Have you ever witnessed a game so stuffy and regulated you actually felt for those playing? Murray Kramer, Owner and Inventor of Murbles has.
One day, while Murray was serving in the United States Navy, he witnessed a Bocce Ball game being played. During this game, a small leaf fell on the field, a man in a suit called the game to halt and then he proceeded to walk onto the field, pick up the leaf, and dust the area it had landed off. Murray thought to himself, “if I were playing this game, I’d have shorts and flip flops on and maybe an ice-cold beverage in hand.”
That day came and went, as life does, and Murray didn’t think about the idea too much more until he retired from the Navy, bought a house with some land. The land had much clearing to be done. While clearing the land, he came across a set of horseshoes in the yard. Murray cleaned them up and began playing with a neighbor. Never played the game of horseshoes before, he was dependent on his neighbor to teach him. After two and a half years of playing and never winning a single game, Murray’s competitive drive got the best of him and he remembered the idea he had while watching that Bocce Ball game.
Also attending college at the time, he went to the Dean of the school and told him, “I want to make a game so I can beat my neighbor”. He then explained the entire story to the Dean who then told him to get the stuff together to make it and he would help him. This is exactly what Murray did.
Determined to create something that resembled Bocce Ball and horseshoes, he decided to cast aluminum balls. He headed to the store to purchase molds. After fining the molds, he then went to a print shop to buy letters to label them, “Murray’s Big Marble”. When he realized that would not fit on the ball he shortened the title to be “Murbles”, which is what the game is still called today.
Once the aluminum balls were cast, he painted them red, white, and blue, had a canvas bag made to store them in, walked over to his neighbor’s house, and said, “let’s play Murbles!”. His neighbor looked at him strangely and said, “what are Murbles?” Murray explained that it was a game he had made. His neighbor refused to play. The theory is, his neighbor was scared to finally lose. So, Murray never received the satisfaction of winning over his neighbor. However, he finally made his idea a reality.
Thirty-something years later and in full retirement, Murray Kramer knew he wasn’t going to be sitting around not doing anything. But what did he want to do? Walmart greeter was out. Working for some young punk that may give him grief about being five minutes late, was absolutely out. So, Murray decided to speak to his family about what he should do.
After talking with his family, his daughter said to him, make your Murbles Dad! He thought about it and then set out to make the family fun game. This time he made the balls out of a high-density poly instead of aluminum. The bag, still made from canvas just like the original one, still exists today. Proving that Murbles is a quality game that will last years.
When Murray was asked why he decided to make Murbles In America, his response was, “There is no way I would produce offshore. I am an American. I want American jobs!”
Murbles are a perfect game for family reunions, picnics, camping, the beach, tailgating or just hanging out in the backyard.
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