In the 1st World Series of Fiddling contest he used contestants which had been eliminated in the first round and 2nd round for judges, but realizing that this could cause problems in the future he started the Little World Series which allowed him to select judges for the World Series of Fiddling and select World Series contestants to judge the Little Series.
Phil used this system for the 3rd World Series of Fiddling(WSF) which he held at the fair grounds in Enid, Oklahoma, as well as the 4th and 5th WSF's which also used this system and were held at the fair grounds in Chickasha, Oklahoma.
In 1983 Phil moved the World Series of Fiddling to Powderhorn Park at Langley Oklahoma where it flourished for 12 years. He started "hiring" judges for the rest of his contests. He dropped the Little Series in favor of age brackets, twin fiddling, and accompanist contests.
In selecting judges he researched a lot of other contests and decided that he would use judges who were considered qualified to judge the "big" fiddle contests. To further insure honesty and fairness in judging and to avoid any appearance of partiality he used 3 judges confined to a judges booth behind the stage so that they could not see or hear the names of the contestants but instead hear only the contestants' music. No one but Phil would receive or touch the ballots once the judges had cast them. It was as simple as the judges handing their ballots to Phil with the winners and placements and Phil going directly to the stage with those results , announcing them, and awarding the price money.
In 1985 Senator John Dahl and State Representative Rick Littlefield initiated the John Dahl Fiddlers' Memorial. The memorial was built in Powderhorn Park and the state cut about 150 names before abandoning the project. Phil then took over the job of adding names to the board.
Phil felt the fiddlers' home states should be added to the board as well so he removed and replaced all the names and included the states below them. This meant Phil had to contact various fiddle clubs and run ads in the National Fiddlers' magazine and clubs to locate the home states of the fiddlers already on the board.
As the names came in he cut the name plates from a machine which dated back to World War I. These plates have been placed on 4ft x 8ft boards upholstered in green and placed on the wall of the memorial.
Phil chose to place his Memorial Board listings on this site when the wall was full and Phil had a growing list of names to be placed. We are honored to house these names along with any new names and will add new names to the Fiddlers International Memorial Board here on the web.
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