Scrabble: The History, The Facts, and The Game in the University of Ibadan

Efe Ikhenaode and Veronica Giwa

Originally known as Criss Cross, Scrabble, which is based on the crossword puzzle and anagrams, was developed by Alfred M. Butts, an architect, in 1931. It was redesigned, renamed as Scrabble, and marketed by James Brunot in 1948. Its very first sale was in Great Britain in 1954.

It is a board and tile game meant to be played by 2-4 players. Players initially draw 7 tiles each and place them on their rack. The first player combines two or more of his or her letters to form a word and places it on the board to read either across or down with one letter on the center square. (Diagonal words are not allowed). As for its ending, according to the officially published rules of the Scrabble game, the game ends only when all of the letters from the letter bag have been drawn, and one of two things happens: a player uses all of their tiles, or all possible plays have been made on the board.

Although NASPA’s rule book is 50 pages long, some of the basic rules that apply to the not-so-official games include keeping 7 tiles on each rack, unless there are not enough tiles left, the letters placed in a single turn must all be in a single horizontal row or in a single vertical column, each new word must connect to the existing words, and the player with the highest final score wins the game. In case of a tie, the player with the highest score before adding or deducting unplayed letters wins.

Some of the notable scrabble players are Nigel Richards, who by all standards, is the greatest of all times. Hailing from Malaysia, Nigel has won the World Scrabble Championship five times and no other player has won more than once. Another is David Eldar, the current world champion. Others include Wellington Jighere, the first African to win the World Scrabble Championship in 2015, and Lady T, the African queen of Scrabble.
Interesting facts about scrabble are new words are always being added to the Scrabble dictionary and Nigeria is the English speaking world Scrabble powerhouse

Scrabble in the University of Ibadan

Scrabble is among the 15 approved games in the University of Ibadan. Like football, it is gaining traction by the day in the university and its environs. Although it is not as popular as football, it is among the best games to build intellectual capacity and mature communication skills.

The game began in the university with two M.A students, one from the Faculty of Arts and the other from the Faculty of Science. They came together in 2018 to form the Scrabble club, which has been reformed over the years. Currently, Emmanuel Enyi from the department of Linguistics is the club’s captain.