APTA celebrate its 75th anniversary

Today, 80 John Street in Lower Manhattan is a newly renovated art deco building offering loft apartments with steep rents. In 1934, it was the site of the founding of the American Platform Tennis Association. With the upcoming anniversary of the APTA, it’s fitting to highlight the origins of the organization that has overseen our sport for 75 years.

After the 1928 foundation of platform tennis by James Cogswell and Fessenden Blanchard, the game’s popularity grew rapidly. Within a few years, the founding fathers deemed it necessary to create an official organization that could oversee rules and equipment while shepherding the development of the game.

In November 1934, John C. Ten Eyck Jr. from Manursing Island Club in Rye, New York, organized a meeting of five of the sport’s leaders at his office at 80 John Street. The men represented three clubs that had been instrumental in developing the game: Fessenden Blanchard from Fox Meadow Tennis Club in Scarsdale; Warren A. Ransom and Grenville S. Sewall from Manursing; and Foster M. Hampton from the Field Club of Greenwich. Ten Eyck understood the importance of initiating ground rules in the development of a sport, as his father had been involved in the early years of the United States Golf Association. Blanchard became the APTA’s president, while Ten Eyck became the secretary-treasurer.

At that 1934 meeting, the members created a charter for the governing body of the “American Paddle Tennis Association.” (The name of the association and the sport was officially changed to “platform tennis” in 1950).

Their goal was to establish basic rules “to promote and make more enjoyable the game of paddle tennis.” Early efforts included overseeing the development of the game, planning and conducting national championships, organizing annual meetings, producing annual reports, answering inquiries, and overseeing rules, regulations and equipment.

Fortunately, the APTA didn’t waste any time attracting member clubs. By 1936, the original three clubs grew to eight, with the addition of Tremont Place Paddle Tennis Club (Orange, New Jersey), Ardsley Country Club (Ardsley-on-Hudson, New York), Bronxville Field Club (Bronxville, New York), American Yacht Club (Rye, New York), and Amackassin Tennis Club (Yonkers, New York).

By 1939 there were 15 member clubs, all of them in suburban New York. The APTA expanded geographically in 1941 when the Hartford Golf Club joined the Association and in 1942 St. Louis Country Club in Missouri became a member .

Platform tennis has come a long way since its humble beginnings in James Cogswell’s backyard. Originally played on a wooden platform without walls, today’s courts feature aluminum construction and high powered heaters. Wooden paddles imported from South America have been replaced by high tech evenly balanced foam core racquets. Unbalanced balls that once “chunked” now only occasionally wobble. Digging back into the history of this wonderful game, one discovers creative, enthusiastic players and entrepreneurs who were instrumental in developing platform tennis into the sport it is today.

Ever wonder how a platform tennis court’s unique features originated? Legend has it that tired of retrieving balls from surrounding snow banks, James Cogswell and Fessenden Blanchard added walls of chicken wire attached to a wooden frame to their backyard wooden platform. During a particularly heated match, a hard-hit ball lodged in the wire mesh. Both an innovator and natural competitor, Blanchard ran behind the fencing, smacked the ball as hard as he could and called the shot “good”. After some debate, the men agreed that the new off-the-wall rule was a good one, adding dimension to the game and broadening the skill set necessary for the sport.

Note: This is a oft repeated legend and is incorrect. In fact playing the ball off the wires was part of the game form the start and was called the “ground rule”. The incident that became the basis for the legend comes for Blanchard’s book Platform Paddle Tennis published in 1959 and was just some “color commentary” by Blanchard]

Evolution of the Platform
Over the next 30 years, standard wooden courts were erected quickly by anyone with some carpentry skills. Plans were available for $30 from the APTA.

Hall of Fame inductee, Dick Reilly, standardized the wood court in the early 1960′s and began what became an explosion of court construction through most of the 70′s. In 1976, there were over 18 full time court building companies. Dick Squires introduced a court made of a prefabricated plywood deck and steel superstructure in the early to mid 70′s. This was an inexpensive court and hundreds were installed in a few short years. But the plywood deck did not hold up like the aluminum deck Dick Reilly introduced the aluminum court in about 1972 [Note: Actually 1970- see link above] but it was still “experimental.” It was not until 1976 that the all aluminum court went into full production and solved the on-going problem of maintenance. Wooden courts rotted and warped over time. The design has changed very little since it was first introduced.

Evolution of the Racquets
Blanchard and Cogswell found their first racquets at the local sports store. Enthusiastic players soon looked elsewhere and the Dalton Manufacturing Company became an early assembler of paddles, including the popular Dalton P-1 paddle. It was constructed of five thin layers of rock maple plywood with a metal edge to protect the paddle from hits and scrapes as balls were retrieved off the wires. One of the problems with the early paddles was that the steel rim would loosen and create a rattling noise.

That led a few of the game’s top players to seek out a Brooklyn ping-pong paddle maker for customized paddles with betterfitting rims. That firm was Allied-Victor, which became Marcraft. Marcraft became Dalton’s biggest competitor until 1985 when, for a variety of reasons, Dalton discontinued their operations.

In the late 1980s, Hall of Fame inductee Rich Maier, a multi-time APTA National Champion, formed Advanced Recreation Design ARD) to build updated paddles and balls inspired by paddles that were being developed in South America for the sport of “padel” While the products were great for their time, the company did not stay in the marketplace for more than a few years.[Note: This is not completely accurate - see link above to Maier's Hall of Fame biography. Maier's first racquet, Skymar Proflight, was based on a patent issued in 1983 and was the fore-runner of composite construction for paddles. ARD was formed in 1993 to sell both paddles and a new ball that had been developed with a company in Taiwan and became the fore-runner of today's balls] In 1992 Marcraft introduced the “FORCE” paddle, the first paddle, manufactured in the United States with a foam core. Marcraft put a foam insert into the center of a wood composite core and covered it with a fiberglass sheet. It was revolutionary for its time. In 1995, Marcraft introduced the “ACE” paddle. It was truly the first all foam core metal edged paddle manufactured in the United States. In addition, this paddle introduced a new style aluminum rim that functioned not only as edge protection but also as a key structural component of the paddle. This construction method is still in use today.
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Foam core metal edged paddles added greater shock absorbency and springiness to shots. Additionally these paddles allowed for greater weight standards. When racquets were made primarily of wood, their weight could vary by as much as 4 ounces. Foam core paddles with aluminum rims have become lighter overall. Initially the elite men liked their “war clubs” which often weighed as much as 17 to 18 ounces. Today’s paddles are typically less than 14 ounces and getting lighter.

Source: Tina Kelly, Paul Wiggan (Issue 1) and Hendy Daton and Tina Kelly (Issue2), Platform Tennis Magazine, Vol. 11, Issues 1 & 2