National Championships – now the Women had a Senior event

The 1971 Nationals included the inaugural Women’s 50+.

The men had a 128 team draw, and the final was a repeat of the previous years. This win made it a hat-trick for Gray and Sammis, the second hat-trick in the game’s history (Hebard and Carver had won in 1961-1963).

The new and up and coming team of Gloria Dillenbeck and B.J. DeBree won their first title, defeating the winners of the last four events, Charlotte Lee and Peggy Stanton.

Tad Bowen and Sidney Sweet, Jr. repeated as finalists in the Men’s 50+, losing to Robert Baldwin and George Schmid. William Miller and Gregory Prince won the Men’s 60+, while Charlotte Lee and partner Clair Hesseltine won the inaugural Women’s 50+.

In the Junior’s, Charles (Chip) Baird Jr. won his third straight and future Hall of Fame member, Rich Maier, was a finalist.

Source: The APTA Paddle Newsletter, Vol. 2, No. 2 & 3

Aluminum decks at two courts

Kim Kimberly and Tad Bowen installed the new aluminum decks pioneered by Richard Reilly of R. J. Reilly, Inc. that were the first installations of what has become the modern standard. They were built in the Wilton & New Canaan, CT area.

APTA Honor Award: Carroll, Carver and Maizie Moore

Elfie Carroll, a New York State tennis champion in singles and doubles, won three National Women’s (1950, 1955 and 1958) and four straight Mixed (1949-1952) with her husband, a record that stood until 1982 when it was tied by Hilary Hilton Marold and Doug Russell. Her Women’s wins in 1955 and 1958 were all the more remarkable since she and her husband moved to eastern Long Island in 1952 where she had few opportunities to play. (Seminole Club, Forest Hills, NY).

Alexander (Zan) H. Carver, Jr. played on the amateur tennis circuit and was ranked as high as number eleven in 1944. He won the Men’s Nationals three straight times (1961-1963), the Mixed nationals in 1964 and the Men’s 45+ in 1963 and the Men’s 50+ in 1970. He was skilled at the half-volley and brought the center court theory of tennis doubles to the game. (Fox Meadow Tennis Club).

Mary A. (Maizie) Moore was part of the Childress dynasty at Fox Meadow Tennis Club and was a fine tennis player, competing successfully at state and national levels. She won six Women’s Nationals – five of them with sister Madge Beck – once the Women’s event was reinstituted in 1949 after a six-year hiatus. She also won the Mixed Nationals in 1946. (Fox Meadow Tennis Club).

Source: The APTA Paddle Newsletter – Annual Meeting, November 1970

APTA Annual Meeting

The minutes of the November 5th meeting reported on:

(a) the efforts to grow the game

(b) the inaugural National Senior Women’s tournament to be held in 1971

(d) a focus on regional events

The Treasurer’s report showed income of $6442.42, a Net Loss for the year of $192, and a Net Worth of $9,692.67.

State of the game in Poland

Ambassador Walter Stoessel, Jr. reported that paddle was of to a good start in Warsaw.

c/o The American Consulate Gen.,
APO New York, N.Y. 09757,
May 18, 1970.

Dear Mr. Thistle:

Thank you for sending me, under cover of your letter of April 20, a copy of the APTA Newsletter. We will look forward to receiving subsequent copies. We found particularly enjoyable the article on paddle tennis from the American Airlines magazine. –

Our paddle tennis season ended this month in Warsaw with a tournament and banquet where trophies were distributed. The tournament was held over the weekend of May 9-10, with good finals games in all categories: Women’s Doubles, Mixed Doubles, Men’s Doubles, and Scrambles. We had originally planned to have the finals the previous weekend, but a snowfall on May 2 interfered!

The paddle tennis banquet was held May 1) in the American Club at the Embassy. In addition to trophies for the champions and runners-up, the Pan American representative in Warsaw, Mr. Gene Kucha, donated a large cup which will be kept on permanent display in the Embassy. Entitled the “Stoessel Cup”, it will have engraved on it the names of the winners of each year’s tournament.

We feel paddle tennis has gotten off to a good start in Warsaw, and we are already looking forward to next year’s season. Several representatives of American Embassies in other East European countries have already been here to inspect our court, so perhaps we can look forward to more foreign chapters of APTA in the future!

With very best wishes,
Sincerely,
Walter J. Stoessel, Jr.
American Ambassador

Source: The APTA Paddle Newsletter September 1970

The spirit of Fox Meadow

“If it had not been for Fox Meadow Tennis Club and the friends we made there, I don’t think Evie and I would have stayed in Scarsdale. We had planned to move to Connecticut, but we met such great people at Fox Meadow that we changed our minds and bought a home [in Scarsdale]. Now we have lived here more than thirty-two years.”—Jim Carlisle, FMTC President, 1969-70.

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

National Championships

The 1970’s Nationals were the largest draws in history, with 128 men’s teams and 72 in the women’s.

Gordon Gray and Jesse Sammis III won their second consecutive title over the rising team of Bob Kingsbury and John Mangan.

Charlotte Lee and Peggy Stanton won their fourth straight title.

John Mangan sweetened his loss in the Men’s by partnering with Susie Harris to beat the previous year’s champions, Charlotte Lee and Bradley Drowne.

Dick Hebard and Zan Carver defeated the previous year’s champions, Tad Bowen and Sidney Sweet, Jr. in the 50+ (Hebard had won the event in 1965 with Sweet). John Cookman and Mansfield Sprague won the Men’s 60+ (also called the Veteran’s).

In September 1970, the second APTA Paddle Newsletter printed the draw sheets and results – see link above.

Source: The APTA Paddle Newsletter, September 1970

APTA adds more tournaments

With growing interest, the number of tournaments sanctioned by the APTA increased dramatically.

In 1969, there were 25 listed tournaments, but a decade later, the APTA offered more than one hundred events.

Rapid growth in the 70’s

By 1970, there were an estimated 150,000 people playing platform tennis. Based on a survey of court builders and ball and racquet manufacturers, the growth during the next five years ranged from 15 to 25 percent per year.