History of the Game | Platform Tennis Museum and Hall of Fame

1979

Men’s Nationals qualifications

For the last several years, the draw for this event has been below 64 teams and, to break even financially, this tournament had to have at least 90 teams participating. APTA Directors John Packard and Bradley Drowne volunteered to study the issue and recommended a change that they felt would get at least 96 teams participating. Their suggestion was to allow those who had reached the third round of an APTA-sanctioned tournament to be eligible to play. Mr. Drowne, a five-year veteran of the men's tournament committee, wrote a carefully considered explanation of the circumstances involved in this issue. “The APTA introduced qualifying criteria for entering the Men's Nationals in 1976 and prior to that the Men’s Nationals had always drawn 128 teams. There were three reasons why this was so: • In the 1950's and 1960's, the Men’s Nationals were "virtually the only tournament ope[...]

1979

Junior program

Hank Irvine and three associates responded actively to the needs of the Junior Development program. Irvine, the pro at the Short Hills Club, Short Hills, NJ, went on the road with Steve Nycum, Mark Allen, and Tom Smith, and put on exhibitions and clinics at the municipal center in Princeton; the Pleasant Valley Paddle Club, West Orange, NJ; Wilson Park, Summit, NJ; and the Brookside Racquet Club in Allendale, NJ. The chairman of the APTA's junior program, William Dodd commented: "Hank deserves an awful lot of credit. He took the ball and organized the whole thing. He really wants to give something back to the game, and he knows that the juniors are its future. This way, they're going to be getting ready for intercollegiate play later on."

1979

Fifty years of platform tennis celebrated in narrated slide show

Produced as an aid to promoting the game, the slide show “Platform Tennis 50 Years and On” was produced by Rich Lombard’s company, Cal Industries, with financial support from the Fessenden S. Blanchard Memorial Fund, the APTA, and John and Molly Ware (Blanchard’s daughter and son-in-law). The March 27, 1979 Minutes of the APTA BOD Meeting covered the background: "Mr. Brown reported on a meeting held in New York City with John Ware, Mr. Kingsbury, Mrs. Dillenbeck and himself at which the suggestion was made to produce a slide show depicting the fifty years of platform tennis. Mr. Ware was asked to oversee the production, Vicky Cosstick would script it, and Thornton Gerrish would film. The total cost of production is estimated at $2,500. and Mr. Brown announced that the Blanchard Memorial Fund would contribute $1,000 of this total. The APTA would have to make up the differe[...]

1979

Wiped out in Warsaw – The paddle tennis summit

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. To read the complete article Click Here Source: Christian Science Monitor, July 3, 1979

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