Held in Mid-November at Amelia Island Plantation, FL, the tournament consisted of eight of the top nine nationally-ranked teams. The winning team of Mangan and Kingsbury received $2,000, while the runners-up, Steele and Jennings, earned $500.
Highlights of the tournament were shown on the CBS show Sports Spectacular on Sunday February 23, 1975
Even though most of the players on the tour had full-time jobs outside of platform tennis, with the majority of them working in the finance industry, the prize money added another enticement to the game.
Welcome to the best location in the nation - Cleveland, of course. To all our old friends its super to see you again, and to you new faces, its great to see you guys as well.
For the men it is a historical occasion! Who would believe we would be pounding the pill for the long hard green. For the first time in the history of our favorite sport, dollars are replacing the firm handshake and the clasp on the back
It didn't take long before a committee consisting of tournament level players and headed by APTA President Bob Brown re-visited the nine-point tie-breaker adopted in early 1974.
The nine-point tie-breaker rule stated that if two teams reached 4-all the next point decided the set. This was considered unfair.
The APTA subsequently adopted a 12-point tie-breaker of its own, one in which the first team winning 7 points takes the set. If the teams reach 6-all then it takes a margin of two points to win (e.g. 8-6 or 12-10)
The sequence in the APTA 12-point tiebreaker is as follows:
Assume the last point of the set has ended, and the game score is 6-all. The players stay on the same side of the net and the next player in the regular service rotation serves once from the ad court.
When that point is over, the players change sides and the normal serving rotation continues with ea[...]
Born in 1924, Jack Davis is one of the best-known American illustrators of the past fifty years. During his illustrious career, he created art for magazine covers, film posters, record jackets, advertisements, and books. Perhaps he is most admired for his work in MAD Magazine.
In the platform tennis world, he is famous for his zany drawings that feature outlandish characters on the court. During the 1970’s, he created twelve widely distributed platform tennis prints. A former Scarsdale resident, Davis played platform tennis socially at the Scarsdale Golf Club. Although he claims that he didn’t base his characters on anyone specific, it is hard not to identify with each of them.
The Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame inducted Davis in 2003.
Interesting factoid: Jack Davis had Fox Meadow Tennis Club member Karen Reuter (1943-2008) do quite a bit of coloring for his cart[...]
Back to TopSpectators at Fox Meadow Tennis Club, Scarsdale, NY watching the final of the 1977 Men's Nationals
Handling the crowds at the Men’s Nationals created some challenges. With the growing popularity and spectator appeal of the game, the APTA decided to limit the crowds and defray tournament expenses by charging admission into the Fox Meadow grounds. Also, for the 1975 event, Fox Meadow Tennis Club planned to install a large tent in the parking lot, in order to provide creature comforts and food for spectators at the semis and finals.
There would be a general admission charge of $2 for adults and $1 for children. Super-fans could purchase a clubhouse pass, entitling them to lunch for $10. Under this new format only pass-holders, officials, semi-finalists and their wives would be permitted access to the clubhouse.
Source: Off The Wire, Vol. 6 No. 3
The APTA Board accepted the Equipment Committee’s recommendations to update the standards at their June meeting.
Only balls and paddles certified by the Equipment Committee as meeting these specifications could be used in sanctioned or ranking tournaments. However, it was now not necessary for balls and paddles to be formally "APTA Approved"; this designation was awarded to equipment at a later date.
The rapid growth of the game the high expectation for its continued expansion had encouraged a number manufactures to produce paddles and this drove innovation. This innovation forced a change in the APTA paddle specifications, specifically with respect to the number of holes allowed. Up to late 1974 the had been a requirement that the paddle should have 63 holes with a tolerance of 52-74. the developments of the Play-morTM paddle which used an aluminum honeycomb core and had just[...]
In recognition of the growth of interest in on-grade courts in warm-weather areas, the Board confirmed that a court need not be built on a platform to meet APTA specifications.
Ambassador Walter Stoessel, a keen player and lover of the game, had introduced platform tennis to both Moscow and Warsaw, and had courts built in both capitals.
The Warsaw Chapter of the APTA sent the association a report on an inter-embassy tournament played on April 26 and 27 between them and a team from Moscow that included Stoessel, the American Ambassador in Moscow.
The Moscow Chapter claimed the title of Champions of the Eastern Hemisphere based on their triumph in the tournament, in which they won eight of the contests.
Source: Paddle Talk, No. 1
Paddle World Vol. 1 No. 2 Mid-Winter 1976
The spring edition of Paddle Talk carried this story.
“If the Dutch haven't heard of platform tennis yet, then they soon will, or so at least hopes Cees Cuppens of Bellfires BV in Holland. Recently he visited the U.S.A. and met with Gloria Dillenbeck of the APTA to discuss his plans for marketing courts in Europe. The Dutch are already tennis-mad, inspired by the success of their national tennis heroes, Betty Stove and Tom Okker. And the tennis twosome just happened to be paddle freaks, too.
Bellfires BV makes fireplaces, but recently decided to expand the business. They have chosen to go into the leisure industry, ironically one of the few areas that have benefited from current adverse economic conditions. The path that has led Mr. Nico de Wal, President of Bellfires, and Cees Cuppens to see the potential of platform tennis was determined by conditions specific to a tiny count[...]
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