Rich Maier and Mike Gillespie capture International Cup Platform Tennis title

Arge Platform was formed by Alfred Schuter and two of his friends to build courts and promote the game in Austria. They also ran tournaments at Ramsau in the Austrian Alps.

In 1990, Rich Maier and Mike Gillespie were invited to play in a Ramsau event and a second tournament in Vienna, where a new court had been built. Rich and Mike were asked to do several exhibitions, and to teach at the Sporting University in Graz. There they taught a group of young men who hope to be the future platform tennis pros in Austria. One of the most exciting promotional events was an exhibition by the two top Austrian wheelchair tennis champions who were invited to play paddle with Mike and Rich. This was surely a first for platform tennis!

During the final awards ceremony, the International Cup was presented to Mike and Rich, along with their prize money, in hefty stacks of single U.S. dollar bills. Everyone toasted the new “mit den Weltmeistern” (world champions) with numerous shots of Schnapps. The top Austrian team would use its prize – plane tickets – to come to America in March 1991 to compete in the APTA Nationals in Philadelphia.

Source: Platform Tennis News, Mid Winter 1990, p 13