History of Hall of Fame

History of the Hall of Fame: On February 18, 1965 the Executive Committee of the APTA met at the Princeton Club and decided that the Association should inaugurate an Honor Award to be presented to those individuals who had achieved distinction in the play of platform tennis or who had made outstanding contributions to the game. The award for men was a green blazer jacket with the APTA logo, while women received a specially designed gold necklace, also with the APTA logo. This tradition continued until 1980, when there was a hiatus in activity.

In the early 1990s, under the leadership of APTA president Chuck Vasoll, the Honor Award was reactivated, and in 1992, after a gap of thirteen years, the APTA honored three individuals at a ceremony at Nassau Country Club in Glen Cove at the National Championships held on Long Island.

In 1996, the APTA Board decided to replace the Honor Award and establish the Platform Tennis Hall of Fame, at the recommendation of President Charley Stevens. The board voted unanimously to induct all forty former Honor Award recipients into the Hall of Fame¹. In the years that followed, the Hall of Fame activity has grown in visibility, with the election decisions receiving a great deal of attention and the induction ceremonies becoming popular.

Note 1: “On a motion by Bob Brown, the name of the ” Honor Award” was officially changed to ” Hall of Fame” and the new designation extended to all past recipients.” Platform Tennis News, Summer 1996

For many years the induction ceremonies were the only way to recognize those that had been inducted into the Hall of Fame. This changed in the early 2000s with the formation of the Platform Tennis Museum and Hall of Fame Foundation (PTMHOFF) in 2002 spearheaded by the APTA President at the time, John Horine. The desire was to capture the history of the game and provide a fitting memorial to those that had been elected to the Hall of Fame.

By late 2004 the PTMHOFF was fully operational with the goal of establishing a physical entity that would house a museum and Hall of Fame. As part of that effort extensive biographies of all the Hall of Fame members were developed and abbreviated versions uploaded to the APTA website as an interim measure.

With the passage of time it became clear that a physical presence would be difficult to achieve and the idea of a “virtual” Museum and Hall of Fame started to form and gradually gained acceptance. After a period of extensive research into the games history enough material had been gathered to build the present website which went “live” in early 2014.

In 2015 the PTMHOFF donated the website to the APTA where it will be kept current with developments in the game and celebrate new indictees into the Platform Tennis Hall of Fame..