including both z's. Off we went to the Coop the next year. With the exception of myself who showed up pre-printed, all the Lizzards had their letters drawn on their butts by Sherri Blanchat. Jimmie got in a fair amount of trouble over this particular detail. We had had a few beers and were having a hard time getting in the correct order to spell Lizzards. We did spell some other intersting words however. Hans Burgdorf took it upon himself to help us out. With our pant half down Hans put us in the right order and then numbered us from lef to right so we could duplicate it. The Lizzard moon tribute paraded through the campsites of the Coop that Saturday night. The rest is history. That same Coop the mighty River Lizzard set sail on the Sunday canoe float trip down the Elk River and many a turtle feared for their lives at the mighty roar, AR AR AR AR AR of this Mcdonald’s Happy Meal Lizzard hand puppet. Turtles were everywhere sunning in bunches on limbs and rocks. I would float the canoe up close, put the puppet on my hand and let out a mighty AR AR AR AR AR. The turtles would swim for their lives and Captain Kenny would nearly fall out of the boat laughing. The Happy Meal lizzard regularly accompanies the Head Lizzard to the Coop now and represents the war cry AR AR AR AR AR of the Lizzards. Another Lizzard trademark was adopted around this time. Flaps Down! I am fairly sure the flap salute can be attributed to Jimmie Fleetwood. It is a kind of a high five in a Lizzardly fashion. Real lizards have what is called a dewlap below their lower jaw that they flair down and out when showing off or defending themselves. Our version is a hand held upside down below the chin with the fingers flaired out. I have even had non-Lizzards display flappageand of course they were always smiling. All these things combined have kept the team interesting, fresh, fun and more of a family than just a dart team. We even have our own Lizzard awards now. The Honorary Lizzard or Lizzbian Award is a much sought after and coveted honor nowadays. Why? I believe because it represents the spirit of darts. Good fun, good friends and good sportsmanship. The idea originated at the 2001 Air Capital Open. I (the Head Lizzard) had been watching several matches of a Lady’s Doubles match that Leanna Clifford and Inez Thompson had teamed up on. They had progressed several rounds and were throwing quite well. One of the legs ended up with Inez and Leanna sitting on double one for the out. Leanna made a comment about being on the Lizzard Out (double one). I told her and Inez that if either of them took the Lizzard Out for the win that I would personally make them a certificate proclaiming the one that took it out an Honorary Lizzard. As it turned out Leanna hit the double one. I filled my teammates in on what had transpired and all agreed that the award would be a great idea and a lot of fun. We awarded it to Leanna at the next WDA General Membership Meeting. She was unaware that we were going to do this and I believe was very surprised and proud to be the Laid Back Lounge Lizzards first Honorary Lizzbian with a framed certificate bearing serial number 001. It was decided that we would continue this tradition at the AirCap each year with one Honorary Lizzard and one Honorary Lizzbian Award for the women.

The Lizzards have evolved a great deal over the years. In 2001 we put together our first tournament which was held the last weekend of August. Seven active Lizzards, several in-Active Lizzards from past lineups and many of our darting friends pitched in to help. I named the tournament The LizzardPalooza and was a huge success. The tournament took several months of preparation and was held on the property of Kenny Chamberlain and his family.Ten boards were set up outdoors with 100% pay back on all events. First place event winners were awarded with awesome handmade engraved stone Lizzard plaques as well as cash. The plaques were made by Linda Waggoner (Linda Lu Lizzbian) and were probably the coolest and most unique awards I have seen. We also incorporated the Honorary Lizzard and Lizzbian awards at the Palooza. The first to hit the elusive double one out received a framed serialized certificate. The first of these to be awarded at the Palooza were by Sherri Blanchat (Honorary Lizzbian) and Brian Byrnes (Honorary Lizzard). Live music was provided Savage, a local Wichita band who kicked ass. Between sets we were entertained by Mike and Debbie Seely, Eric Dyer with his wife and several other musicians including Kenny’s Uncle Joel with some great acoustic music. I wish I could remember the names of all the acoustic players but I can recall only a few. I (the Head Lizzard) had the privilege to blow a little harmonica with both groups and had a blast. The WDA had decided to include it's annual annual picnic with the Palooza too. This helped to make the event bigger and better and also helped to offset some of the food expense. This portion of the event was totally financed from the fees paid to the WDA’s current executive counsel which they were kind enough to donat. John Classen provided his smoker and his culinary skills, which kept everybody’s bellies full. John is donated his time and is another of the Lizzard's friends that make our events possible He is very appreciated. The WDA also allowed us to use ten standards which were very appreciated. Over 100 LizzardPalooza 2001 T-Shirts were sold to help offset tournament costs. I haven’t checked numbers for certain but I believe our T-Shirts have outsold any darting tournament held in Wichita to date. Again, thanks to Linda Lu (Waggoner) Lizzard who took my digital photos of our plastic team mascot and using her artistic ability transformed them into an awesome T-Shirt design. Coors at the request of Rocky Little John donated 2 kegs of beer and chalker prizes. We also owe a debt of gratitude to Harley Adams and Debbie Goodrich who provided a great deal of support for the LizzardPalooza. Through their connections they found good rates on outhouse rentals, T-Shirts and got Star Lumber to donate a flatbed trailer for a band stand. Last but no least Juanita Taylor (Ma Lizzard and owner of the Laid Back Club) provided halogen lights for the band and still is the sponsor our team. If anyone is left out you know who you are and know that your efforts were very much appreciated. Camper parking and tent camping were available and many spent the entire weekend at the LizzardPalooza. The tournament went off without a hitch and in this Lizzards opinion was the best and most enjoyable darting event I had the pleasure to be a part of in 20 years of Wichita darting. Months after the event it is still being talked about. It was a very special event which brought out some of the WDA old timers as well as all our new darting friends and family. The event is planned again for 2002 on the last weekend of August. Why in the heat of August you may ask? Figure it out, we are Lizzards. Anyway it looks to be an annual event that will be looked forward to by all for years to come.

 The Story Continues… from 2002 through Dec. 2008

 I have made no entries or updates to the Lizzard’s History since just prior to the second LizzardPalooza held in August 2002. It is now December 2007 so I suppose an update is in order if the history is to reflect the antics of the Loungelizzards accurately. I will tackle a brief update on the LizzardPaloozas and ChiliPaloozas up to this point. 

LizzardPalooza 2002 was the second installment of the LizzardPalooza and it was bigger and better than the first Palooza. There again was a great turnout, great music by Savage, great food by John Classen, great darts and beer flowing freely. You can’t go wrong with that formula. Did it rain? Well of course it rained off and on but only during the wee hours and not enough to disrupt the fun. The rains were to come the next year at LizzardPalooza 2003.

As a result of yet another evening at the Laid Back a new Lizzard event was born. Kenny and I (HL) were sitting at the bar and discussing the LizzardPalooza when I told Kenny we needed some sort of an event in between the Paloozas. It came to me in a flash and I told Kenny the Lizzards would host a chili cookoff. He told me I was nuts. My response was to just show up with the guys and see what happens. I checked to see if the American Legion Post 4 would let us hold the event there. They agreed and I began preparations. James Ransom drew up a tee shirt design for the first year and I the next. Shirts were sold and the money used to finance the event. ChiliPalooza shirts were only available the first two years so if you have one it is a rarity. I gave the event first CP the name "The First Kinda Sorta Maybe Annual ChiliPalooza". It was to be a combination chili cookoff and blind draw dart tournament with of course live music by Savage and friends. I advertised the event among our darting community but entries were not restricted to darters. No one knew what was going to happen until the day of ChiliPalooza. I arrived with instruction sheets for the Lizzards and they sprang into action. We had a big turnout and twenty plus entries. I had suggested on the flyers that people dress up their tables. Boy were we surprised. Many of the entrants had devised elaborate table decorations and of course most with a Lizzard theme. It was decided on the spot that cash awards and framed certificates woud be given for table decor. The table contest has become a favorite and has produced some pretty amazing tables. You can view pictures of the tables and entrants in the ChiliPalooza Gallery. The competition went smoothly with some great chili entries. A blind draw followed with 100% payback and money added by the Lizzards. The Palooza Blues Band was born this year. The band was made up of Merlin Suderman, Bill Pirotte, Victor Tarm, Pam Songer, Matt Clare, Vicki and HL. The Palooza Blues Band's selection of oldies and oddities were well received. the were followed by Savage who were excellent as usual. A perfect day. I will not detail each ChiliPalooza during my little catch up session but it is still going strong in 2009. We have had everything from bear chili to elk chili to just plain tasty chili. I can't wait 'til next year. 

LizzardPalooza 2003 continued as a totally open air event and turned into a PuddlePalooza in very short order. The rains came hard and kept right on coming. I was worried that the LizzardPalooza had finally met it’s match with Mother Nature. Much to the credit of our Wichita darting community we still had an excellent turnout. Tarps were hung between trees and four boards were set up under the canopy that we normally would use for the breakfast that we had catered in for Saturda mornings. Rain was dumped from the tarps above us every 15 minutes or so to keep them from collapsing and the event went off without a hitch. I have never seen so many people standing out in the rain and still having a great time. It was unfortunate that we had no live entertainment for this Palooza but in the words of the Rolling Stones “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime you just might find you get what you need”. Another noteworthy event for this Palooza was the wedding of Rick Lowery and Denise on Saturday. The darting was put on hold in the afternoon and we had our first wedding. 

The events leading up to the next LizzardPalooza 2004 resulted in some amazing changes for our little event. Chuck Phillips an old friend and Palooza participant made a very generous offer to the Loungelizzards. He spoke to Capt’n Kenny and myself (H.L.) and told us that he would donate the funds to put up an open air covered structure on Kenny’s Farm and Dart for the purpose of our dart tournament. Kenny did some research and proposed a structure that he had found. The Lizzards agreed on his choice. It was a very large Quonset type structure 20’ x 40’ and open at both ends. Chuck approved the building at the cost of approximately $3,600.00. An old fashioned barn raising was held during the summer and the next thing you know we had the means to insure the Palooza will be dry in at least the darting area and the bandstand will be kept dry with the blue breakfast tent. Now here is the funny part. LizzardPalooza 2004 was bone dry the entire weekend and has been ever since. This was the first year The Palooza Blues Band opened Friday Night at the Palooza. They became the opening Friday Night band at LizzardPalooza for the next three years. Savage again owned Saturday Night and made good use of it once again rocking Kenny's Farm and Dart. Then the strangest thing happended. Another wedding! Seriously? Capt’n Kenny and Shallene Whitmore tied the knot on Saturday. Who’d ‘u’ thunk it! Another good turnout and fun for all.  

LizzardPalooza 2005 was another dry Palooza and another good event. There were a couple things that occurred that would affect the coming Palooza’s but the details are not important. I made the decision to take a break and cancel LizzardPalooza 2006 which would have been the sixth incarnation of our tournament. Many were disappointed by the news but I felt it needed to be done. After taking the year off the LizzardPalooza 2007 decision time came around in May and the Lizzards decided to resume the event and LizzardPalooza 6.5 preparations commenced.  

The Lizzards decided to change up a few things for LP 6.5 so the resurrection of the Palooza would be a memorable one. Friday evening after the first blind draw event the dartboards were spun upside down and upside down cricket was born at the Palooza. I personally did not shoot the event but had a lot of fun watching. As the beers flowed it became clear that upside down cricket took a bit of extra concentration. It was funny to see a seasoned dart player staring at a the board during a cricket match and trying to figure out where the number he needs to shoot next is. The event was the most talked about event since the inception of the Palooza and generated a lot of good stories and good reviews. Saturday morning began with a great breakfast which was provided by the Chamberlain’s. Five dollars for all you can eat bisquits, gravy, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, fresh coffee and OJ. A bargain for sure. Terry Hassler did some serious damage to some breakfast food. Next came the youth shoot and the main darting events. Late afternoon we took a break in the action for another one of our changes to the Palooza. As always John Classen provided his big smoker to cook Saturday dinner but we decided to change up the menu a bit going with smoked pulled pork and smoked beef brisket. Bubba Leffew did the cooking and an amazing meal it was. With somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 pounds of smoked meats and all the fixen’s everyone was well fed and Bubba’s cooking was awesome. Darting events resumed after dinner and continued into the wee hours of Sunday morning. Sunday brought the Hot Dog Hoe Down and a couple hardcore blind draw events to wrap up LP 6.5. Participation was down a bit this year for our local darters and participation from out of town was up. We had players from Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Topeka, and Ft. Smith, AK. Everyone that attended had a great time, the weather was the best ever.

LizzardPalooza 7.5 in 2008 was more of the same. LP 7.5 had no live music however. Savage was taking a year off and the Palooza Blues Band who had evolved into a band that called themselves Batwater had dissolved. Merlin Suderman was good enough to bring out his computer and he hooked up a sound system and played music for the entire event. Bubba again cooked an excellent meal and turnout was good as was the weather. Enough about LizzardPalooza. If you need to now more you need to come out and see for yourself.

There is a funny Lizzard story that I forgot to detail earlier. For several seasons we played against Bill Little's team out of the Sportsman's Edition Club. I went in the restroom at the Sportsman during one of our matches to relieve myself. While standing at the unrinal I looked down and noticed that there was a nickel lying in the bowl. I thought to myself that a nickel was certainly not worth picking up out of a urinal so I threw in a quarter. I went out and told the guys what I had done and to ante up. Of course they could not resist and the next time I went to pee I looked in the urinal and there was somewhere in the neighborhood of a dollar or two in change. I thought again that I would not reach in a urinal for that amount so I tossed in a dollar bill and peed on it. This continued for awhile until one of the guys came out and announced that it was gone. We all busted a gut at this point and speculated on who was desperate enough to grab the cash. I told everyone to ante up and the cycle started again. This became a regular occurence whenever we played Bill's team at the Sportsman. There was one time when the urinal was being emptied at under a dollar. We kept tossing in the change and it just kept disappearing? I noticed one of the patrons from the bar go into the restroom and a few minutes later the waitress was in my face ripping my butt for throwing money in the urinal. After I calmed her down and explained she actually thought it was quite funny and encouraged us to continue which we did.

For quite some time I added a z to the Lizzard name until I lost track. But I believe it got up to five z’s. It got to the point that after a few beers it got hard to keep track of just how many z’s there were supposed to be so I settled on two. Yes, of course I am aware that Webster’s Dictionary spells it Lizards with only one z but then again Webster has never met this dart team.

This dart team and the people who played on it in the past and play on it now are all important to me and good friends. I have worked hard every season since about 1991 to keep the team together, keep us active, keep it fun, keep it light, and to create the Lizzard identity we are all so proud of. This is without a doubt one of the most unique and longest running dart teams to play the game. Does it sound like I take a lot of credit for what has occurred? You bet your ass.Do I have a big head? Maybe, but I think I earned it! After all I am the Head Lizzard and proud of it! I am very proud and lucky to have enjoyed the company of so many fine darters and the good times we have enjoyed together. We will hopefully continue as the Lizzard for years to come. Well, that brings things pretty current with the exception of the list I promised earlier. Here goes to the best of my recollection. Keep in mind though, once a Lizzard, always a Lizzard. 

Active Lizzards

 Jim Dunham - Head Lizzard 

Kenny Chamberlain – Capt’n Kenny 

Dave Rosendale – Gecko Dave

Jimmie Fleetwood – Mr. Fleetwood to you

Dale Casey - Dale de Scale

Dennis McHugh - Dirty D

Terri Garcia - Our Hybrid Frizzard 

 

The Inactive List  

Norm Vandiver – Stormin’ Norman

Brad Phillips – Animal (sometimes Scruff)

Linda Waggoner – Linda Lu

Ron Barrows – ZZ Bottoms

Larry Crowl - Recovering Lizzard 

Dennis Cook 

Jeremy Fleetwood – Little Lizzard 

Rick Lowery

Dan Asplen

Kevin Coons

 

Honorary Lizzards/Lizzbians - follow this link 

 

Team Name Variations

Laid Back Lounge Lizzards, Return of the Lizzards, Revenge of the Lizzards, Leapin’ Lizzards, Lizzards at Large, Lizzards ‘R’ Us, Webe Lizzzzzards, E Pluribus Lizzards, J.F. Lizzards (Just F'ing Lizzards) 

For quite some time I added a z to the Lizzard name. I believe it got up to five z’s. It got to the point that after a few beers it got hard to keep track of just how many z’s there were supposed to be so I settled on two. Yes, of course I am aware that Webster’s Dictionary spells it Lizzards with only one z but then again Webster has never met this dart team.

Does it sound like I take a lot of credit for what has occurred? You bet your ass. This dart team and the people who played on it in the past and play on it now are all important to me and good friends. I have worked hard every season for nearly 10 years to keep the team together, keep us active, keep it fun, keep it light, and to create the Lizzard identity we are all proud of. This is without a doubt the finest, funniest, craziest and longest running dart team in the history of the WDA. Do I have a big head? Maybe, but I think I earned it! After all I am the Head Lizzard and proud of it!!

 

Thanks

 

H.L.