AGPC Awards

Since the founding of AGCA in 1985, and with our evolution to become the AGPC, our organization has honored individuals who have made major contributions to games and puzzles.  Our awards have evolved to be aligned with our major mission areas:  games, jigsaw puzzles, and mechanical puzzles. 

The Sam Loyd Award

The Sam Loyd Award is given to an individual who, as an entrepreneur, has been responsible for the promotion of the interest in mechanical puzzles, through the design, development, manufacture, and/or distribution of mechanical puzzles. 

This award is named after Sam Loyd, who invented thousands of puzzles of all types, including mechanical puzzles, word puzzles, mathematical puzzles, logic puzzles, etc.  Loyd began inventing puzzles in the 1870s.  His Cyclopedia of Puzzles contains almost 5000 puzzles.  His first important contribution to mechanical puzzles was the 3-piece cardboard cut-out Mules Puzzle.  In 1896 he patented his most remarkable mechanical puzzle, his famous “Get Off the Earth” puzzle.

Sam Loyd Award Recipients

The Spilsbury Award

The Spilsbury Award recognizes an entrepreneur who has made a significant contribution to the jigsaw puzzle field, either by the design, manufacture, or promotion of jigsaw puzzles.

The award is named after John Spilsbury, an English mapmaker, who cut and sold "dissected map" puzzles in the 1760s.  His work as an early manufacturer of jigsaw puzzles has been well documented, and he is widely credited with their initial commercial development.

Spilsbury Award Recipients

The Bradley-Parker Award

Lithographer Milton Bradley, who started his company in 1860, and game inventor George S. Parker, who went into business in 1883, were among the greatest entrepreneurs in the game industry.  Bradley is credited with the first large-scale mass-marketing of games, and Parker with the mass production of games that appealed to adults as well as children, and their legacy has made the Bradley and Parker names recognized throughout the world.

Bradley-Parker Award Recipients

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Previous AGCA/AGPC Awards

The Abbott Award

The Abbott Award is named after Anne Abbot, one of the first entrepreneurs in the game industry, and an inventor of games published by W. & S.B. Ives in the mid 1800s.  Abbot invented the first truly American card game, “Dr. Busby”, and the first American sports game, “Game of the Races”. The Abbott Award was awarded each year from 1993 to 1998 to an individual who showed an entrepreneurial spirit in the industry and helped promote games through their invention, design, manufacturing, and/or marketing.

In conjunction with the name change from AGCA to AGPC, in 1999, the Abbot Award was retired.  Its last recipient, Bill Ritchie, exchanged his Abbot Award for a Loyd Award when the mechanical puzzle award, more appropriate to his accomplishments, was introduced.

Abbot Award Recipients

The AGCA Hall of Honor

The Hall of Honor was established by the AGCA to acknowledge those individuals, no longer living, who have contributed significantly in some way to the development of American games and/or to the game industry in the United States.  This includes company founders and presidents, manufacturers, inventors and designers, illustrators, promoters and agents, and the like.  The award ceased in 2000 when the AGCA became the AGPC.

Inductees in the AGCA Hall of Honor