Bradley Drowne: Bradley Drowne served as the National Tournament director for the APTA for many years and pioneered the rankings system employed today. He was “Mr. Steady” as a player and won the National Men’s in 1968, the Mixed in 1969 and 1974, and his first Men’s 45+ in 1973 over Baird and Lankenau.

Hank Irvine: Hank Irvine was a player who changed the game and was always exciting to watch. His shot-making and control of the ball set new standards, and he had great hands and ease of stroke, coupled with economy of body movement and consistency. He started playing and teaching the game in 1973, when he became head pro at the Short Hills Club after immigrating from Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). By 1997, he had won his first National Men’s with Herb Fitz Gibbon; they repeated the following year. Six years later, he again won back-to-back Men’s nationals in 1986 and 1987. In the senior events he won the 50+ once, the 55+ four times, the 60+ three times and the 65+ once. Hank was a wonderful ambassador for the sport as a teacher and devoted much time to the development of juniors. (Short Hills Club).

John Ware: John P. Ware’s first achievement was changing the color of the original white ball, which was hard to see, into an orange one with the use of spray paint. Eventually,he got the ball to be manufactured that way, until the change to yellow took place. He served as Secretary of the APTA from 1959 to 1961, and as President from 1961 to 1963. He inaugurated the first APTA Junior Boys National Championships in 1963, and designed the crossed paddles and ball that was used on stationery, trophies, ties, scarves, and everything that represented the APTA for years. As Blanchard’s son-in-law, Ware became the game’s historian, writing numerous articles on the game and helping to publish books. With his wife, Molly Blanchard Ware, he put together the first and only – and truly magnificent – slide show presentation on the history of platform tennis. It was shown first at the Princeton Club in October 1976.

PTN Spring 1995 covered the Men’s and Women’s Nationals:

For one 96-hour period, all platform tennis roads led to New Jersey, as the Garden State Nationals and concurrent President’s Cup events were hosted to perfection by Montclair Golf Club and Short Hills Club.

Players and spectators came from every point of the compass, and play reached its usual outstanding levels. But there were differences this year. For one, the Children’s Specialized Hospital of Mountaindale (NJ) was the recipient of the generosity of the sponsors and advertisers who supported this year’s Nationals, and received in excess of $10,000.

Another new wrinkle at this year’s event was the presence of the omnipresent eye – television. Spearheaded by sports editor Paul Spychala, Suburban Cablevision taped both the men’s and women’s finals for showing to some 2.5 million subscribers on its system. The tapes were also made available to outlets in several other regions, including Philadelphia and Boston.

On the court, there were upsets galore, top teams rose to the top, and three-set matches and tight finishes were commonplace. David Ohlmuller and Bruce Kelsey continued their late season surge and staked their claim to the title of “platform’s best” by dumping defending champions Peter Gruenberg and Art Williams in a match that had a little bit of everything.

For the second year in a row, Nyack’s (NY) Gerri Viant and Plainfield’s (NJ) Sue Aery confounded the status quo and knocked off the top-seeded duo of Robin Fulton and Diane Tucker. All season long it seemed like those two teams were at loggerheads when push came to shove in the finals of various events.

Source: Platform Tennis News, Spring & Summer 1995

1995 marked the first year that the draw was prepared by the APTA office, rather than by the National Championship Committee at the host site.

Local input on the ability of unknown teams was still sought by the draw committee, but otherwise the selections were to be made in strict conformance to the guidelines published by the APTA.