Source:ACBL Dictionary
Ira G. Corn Jr. of Dallas, co-founder, executive and director of Michigan General Corp.; former assistent professor of Southern Methodist University.
Organized, financed and captained the Aces(the worlds first professional bridge team). He took Amerias constant losses in world play very personally. After Italy defeated America in the final of the 1964 world Team Oplympiad, he decided to put his theories to the test. He signed 6 outstanding players to contracts and brought them to Dallas to live, practice and shape into a team that subsequently qualified to represent America in the Bermuda Bowl in 1969 and won the world championship in 1970 and 1971.
The last Aces team Corn put together won the 1982 Spingold in July after his death in April. Bobby Wolff and Bob Hamman, longstanding members of the Aces, remarked:"Ira would have loved this. This was his team, he put the six of us together …… just say we won one for Big Ira". That Aces Team went on to win the International Team Trials and to defeat Italy in the final of the 1983 Bermuda Bowl.
A distinguished historian, in 1969 he purchased a copy of the Declaration of Independence in its first printing, then wrote and publishedThe Story of the Declaration of Independencein 1977 . A notable expert on World War II, he completed a book on the Normandy invasion that tells the story both from the Allied and the German side. Listed inWho’s Who in Americasince 1971; author ofPlay Bridge with the Aces; wrote a daily syndicated column, Aces on Bridge. Corn was reared in a Baptits home where no cards were permitted, but when, as a college student, he was invited to sit in a bridge game, he discovered it was much like a game he called Rook, which has colors instead of suits, numbers instead of face cards. "Rook is really Baptist Bridge" he said.
He played social bridge until 1961 when he started playing tournament bridge. He was administrator and 1968 president of the Dalls Bridge Association, was tournament chairman 1966-67, District Director from 1965 and ACBL president 1980.
