The Christian Science Monitor covered the annual platform tennis battle between Moscow and Warsaw Embassies first started by Ambassador Walter J. Stoessel, Jr.
The US Ambassador to Moscow, Malcolm Toon, was looking to sweep the Warsaw contingent but had to settle for a 13-2 win, much to his disgust.
To read the complete article Click Here
Source: Christian Science Monitor, July 3, 1979
In 1975, the Saddle & Cycle Club, under Platform Tennis Chairman Frank Klimley and the initial subscriptions of 110 members, constructed two wood courts. The initial warming facility was in the north end of the main clubhouse with views out toward the courts, thirty meters away.
In 1979, the ‘Saddle’ had two Men’s and one Women’s team playing in the highly competitive North Shore Platform Tennis League. Then in 1985, not only were new aluminum courts with heaters and improved lighting installed, but the original Sportshouse ‘warming hut’ was constructed adjacent to the courts, both adding to increased play and member enjoyment.
In 2015 club member Jim McCormick, a long-time player of the game at Saddle and Cycle, purchased an original racquet (circa 1930) and had it framed along with the description of the origins of the game at the club.
Source: Racquets Committee (Heather Montgomery, Co-Chair, Doug Leik, Co-Chair, and Bob Thomas, Club Historian), Saddle and Cycle Club, 2015
The Childress family racquets dynasty at Fox Meadow Tennis Club included Hall of Fame inductees Madge Childress Beck and Maizie Childress Moore as well as Madge’s daughter Susan Beck Wasch.
Madge’s son, John Childress Beck, a Nationally ranked player in the 1970s won the Mixed Nationals in 1972 with sister Susan and lost in the finals of the following year to future APTA President Mike North and Sis O’Connell (6-1, 14-12). He also teamed with Herb Fitz Gibbon to win the Men’s Nationals in 1974.
John spent his whole career at his father’s firm Beck, Mack and Oliver and was instrumental in growing the company into a leader in investment counseling. He chaired Princeton University’s Investment Committee and created the Princeton Investment Company during his tenure as a Trustee of Princeton.
In addition to his prowess in paddle and tennis he was an avid rower and was a member of the nationally ranked crew team at Princeton that narrowly missed an Olympic berth for the 1952 games.
Steve Faber, a mathematics teacher at Glenbrook South High School in Glenview, Illinois, and the GBS Paddle Club sponsor (along with Anne Blair and Rosie McManamon), filed this report:
Last year, the APTA generously donated four paddles to our program at Glenbrook South. What has happened over the past 14 months since is extraordinary. Our two founding members, Michael O’Connor and Kaden Ignelzi, will be graduating this year, but I’m excited about the future of junior paddle in Glenview. We have had an overwhelmingly positive response from our high schoolers and from the entire community of Glenview…..
[Click image below to read the full article]<br.
Source: Platform Tennis Magazine, Vol. 16 Issue 4 March/April 2015
In 1993, court builder Dick Reilly (Hall of Fame 1974) moved west to Montana, put up a court, and ran a small tournament. Moving to another Montana location, the town of Eureka, Reilly erected two courts and brought out professional Hank Irvine (Hall of Fame 1995) to run a paddle camp each fall. Partly because there was little else for campers to do in their off hours in Eureka, Reilly moved the camp to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where it continues. Initially, three courts were erected on a tennis court on a dude ranch to house the camp. After a year, the camp was moved to its present location on courts at the Snow King Resort.
At one of the camps, Reilly, Irvine, and Gary Horvath talked about the need to re-institute an organization for teaching professionals. The trio produced the conceptual foundation for establishing the USA Professional Platform Tennis Association (PPTA).
In 1972 Web and Dottie Otis returned to Ross, California, from a government assignment in Washington, D.C., where they had been introduced to platform tennis. Armed with plans for a court, they employed a local contractor, Bim Lansill, to erect an all-wooden court over a small swimming pool on a hillside above their home.
Two more private courts were soon erected in Ross, and in 1975 an amorphous group calling themselves the Ross Valley Hunt Club conducted the first tournament in Northern California.
By 1978 Ross, with a population of 2,700, had a public court in the town park.
In addition to Ross, the 1970s were a time of growth throughout the region. San Jose Steel constructed grade-level courts on a tennis court surface in various locations from San Diego to Salishan, Oregon. The facility that drew the most attention was the Cabrillo Athletic Club in San Diego. The manager advocated radical rule changes, such as moving the service line back six inches, rounding the corners, and cutting a hole in the back screen to allow for winners.
Ultimately these facilities were abandoned, leaving Ross as one of the main centers for the game in California, along with the Lagunitas Country Club, which built two courts in 1977 and became the headquarters for the Lagunitas Invitational run by Al Seidel for many years. This tournament continues to draw Eastern players who combine competition with visits to San Francisco or the nearby wine country.
In the early 1970s, courts were also built in Durango, Colorado, and managed by Gary Horvath. In subsequent years Horvath conducted numerous clinics at sites in New Mexico and Arizona.
Source: Article by Beach Kuhl in Passing Shots – A Pictorial History of Platform Tennis, 2010
In 1964, Peter Dominick (Colorado US Senator from 1963-1975) was working on subdividing a family farm in Cherry Hills Village (just south of Denver) and set aside a parcel for a family swim and tennis club. Hig Gould 1, a transplant from the East and related to Dominick through marriage, was working of the subdivision that was to include the club, now know as the Arapahoe Tennis Club, and persuaded the other founders to include two platform tennis courts.
The game started to flourish there and was helped by the arrival of Fess Blanchard’s daughter, Ruth, who moved there after the death of her husband Fred Walker (Hall of Fame 1966) in 1964. Ruth Walker Johnson was an accomplished player having been a finalist in the 1956 and 1959 Women’s Nationals.
Note 1: Gould was a stand-out hockey player at St Paul’s and Yale. After graduation from Yale he did two years of active duty in the Naval Reserve – during which he was an alternate on the 1956 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team and, in 1957, a member of the U.S. National Hockey Team which toured Europe- which were followed by study at the Harvard School of Business Administration.
Upon receiving his M.B.A. degree in 1959, he accepted one of many offers from firms in the Southwest and Mountain States, and moved to Denver to take a position in the venture capital department of Bosworth, Sullivan & Co., investment bankers. Later, he joined the Gates Rubber Company, becoming assistant to the president for corporate planning and then president of Gates Aviation Corporation. When the company was merged with Learjet, he was named vice-president and finally, last fall, president of Gates Learjet Corporation.
Source: St Paul’s School Alumni News
The video was shot at Sleepy Hollow Country Club, Briarcliff, NY and produced by Fox Meadow member and indie film producer Eric Taylor. It shows the fun of paddle competition and the spirit of the players.
The foursome involved were: David Ohlmuller, Chris Gambino, Mike Cochrane and John Schmitt.
Source: Eric Taylor
The occasion of the Men’s 145+ Nationals and the induction of Bob Callaway into the Hall of Fame provided the Platform Tennis Museum and Hall of Fame Foundation an opportunity to create a short video – A Celebration of Paddle. Eric Taylor was the producer
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation was the biggest winner of all. The tournament brought in over $3,000 for the cause.
The stars of the platform tennis world descended into Chicago for the annual Chicago Charities tournament the first weekend of November. This tournament usually boasts one of the strongest men’s and women’s fields of any tournament after the Nationals. Last year, Hurricane Sandy laid waste to that claim, but this year the draw was back to its former stellar status. Many new combos were there to compete and the resurrection of some old partnerships created some pop.
The women began their play on Friday, and finished up just as the men’s round of 16 was shaking out. For the women, it was the story of the inexorable march to victory by National Champions Ana Brzova and Viki Stoklasova. This was their third title in three tournaments this fall and they did not lose a set in doing so. In fact, they won three matches, including the final, by the score of 6-1, 6-1. Finalists six-time National Champion Mary Doten and two-time Charities winner Jane McNitt could not dent the precision of Brzova and Stoklasova.
On the men’s side, the field was so deep that the top-seeded team and current National champs, Johan du Randt and Mark Parsons, lost in the quarter finals to Mike Cochrane and Scott Estes, back together after a hiatus of a few years. The round of 16 had some amazing match ups, including Cochrane and Estes against Alex Bancila and former National Champion Brian Uihlein. There were spins enough to make your head spin. Another super watchable match was du Randt and Parsons against eight-time National Champion Flip Goodspeed and Cincinnati pro Rob Bakker.
Showing their usual unflappable style, winners Drew Broderick and Chris Gambino worked steadily through the draw. They won their second Charities, after three straight years in the finals. Steve DeRose and Jon Lubow, former winners of the Charities, fought the good fight, losing 6-3, 7-5. This match is still available for viewing via the APTA website.
Live Scoring-sponsored by Wilson-and Live Streaming have become part of the fabric of the major APTA tournaments, especially in the Midwest. The Chicago Charities always offers stupendous paddle. This year was deep-dish delicious.
Source: Platform Tennis Magazine, Vol. 15, Issue 1 Sept./Oct. 2013
© 2026 Platform Tennis Museum and Hall of Fame Foundation, All Rights Reserved.