Singles makes a comeback

The APTA had been asked many times why the singles game never developed in platform tennis. Singles offered certain advantages: it was more physically demanding; it appealed to the younger player; and, matches were easier to arrange.

The APTA held National Singles Championships from 1935-1938, so the idea of singles play was not new. They based the decision to abandon singles on the severe physical demands involved. However, since APTA ball specifications now allowed for a livelier ball and wire tension was greater, it was easier to reach an opponent’s shot.

As a result, the APTA Board decided that the time for singles had come. As a first step, the APTA held a singles workshop at the Apple Club in New York City on September 23. A group of top-ranked men and women players tried out several suggested formats. Two formats emerged as the most popular types. Both would be tested during the season at various clubs and paddle centers around the country, with a decision on which to proceed with made at the end of the season.

Source: Paddle Talk, Vol. 4 No. 1 (November)

Passport Scotch ups the ante – The Passport Scotch Grand Prix of Platform Tennis Tour culminating in the Men’s and Women’s Nationals. The purse for the Men’s and Women’s tournaments was $169,000; the Nationals $25,200 each

Calvert Distillers, a division of Joseph E. Seagram & Son. Inc., renewed its sponsorship of professional men’s and women’s platform tennis for the season.

The 1978-79 Passport Scotch Grand Prix of Platform Tennis featured the highest prize money in the sport’s 50 year history, a total of $169,400 for both men’s and women’s circuits.

Platform Tennis booms

Thanks to creative marketing, ample prize money, and the foresight of the APTA Board, platform tennis continued to grow. By 1978, it was estimated that four hundred thousand enthusiasts played platform tennis across the United States.

Hilary Hilton on CBS’s World Racquet Championships

Hilton was invited by CBS to compete against five world-class racquet athletes in the World Racquets Championships.

Robert R. Kingsbury elected APTA President (1978-1980)

Kingsbury was active in the APTA and served as President when paddle grew from a game to a sport to a business. He was instrumental in developing sponsors for the game when many top players were tennis and platform tennis professionals. He knew that prize money was essential for growth, but he also knew that the health of the game relied on keeping the average player involved and interested. This was a difficult balancing act, which he handled with perfection.

Kingsbury managed to get Coca Cola and Seagrams to make financial contributions to the game at the national ranking level. Following that, he enlisted the Hertz Corporation to underwrite events for club level players, culminating in a two-day President’s Cup that was extremely popular.

Source: Gannett Westchester Newspapers, January 1979

Men’s President’s Cup competition inaugurated – Region IV emerged on top

The top 20 “weekend player” teams from the APTA’s four regions gathered at the Montclair Golf Club in New Jersey on April 1 and 2 to compete in the first Presidents’ Cup Championship.

The format was a round robin, with teams positioned one through five in each region playing comparable teams from every other region. Each victory was worth one point toward the region’s total score.

Region IV (Mid-West and West) captured the first President’s Cup with a resounding record of 13 wins and 2 losses. Region III (Mid-Atlantic and South) finished second.

While the competitive play provided the focal point of the tournament, the social aspects were equally important. A genuine team spirit developed among the players from each region.

They scouted the opposition for each other, practiced between matches, and shouted encouragement to teammates during lengthy matches. The dinner dance on Saturday evening was rated a fabulous musical and sensory success by the 150 players and wives, former APTA Presidents, and Hertz Corporation executives in attendance.

Source: Paddle Talk, Vol. 3 No. 6 (July-June)

Passport Scotch Platform Tennis Classic – Graebner/Russell and Hilton/Gengler take the highest prize money yet in history of the game

Orange Lawn Tennis Club in New Jersey hosted the $50,000 Passport Scotch Platform Tennis Classic event. [Official Program]

The first-year team of Clark Graebner and Doug Russell won the biggest money prize in platform tennis history by capturing the men’s division. They defeated the Baird brothers, Chip and Steve, and split a prize of $8,000.

The 1978 national champions, Louise Gengler and Hilary Hilton, took the women’s title, and a record $8,000. They defeated the second-seeded team of Wendy Chase and Linda Wolf.

Source: Paddle Talk, Vol. 3 No. 6 (June-July)

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

50th Anniversary National Championships

FMTC hosted the event (its 41st National Championship) commemorating the 50th anniversary of the founding of platform tennis.

The highlight of the afternoon was the presentation of sterling silver trays by APTA President Dick Hornigold to members of the “first families” of platform tennis, Mrs. Fessenden Blanchard and Do Cogswell Deland.

In the Men’s, Herb Fitz Gibbon and Hank Irvine won their second straight title as did Hilary Hilton and Louise Gengler in the Women’s. Paddle Talk covered the event

Clark Graebner (Russell’s partner in the Men’s final) and Louise Gengler (Hilton’s partner in the Women’s) won the mixed over Russell and Hilton.

In the Senior’s, Bob Brown won his first of many Senior titles with George Reynolds over the winners of the past two years, Baird and Lankenau.

Source: Paddle Talk Vol. 3 No. 5 (April-May)

International Tournaments – First British and European Opens

British Open International Platform Tennis Tournament – February 3, 4, 5.

An invitation International Tournament under the joint auspices of the International Platform Tennis Association and the BPTA, to be held at Silvermere Country Club, Redhill Road, Cobham, Surrey. Sponsored by Racquet Sports International Limited. Teams from the United States, Holland and the United Kingdom.

The First European Open Championships – February 10, 11, 12.

Hapert, Holland, the site of last year’s Dutch Open Championships. Sponsored by Bellfires Corporation and its President, Nico de Wal. Teams from the United States, United Kingdom and Holland.

Program and Drawsheets

British National Platform Tennis Championships

Sponsored by En-tout-cas Limited, it involved regional competitions at a number of centers for all entrants, culminating in a National Final for regional winners. Men’s, women’s and mixed tournaments.

Source: Paddle Talk, Vol.3 No. 3 (January)