First Row: Jim Morison, Judy Macy, Bob Brown, Ann Brown, Pat Hammer, Barbara Lee Crowder. Second Row: Lila Keating, Lois Deland, John Ware, Molly Kindred. Third Row: Ed Keating, Joan Doyle, Paul Doyle, Johanna Bowen, Rod Zilenziger, Roxane Zilenziger, Chauncey Bartholet, Barbara Rau, Brook Kindred.

Fox Meadow hosts both Men’s and Women’s Nationals, and President’s Cups

The event marked the 60th anniversary of the game and was the 55th Nationals. The Men’s was chaired by Bob Brown and the Women’s by Judy Macy.

The tournament program carried the following letter from the Tournament Coordinator:

Welcome to the 1989 Women’s and Men’s National Championships and the President’s Cup team competitions:

How time flies!

It was 20 years ago this month that I first ran the Men’s Nationals at Fox Meadow and it seems like only yesterday. I have many vivid and pleasant memories of that event (won by Gordon Gray and Jesse Sammis over Brad Drowne and Bill Scarlett 6-1, 7-5, 3-6, 8 6), as well as the many other exciting championship matches at the club in the years since.

In those days, the finals were played on Court #2 before a cozy crowd. During the 1970’s, as the game’s popularity boomed, the finals were shifted to Court #1 in order to surround the court with stands for spectators. In the peak years of the mid and late 1970’s, the tournament was run over three days with a draw of 128 teams, and entrants had to qualify. Spectator interest grew and, in 1975-76, the capacity of Fox Meadow to accommodate fans was stretched to the point where it was necessary to turn some away at the gate. Although interest has waned some with the coming of the 1980’s, there are now signs that modest growth is again taking place.

This year is the 13th time in the last 21 years that Fox Meadow has hosted the Men’s Nationals. And while there have been many years in which we have also held the Women’s Semis and Finals on the final Sunday, in conjunction with the Men’s events, this year marks the first time that both the Women’s and Men’s Nationals are being held at Fox Meadow in their entirety (Cleveland and Rochester also did this successfully in each of the past two years). The Women’s and Men’s President’s Cup events are also being
played here during what has been designated as “National Platform Tennis Week”.

In view of the size of this task, a “veteran” committee has been assembled. It includes many people who have served before, and it is notable that 7 people on the committee have served as a Tournament Chairman of a National Championship in previous years.

It is my hope that the close relationship between Fox Meadow, Scarsdale (the birthplace of Platform Tennis), and the APT A Nationals will always continue. I have felt that tennis lost something when the Westside Tennis Club in Forrest Hills and the U.S. Open parted ways. While it is logical that the platform tennis championships should move to other locations to encourage and foster the game, I hope the sense of “coming home” whenever the tournament(s) return to Fox Meadow will continue.

We extend a warm welcome to all participants in this week’s events and to spectators and friends. The tournament also wishes to express its appreciation to sponsors and advertisers who have contributed to the financial success of the event.

I extend my personal thanks to the committee people who have worked hard to make this a success, to Hank Otto and the Fox Meadow Tennis Club, to Chuck Vasoll, Gina Ohlmuller, and the APTA for their assistance, cooperation, and support.

Robert A. Brown
Tournament Coordinator

Source: Platform Tennis News, March 1989 (Nationals Program)

FMTC hosts 52nd Men’s Nationals and Men’s and Women’s President’s Cup

The Fox Meadow Tennis Club, represented by tournament liaison Bob Brown, continued the fine tradition of play and formality that makes a National Championship. Paul Molloy capably headed the Tournament Committee. Fox Meadow’s President Dick Warren helped to convey the membership’s love for the game by showing the hospitality on which it always thrived. Hank and Betty Otto arranged housing for the many participants for the second year in a row. The officials were aptly handled by Tournament Referee Paul Sullivan and Brook Kindred. And, last but not least, Hugh and Rose King whose charm and class symbolizes every Fox Meadow member’s incentive to do their tournament assignments correctly and in style.

Source: Platform Tennis News, April 1986

As part of its centennial celebration, the Club honored thirty-seven members who were winners of APTA titles, as well as the founders of paddle. From front, L to R, are winners or their representatives: Forest Carver, Louise Raymond, Babs Price Naylor, Ted and Madge Beck, Killy Kilmarx, Sally Auxford, Do Deland, Susie Wasch, Molly Ware, George Harrison, John Ware, Ruthie Chalmers, Laurie Nelson Ackermann, Zan Carver, Jr., Lois and Dick Hebard, Walter Close, Berkeley Johnson, Jr., Ed Raymond, Bob Brown, Ann Brown, Laura Parker, Jim Carlisle, Bob and Ollie Kingsbury, Bill Koegel, George Schmid, Marie Walker Plant, and Peter Moore.

Fox Meadow’s Centennial Celebration

FMTC President Charlie Evans honored thirty-seven Club members who had won APTA National Championships; Nex to him are all-time winners Madge Beck and Dick Hebard. Molly Ware and Do Deland received awards for their fathers, Blanchard and Cogswell FMTC President Charlie Evans honored thirty-seven Club members who had won APTA National Championships; Next to him are all-time winners Madge Beck and Dick Hebard. Molly Ware and Do Deland received awards for their fathers, Blanchard and Cogswell.

In the fall of 1981, Charlie Evans, president of Fox Meadow Tennis Club, proposed to the Board of Governors that the Club celebrate its 100th anniversary in 1983. He recommended that the Club publish a book about its history, and that it should try to host the 1983 APTA national Men’s Doubles championship, at which time it would honor members who had won national titles. Lastly, Evans suggested holding a party for past and present members sometime in 1983. The board approved the recommendations, and appointed Walter Close as centennial chairman, and John Ware as the editor of the centennial book.

In January 1982, a planning committee met at the Evans’ house to further plan the centennial activities. The ideas and enthusiasm expressed at this meeting heavily influenced the direction that the celebration took.

Walter Close subsequently named a formal Centennial Committee that included Janet Fuller, George Harrison, Bob Adams, Bob Lee, John Ware, Dick Balzac, and Charlie Evans.

At Ware’s request, Diana Reische, author of Of Colonists and Commuters, a History of Scarsdale, agreed to write a book about the first 100 years of Fox Meadow.

Walter Close’s committee decided to have a cocktail-buffet party at the Club on the evening of June 18, followed by a luncheon, ice cream social, tennis matches, and skits the next day.

The APTA declined to hold the Men’s Doubles championship at Fox Meadow, but decided to hold the Senior Men’s Doubles at the Club on March 5-6, 1983. On March 6, the Club’s Awards Committee, made up of Walter Close, Anne Evans, Janet Fuller, and Charlie Evans, honored the game’s co-founders, Fessenden Blanchard and James Cogswell, as well as 37 Fox Meadow members who had won national platform tennis championships.

One of the gratifying things about preparing for the centennial, according to President Evans, was the involvement of most of the Club’s members, whether through contributing to the centennial history or working on the awards ceremony or party. Evans was impressed by the way the Club worked together on the project, ”showing the integrity and respect for others which is the hallmark of Fox Meadow, on or off the court.”

Symbolic of the Club’s centennial year, as well as the self-help principle upon which most of its activities rest, a flag made by member Betty Rule was raised beneath the American flag in front of the clubhouse.

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

Golden anniversary of platform tennis celebration at Fox Meadow

Golden anniversary of founding of platform tennis celebrated at Fox Meadow

The event was chaired by Joan and and Paul Doyle, with assistance from Roxanne and Rodman Zilenziger and twenty-two other members.

Charlie O’Hearn—who with his wife, Ginnie, won four national Mixed Doubles championships— recalled the game’s origins:

“No paddle tennis player in the early thirties could have dreamed how far the game would develop over the ensuing fifty years. And yet it was such a great, fun game that perhaps we should have known. With one court in Scarsdale, at Jim Cogswell’s, only a handful of players were available and many a weekend I can recall Fess Blanchard phoning to say, ‘It’s stopped snowing. Come on over and help shovel, and we can be playing by two o’clock’—and we were. I haven’t played for years, but I still owe the game a lot. I’ll always be in its debt for the pleasure it gave to Ginnie and me.”

Source: Diana Reische Fox Meadow – The First Hundred Years, 1983