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.

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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

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

Another Dick Squires promotional video extolling the virtues of the game and its growing popularity. Includes instructions of how to play and footage of various matches in the 1970 including the finals of the Mixed Nationals in 1971.

Bob Callaway & Michael Hughes, Jay Iseman, George Sullivan, Doug Russell and Ernest Chu, Bill Ballard & Jim Hevener all had book published