National Championships

The Men’s and Women’s Nationals were covered in PTN Spring 1991:

The National Championship field included 96 men’s and 64 women’s teams, showcasing the top-ranked professional and amateur players from the U.S. and Canada.

Due to the size of the field, the matches were played at several different sites. Aronimink Golf Club and Waynesborough Country Club hosted the National Championships. Overbrook Golf Club and Whitford Country Club hosted the Women’s and Men’s President’s Cup play.

In the women’s event, defending champions Gerri Viant/Sue Aery just couldn’t match the firepower of Connecticut’s Robin Fulton/Diane Tucker, and succumbed in a tightly-contested straight-set final (6-4, 6-3). The men’s event featured an upset-in-the-making for one set, before eight-time Nationals men’s champions Rich Maier and Steve Baird turned on the afterburners to overcome a 6-2 first-set loss to barely beat back the challenge of Jim Kaufman and Scott Staniar, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Source: Platform Tennis News, Winter, Spring & Summer 1991

President’s Cup – Region I Women and Region III Men (fifth straight in a squeaker!)

The 1991 Women’s President’s Cup was taken by Region I by a landslide. They received the coveted trophy in dinner ceremonies at the Merion Cricket Club.

On the men’s side, the local Region’s team was going for its fifth straight men’s President’s Cup win on its home courts in Philadelphia. They prevailed with 57 points. Region V came in a close second with 54 points, followed by Region I with 52.

The competition was very close. Region III had to take six tie-breakers in the last three matches against Region I foes in order to clinch the victory. And they did.

Source Platform Tennis News, Spring 1991

APTA Honor Award reinstated

After an absence of 12 years, the Honor Awards program of the APTA was brought back at the urging of APTA President Chuck Vasoll.

The award provided recognition to those men and women who had contributed in an exemplary manner to the game of platform tennis. The last awards had been presented, in 1979, to Peggy Stanton and Eldridge Birmingham. Since the inception of the award in 1965, 24 men and 9 women had been honored.

Robert Brown accepted the appointment by APTA President Charles Vasoll to be Chairman of the Honor Awards Committee.

Source: Platform Tennis News, Winter 1991

Charlotte Lee (1914 -1991)

Kathy Reilly in the R. J. Reilly, Ic. publication Behind the Screens, as quoted in PTN, Winter 1991 said:

“If paddle had a Hall of Fame, Charlotte Lee would be a charter member. Charlotte Lee first picked up a paddle at age 42 in 1957, and since then has won sixteen National titles, been a runner up seven times, and has won an almost uncountable number of club and state championships in both mixed and women’s play.”

The winter edition of PTN carried the full tribute by Kathy Reilly, as well as a number of other remembrances, among which was one from Richard J. Reilly, Jr.:

“If ever there has been an angel to guide and inspire a sports following morally, physically, and spiritually, it has to be Charlotte Lee.”

Charlotte Lee was the recipient of the APTA Honor Award in 1966.

Source: Platform Tennis News, Winter 1991