Screens are perfected – the games future is assured

Donald K. Evans of Fox Meadow solved the game’s biggest problem, the unpredictable bounces off the backstops. Without a good solution the game had limited growth potential.

Evans devised a method to stretch a one-inch wire mesh from top to bottom inside, but not touching, the uprights surrounding the court. With adjustable tension bars, the Evans Backstop yielded a uniform bounce when a ball hit any of the four screens, and it became standard on all new courts. The future of the game was assured.

This new backstop was first erected—with the aid of John G. MacKenty—during the winter of 1934-35 on the second Cogswell court.

Don Evans was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1966