Pre-SCA Timeline
The Beginning
Interest in the SCA in Meridies began when Hank Reinhardt saw a description of an SCA event in a fanzine. He wrote [Don] Studebaker (Jon de Cles) to get more information, but never received a reply. Undaunted, Hank inquired again when he attended Westercon XX in July 1967 and saw SCA fighting. Hank remembered asking “them” about starting a similar group in Birmingham. They gave him a copy of Tournament Illuminated (TI). Hank went home and started talking about his great new idea with the members of the Birmingham Science Fiction Association. SCA, Inc. had not yet been founded, there were no kingdoms, and the SCA only had two officers, Steward and Seneschal, with Seneschal being intermittent depending on whether the current Crown wanted one. So, no one actually tried to keep track of what this guy from Alabama was doing.[1]
Hank Ulrich Greywolf contacted a friend in New Orleans (Hewlin of Fenland) who was Treasurer of the Sci-Fi club there. Hank started referring to his group in Birmingham as The Southlands and Hewlin referred to New Orleans as The Fens. Sometime later a group started to form in and around Atlanta.[2]
The Iron Crown
Ulrich of Wolfhaven crafted the Iron Crown to be the prize for a tournament to be held in New Orleans, LA at a science-fiction convention. The tournament was to rotate between the three groups in the region, New Orleans, Birmingham, AL, and Atlanta, GA. The Crown was to pass from winner to winner. The winner also got the title "Defender of the Iron Crown".
The advertisement for this tournament caught the attention of the then-SCA Board of Directors, who then contacted the convention, as well as Ulrich and Sir Sven, to tell them they couldn't hold a tournament since there was no SCA Marshal for the area, and the SCA didn't have one to send to the convention.
There are various reports about the result of this; one is that the tournament was cancelled (per Sven), the other is that the tournament was moved to a park on Lake Ponchartrain.
The Crown itself and title are mentioned occasionally in letters in fanzines and other correspondence. The Crown appears lost to time.[3]
Notes
More Information
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