Richard J. Reilly, Jr. starts building courts

Dick Reilly had started building courts in 1965 and, by 1967, had built over sixty around the country. An enthusiastic player, Reilly developed many improvements in court construction that greatly enhanced durability and playability.

In the early 1970s, he pioneered the aluminum deck, which has become the standard.

Among the many improvements he made to court construction are:

• The use of thirty-foot, kiln-dried deck members, joining under the net, making the playing surface as technically perfect as is possible.

• A two-toned, green and red deck surface on which the white lines were two inches in width. This aided the players’ vision and promoted greater accuracy in a fast-paced rally.

• Hinged snow-boards which facilitated rapid clearing of the court.

• Quartz-iodine lighting for night play.

• The use of one-inch, hexangular, galvanized mesh with a gauge of sixteen, producing a truer rebound from the wire.

• Two-inch pipes in two-and-one-half-inch collars for the net posts, making them removable so that the court could be put to other use.

Source: Oliver H. Durrell, The Official Guide to Platform Tennis, 1967