PITTSBURGH - Mark O'Mahoney was like a kid again, crouched on the floor with an aggie cocked in his thumb and taking aim at one of 13 target marbles arranged in an "X" at the center of a 10-foot circle playing area. At age 59, he hadn't played marbles since he was 13, when he won the National Marbles Tournament in 1962. But Saturday found him at a reunion of past champions from the Pittsburgh area, home to more national champions — 31 since 1927 — than any other part of the country. "It keeps the kid in you," said O'Mahoney, a Pittsburgh native who traveled from Marietta, Ga., where he works as a locksmith, to attend the reunion at the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center. Though he said he hadn't touched a marble since winning the championship (he went onto hustling pool for a few years before joining the Marines, often taking in $35 a day as a teenager) the skills didn't seem to have faded. "Spin and speed. That's what it's all about," he said as he demonstrated, using his aggie shooter marble to knock out target marbles. The rules of ringer, the version of the game played in the national tournament, are straightforward: Two players compete and the first to knock seven target marbles out of the ring wins. Players use shooter marbles of between one-half and three-quarters of an inch in diameter. Shooters are often called aggies because many were made from agate. They can also be made of glass, marble or other stone, but not metal. O'Mahoney said he won his tournament just three weeks after having a cast removed from his shooting arm after fracturing his wrist while horsing around. It earned him a mention in Sports Illustrated. His interest in the game started after walking into a Pittsburgh markethouse and seeing a ring set up when he was about 10 years old. He asked if was some sort of miniature skating rink and when the game was explained to him, he committed himself to it. He recalled crying after losing his first tournament and being teased by his brothers. He resolved to practice more and went on to win. "It was either that or get in trouble," he said. No one can say for certain why the Pittsburgh area has produced so many stellar "mibsters," as marble players are known. Overall, Pennsylvania has produced 66 national champions, with more than a dozen coming from the Reading area since 1968, said Debra Stanley-Lapic, who won the 1973 girl's championship at age 14 and now coaches and directs the Berks County Marbles Program. She thinks the game has been more or less a tradition in both areas. "It becomes like a family thing," she said. She drove from Reading with her daughter Whitney, 11, who hopes to follow in her footsteps with her own championship, and her husband, Stephen, to meet some of the past champions. "Just to meet them, this was well worth the trip," she said. "It's a lot of fun. It requires a lot of talent that isn't used anymore — or at least I don't think it is," she said. Virtually all national tournaments have been held in New Jersey, but Dick Ryabick won the 1943 tournament when it was held near Cleveland. His brother, Raymond, won in 1946 (there were no tournaments in 1944 and '45 because of World War II.) "When I won in '43 — this is crazy — they had a parade (in downtown Pittsburgh). They had a band, they had police on horses," said Ryabick, 77. "They gave me a key to the city. That was crazy when I think about it." Ryabick, who also recalled winning a bike and baseball bats and gloves, said he and his brother played on a canvas ring in their attic. They won "bucketsful of marbles between the two of us" from other players, he said. Few, if any, remain, he said. Where did they go? After some prodding, he allowed, "Well, we had slingshots."

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