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Holmes, Harold D.


(DOB-DOD)

Honor Award Induction: 1966 Hall of Fame Induction: 1996

Harold Holmes was affectionately known as “Mr. Paddle of New Jersey” for his tireless efforts on behalf of the game in that state. A member of the Tremont Place Paddle Tennis Club in Orange, NJ, he also served as APTA’s second President from 1938-1939.(Englewood Field Club, NJ).

An outstanding player of the early game, Holmes created an upset in the second Men’s Nationals in 1936 when he and his partner, Richard G. Newell, defeated Fess Blanchard and Earle Gatchell at the Field Club in Greenwich 3-6, 8-6, 4-6, 9-7, 15-13 (77 games and the longest on record) after holding 13 match points. To Blanchard’s great dismay, this would be the first—and only—time in the first decade of Men’s Nationals that the event was won by a team not from Fox Meadow Tennis Club.