United States Acro-Gymnastics Federation
by Alex Douglas
29 Feb 2008
Sports Acrobatics, now called Acrobatic Gymnastics, had two rival organizations in its beginning vying for control of competition. USA Gymnastics did not originally conduct Acrobatic competitions. The organization that the USAG inherited was originally called the United States Sports Acrobatics Federation and was begun by George Nissan and Glenn Sunby back in 1975. George Nissan has his home in Iowa and Glenn Sundby in California. When they began their American organization Sports Acrobatics was controlled internationally by the International Federation of Sports Acrobatics (IFSA). Vying for control of American Acro was another organization based in the Midwest called the United States Acro-Gynmnastics Federation.
This organization was founded by Bil Copp (see photo at right) and included Sports Acrobatics, Trampolining and Tumbling. At that time, platform tumbling was part of international competition by two organizations: IFSA and the Federation International of Trampoline (FIT). Since Nissan and Sundby had gained the international sanction for Sports Acrobatics, Copp petitioned and gained the sanction for Trampoline and Tumbling from the FIT. So, when the USAF held competitions, they included all three disciplines, whereas when the USSAF held their meet they included the two disciplines of Platform Tumbling and Sports Acrobatics.
Between 1980 and 1985 I had a sports acrobatics team in New Jersey, where at that time, there was no other acrobatic program with the exception of one by Larry Malloy. To compete my kids, I participated in USAF sanctioned meets in Ohio with Joni Streeber. Travelling to the Midwest was my local meet. We also went to Ohio for a USAF Super Clinic which was in all three disciplines. To help promote the USAF and my New Jersey program, Bil gave me a 15 promotional video, which you can now watch. This video is of interest for historical reasons, but also to Texans.
Because the USSAF had the international sanction, anyone serious about competition went to the USSAF nationals so they could go international. Consequently the USSAF became the only American venue of competition that mattered to acrobats. This same strategy was used by the United States Gymnastics Federation in 1967. They won all serious gymnastics competitors to them because they had gained the international sanction from the Federation International of Gymnastics (FIG), for at the time of the USGF inception gymnasts competed with the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), Sokols, Turnveriens, Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) meets. Bil Copp's organization lost the acrobats but he retained the trampolinists. Platform tumblers like Steve Eliot went back and forth in meets, choosing whichever worked best for them because they could compete internationally in either IFSA or the FIT. Bil abandoned acro and focused on Tramp and Tumbling. For reasons I do not know, he moved his organization to Brownsville, Texas and renamed it the USA Trampoline and Tumbling (USATT).
In the end, his having the FIT sanction won Platform Tumbling to him. The dream of all international athletes is to go to the Olympics. In 1998 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said enough is enough. IFSA and the FIT had pleaded for decades to include their gymnastic disciplines into Olympic competition. The IOC basically said that if they wanted in, they had to dissolve and join the FIG. They would not negotiate with any other gymnastic organizations. They both dissolved and the FIG had to solve the question of which new subdivision should get platform tumbling for international competition. They chose the trampoline division since they were sparse in their disciplines. That was a huge blow to the acrobatic community world wide, since tumbling gave partnerless athletes a venue of competition in acro.
All national organizations world wide had to merge with their national Artistic Gymnastics groups in acro, tumbling and trampoline. For Americans that meant the USA Gymnastics (formerly USGF) had to absorb these disciplines, and, from a comment I heard Muriel Grossfeld make at a Region 3 meeting held at Trevino's gym, they were not happy with the absorbtion. It was hard enough to promote Men's Artistic without the added burden. Nonetheless, they did so and have made the best of it in my opinion.
Acro had to bite the bullet as the IOC accepted trampoline and tumbling into the Olympic games, and has continued to reject acro. So, in the end, Bil Copp may have lost acro, but his work won the Olympics after he had retired. This is a man and labor that is worthy of remembrance.