James P. Gordon – Men’s Champion and almost Nobel Laureate

James Power Gordon was born in Brooklyn, NY, on March 20, 1928, and was raised in Forest Hills and Scarsdale, NY

He attended Scarsdale High School and Phillips Exeter Academy (Class of 1945). In 1949 he received a bachelor’s degree from MIT and joined the physics Department of Columbia University as a graduate student. He received his Masters and PhD degrees in physics in 1951 and 1955, respectively.

In the framework of his doctoral research he designed, built and demonstrated the successful operation of the first maser (microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) together with H. Zeiger and with his doctoral advisor Prof. Charles H. Townes. There was considerable skepticism about whether the device would work and some of his colleagues said maser really stood for money acquisition scheme for expensive research. Gordon however was a believer and had a bet of a bottle of bourbon that it would work. He won.

The invention of the maser won the Nobel Prize in Physics, which C.H. Townes shared in 1964 with the Russian scientists N. Bassov and A. Prokhorov. Dr. Townes, who thought Gordon should also have been included in the honor, gave some of his Nobel Prize money to Gordon who used it to buy a Buick station wagon.

Starting in 1955 and until his retirement in 1996, James P. Gordon worked as a scientist at AT&T Bell-Laboratories, where in the period between 1958 and 1980 he headed the Quantum Electronics Research Department, located initially in Murray Hill and Holmdel Township, both in the state of New Jersey.

In addition to his Men’s National Championship in 1959 he won the Mixed Nationals in 1961 and 1962. Gordon was invariably seen with the raccoon coat that was de rigueur among the top paddle players at the time.

Source: James P Gordon

Historical Factoid: Gordon was a year ahead of Hall of Famer Bob Brown at Scarsdale High School. They were in the same Boy Scout troop and were both Eagle Scouts. They also both played trumpet in the high school band but Bob admits Gordon was the better player.

James K. Cogswell Jr. (1893-1959)

Death of James K. Cogswell, Jr. (1893 – 1959)

Jimmy Cogswell was a co-founder of the game and served as President of FMTC in 1939. He was among the first group of individuals inducted into the Platform Tennis Hall of Fame in 1965.

Upon retirement, Jimmy moved back to his boyhood roots in Maine and settled in Kittery, where he proceeded to build a retirement home and accompanying barn. He used the latter to pursue his hobbies that had expanded to include building a dinghy.

He acquired a classic Down East open lobster boat and embarked on a retirement career as an avid amateur lobster fisherman.

He died suddenly one morning in 1959 while attending to his lobster pots and was buried at the First Congregational Church in Kittery Point, ME.

Blanchard’s second book on the game, Platform Paddle Tennis, which was published that year, was dedicated to his memory.

Two New Champions in Wall-to Wall Tennis

The New York Times and Reporter Dispatch cover Nationals

The Reporter-Dispatch of White Plains, New York, was one of the leaders among the local Scarsdale papers in giving interesting, illustrated accounts of platform tennis. The March 9th edition of “One of Saturday’s features,” speaking of the Men’s Nationals , commented on the play of Earle Gatchell of Fox Meadow and Ken Ward of Manursing Island Club, who admitted to a combined age of 128 years.

“They beat two younger men from Massachusetts in the first round in straight sets before bowing out. Gatchell helped construct the world’s first platform tennis court three decades ago. I might add that the older team taught the youngsters something about the strategy and tactics of the game. When Earle came to report the results, he said, ‘There has been a dreadful mistake. I know it wasn’t supposed to happen, but we won.’ Platform tennis covers a wide span of years.”

Source: Adapted from Fessenden S. Blanchard, Platform Paddle Tennis, 1959

1959 Men’s Nationals: Jim Gordon and Bill Cooper (champions) with Jim Carlisle and Dick Hebard (1959 finalists, but champions in 1955 and 1958). Also pictured are Walter Close, tournament chair from Fox Meadow Tennis Club, and umpire Jack Whitbeck

National Championships

1959 Rev1

This was the largest Nationals since its inception. Fifty-one teams played in the mixed doubles at the Wee Burn Club in Darien, Connecticut. Thirty-one teams fought it out in the national senior men’s doubles, and there were 43 teams in the women’s doubles, both held at the Fox Meadow Tennis Club of Scarsdale, New York. The men’s doubles draw, also at Fox Meadow, was the highlight, with 77 teams from 35 clubs from Massachusetts to Virginia entered. It was run by a committee under the able chairmanship of Walter H. Close, the APTA President. With the aid of four Manursing Island courts, 154 players were taken care of in two days. The Women’s event was won by the mother-daughter team of Madeline Beck and Susan Beck Wasch.

Source: Adapted from Fessenden S. Blanchard, Platform Paddle Tennis, 1959

“In 1959, also, was played one of the best matches of men’s doubles ever seen in the finals of the national championships. William M. Cooper and James P. Gordon won from James M. Carlisle and Richard K. Hebard 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, 5-7, 8-6, after being down 2-5 in the final set and having 4 match points against them. The last two sets, particularly, produced some of the most brilliant play on both sides that the game has ever seen. Hard hitting and changes of speed in the return of service, particularly by Jim Gordon, combined with good lobbing, were features of the match. I was sorry to see so many opportunities for winning a point missed by a failure to use a drop or stop volley, but then that is a failure characteristic of many good players. I have often felt that if some players would study and practice the technique in that respect of Fred Walker, Helen Barnes or Susan Beck, they, as well as the game, would benefit by the experience. Despite this one lack, few of us have ever seen a match in which such excellent play predominated.

I understand that the combined age of the winners was 32 years less than those of the runners-up, yet the teams battled on practically even terms. This is good evidence that even championship platform tennis is a game for all ages.”

Source: Fessenden S. Blanchard, Platform Paddle Tennis, 1959
Women's Nationals 1959: Barbara Koegel and Ruth Walker, Finalists. Louise Raymond - umpire. FMTC clubhouse in background
Women’s Nationals 1959: Barbara Koegel and Ruth Walker, Finalists. Louise Raymond – umpire. FMTC clubhouse in background

Fox Meadow takes over Jambles

Blanchard considered the Scrambles event championed by Ken Ward to be “one of the greatest steps forward in the history of platform tennis.”

The Scrambles was a men’s event and was followed by Jamborees, a mixed event that Oz Moore was active in fathering.

In 1959, the APTA turned over all responsibility for the Jambles to Fox Meadow, where a Scrambles event had been run very successfully for a number of years. Fox Meadow also had enough courts to handle the number of teams signing up.

FMTC property showing land sold to Roger Manning in 1955 and parcel purchased in 1959

Fox Meadow acquires property abutting Stonehouse Road

This acquisition completed a plan dating from the late 1940s to sell the Club’s less usable higher land off Church Lane and to expand instead towards the more usable lower land behind the Club.

The higher ground of the Church Lane lot was sold in 1955. Many of the trees planted by the club, starting in 1959-60 under Walter Close, were added to the newly acquired Stonehouse parcel.

Source: Adapted from Diana Reische, Fox Meadow Tennis Club – The First Hundred Years, 1983