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Change had been the hallmark of President’s Cup play over the years and Reb Speare provided some more. In PTN’s Fall 1991 issue, he announced the oranization’s decision to separate the President’s Cup from the Nationals, and offered the following reasons:
“First, separating President's Cup from the Nationals will give us two events with extensive inter-regional play. Although there has been substantial progress from an organizational standpoint, APTA's activities/ events are still fragmented. There is a scarcity of interaction between players from different geographic areas. Other than the Nationals, I do not believe there is an event that draws players from all of our regions. Most national ranking tournaments draw players from only two regions (the host region and an adjoining region); any participation from the other four regions is token, at best.
Secondly, separatin[...]
Why doesn't the APTA do something about “foot-faulting?”
The APTA had heard it expressed verbally and in writing many, many, many times. Some complaints were quite loud, and some were very strong. They responded to this criticism in two ways. First, by taking up a suggestion that came from Mike Dougherty of Garden City, Long Island (NY), they attacked the problem from a light side. A series of three posters, illustrated below, had been sent to every member Club to display in their warm-up huts, bulletin boards, or locker rooms, to remind players of this violation of the rules.
The second step was a directive given to the APTA Rules Committee, led by former President Bob Brown, to look into the problem and make some recommendations.
Source: Platform Tennis News, Fall 1991
It had been unclear for several years where the lines were drawn in upstate New York between the current Region IV that encompassed the Rochester area, and Region I, which appeared to end someplace north of New York City.
At it’s May 17th meeting, the Board of Directors resolved the problem by deeding the unknown area to Region II. From testimony presented by Region II president Dan McCormick, it was determined that players in this area, particularly those in and about Albany (NY), were more comfortable traveling east to Vermont and Massachusetts for tournaments than coming downstate or heading west. Thus, a line was drawn north of Dutchess, Ulster and Sullivan counties and east of Jefferson, Lewis, Oneida, Chenango and Broome counties to define the southern and western boundaries of Region II in New York State.
This left areas such as Syracuse in Region IV, but placed Utica an[...]
When Fox Meadow celebrated its hundredth anniversary in 1983, they almost ran out of numbers in recording Madeline “Madge” Beck's accomplishments on a national ranking level. Madge Beck counted among her accolades the women's singles crown in 1936, and the mixed doubles titles in 1939, 1953, 1954 and 1956.
But it was in Women's doubles where she left her greatest legacy, winning the national championship for five consecutive years (1938-42), then again in 1949, then another streak of four (1951-1954), and again in 1959 and 1960.
Fox Meadow also cheered its famous women's player with a quiz question:
What individual went the greatest span of years between winning National Championship honors?
Madge Beck holds that honor with a 22-year span between her first and last women's doubles titles.
Source: Platform Tennis News, Mid-Winter 1991
Hedstrom, the maker of the Vittert ball, stepped up communication to the paddle community about their program to address issues with ball quality and durability.
James Braeuing, VP Operations reported on progress:
“A. Wobble/out of round - We have isolated the cause of this problem and currently have a program to update our press temperature and cooling water controls to increase the consistency. We feel these changes will eliminate the problem.
B. Bounce consistency - As you are aware, we recognized that our bounce adjustment at the beginning of last season was too severe and led to a squishy feeling as well. We adjusted the firmness and bounce in early September. Since that time, we feel we have isolated what we consider to be the most appropriate firmness and bounce. We are revising our producing equipment to target this specification and are also engineering and fabricatin[...]
When the Long Island Platform Tennis Association (LIPTA) undertook responsibility to conduct the Men's and Women's National Championships in March, it decided to designate the Children's House and the Interfaith Nutrition Network as co-beneficiaries of the net proceeds of the fund-raising efforts for the event.
These two recipients were chosen because of the involvement by two of LIPTA's Directors with the organizations. Alfred Devendorf presented the case for the Children's House, and Gloria Grafer represented the INN.
Initially, there was great skepticism among the Tournament Committee as to whether a worthwhile sum could be expected to be raised, because the previous championships, in Chicago and Philadelphia, had not made a profit.
Once the charities were named, the fundraising and volunteering of services moved ahead quickly. Sport clothing with the logo of the champions[...]
Back to Top1992 National Platform Tennis Championships, Long Island, March 26-29, 1992
The Men's and Women's Nationals were covered in PTN Spring 1992:
Gerri Viant and Sue Aery returned to the top of the women's paddle heap with a gutsy three-set win over Robin Fulton and Diane Tucker, the year's #1 seeds going into the tourney.
On the men's side, defending champ Rich Maier was forced to find a new partner just a week before the tourney when his long-time ally Steve Baird injured his leg. Along came Bob Kleinert, acknowledged as one of the top individuals in the game and a force over the last few years at the top of the men's rankings with his brother, Jack. The veteran, but newly constituted, duo met up in the final with the surprise team of the entire tournament, Tom Houlihan from Region II and Mike Gillespie from Region I.
With his usual partner, Ron Erskine, unavailable, Gillespie joined Houlihan and proceeded to knock out seeds #6, #1, and #3, before [...]
Among the volunteers at the National Championships was Joseph Quintillan, outfitted with a special red cap donated by McDaniel Ford. He rounded up used balls for recycling. Quintillan was a finalist in the 1997 Boys 18 and under, and won the event in 1999.
Chuck Vasoll, APTA President, who had pushed to re-establish the award had this comment: “I believe the Committee, which was established last year, has done an excellent job in the selection process. I wish to extend my sincere thanks to former APTA president Bob Brown, who served as chairman, and Roger Cole, also a former APTA president, and Brook Kindred, chairman of the original Honor Awards Committee, who served with me on this year's Committee. I hope that now that this tradition has been rekindled, it will not be allowed to burn out.”
Source: Platform Tennis News, Winter & Spring 1992
Charles F. Baird: Chuck Baird was introduced to the game when he was in his mid thirties, but only started playing seriouslyin his mid-forties when overseas job postings stopped and he could participate more frequently. He then proceeded to amass an enviable record. In the late 1960 thro[...]
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