William F. Koegel elected FMTC President (1973-1975)

William F. Koegel, 1983. Photograph was taken at the celebration of Fox Meadow Tennis Club's centennial
William F. Koegel, 1983. Photograph was taken at the celebration of Fox Meadow Tennis Club's centennial

Koegel came close to disaster and humiliation during his term as president when he realized on a Sunday afternoon a half hour before the traditional Governors’Tea, held each year in April, that neither he nor his wife, Ruth, had bought the ingredients.

One does not become an FMTC president without steady nerves and the ability to handle emergencies, however. A liquor store owner was persuaded to rush to his store, open it, and produce the urgently needed ingredients. The Koegels got to the Club and mixed the punch in time.

“No one suspected the near catastrophe,” Koegel recalled, “and I thus escaped impeachment from the presidency and possible expulsion from membership.”

Source: Diane Reische, Fox Meadow Tennis Club – The First Hundred Years, 1983