Dinerman's
book Brothers & Champions
Released This Week Dateline October 12,
2022
--- Rob Dinerman's latest book, a racquet-sports biography of Ralph and
Sam Howe --- the only two people to have been inducted into both the US
Squash Hall of Fame and the International Court Tennis Hall of Fame ---
was released earlier this week at a book-signing session at the Specter
Center in downtown Philadelphia. The book, Brothers & Champions: Ralph And Sam
Howe --- Stories From The Golden Age of Racquet Sports,
chronicles the Howe brothers' careers, which were inextricably linked
throughout their intertwined racquet-sports odyssey, from its beginning
on the early 1950's and extending well into the 21st century.
The pair, both individually and as a team, dominated amateur squash in
the United States throughout the dozen-year period from the late 1950’s
into the early 1970’s. One or the other or both was a member of a U. S.
National Doubles championship team eight times during the nine-year
period from 1963-71, and there were 10 consecutive seasons during all
but one of which (that being 1967-68) one or both of the Howe brothers
won either the U. S. National Singles or Doubles, or (in two cases)
both. That skein began with the 1961-62 season, in which Sam Howe
won the first of his two U. S. National Singles titles and Ralph won
the first of his two consecutive Intercollegiate Individual crowns, and
it extended through the 1970-71 season, when they teamed up to win the
U. S. National Doubles for the third (consecutive) and final time.
All told, a Howe brother’s name appears 21 times in the listings of U.
S. National champions, not counting Veterans/Seniors play and not
counting the fact that each of the Howe brothers played on a USSRA
Five-Man Team champion, Sam on the Yale team his junior year in 1959
and Ralph 21 years later on the 1980 New York team that memorably beat
Mexico 3-2 when Ralph Howe himself won the last and deciding match on
simultaneous-match-point. Ralph Howe won the National Juniors once, the
Intercollegiate Individual tournament twice, the National Singles once,
the National Doubles six times with three different partners, and the
National Mixed Doubles three times, while Sam Howe, the older brother
by three years, won the National Singles twice and the National Doubles
three times each with partners Bill Danforth (1963, 1964 and 1967) and,
as noted, his brother Ralph (1969-71).
A host of action and trophy-lineup photos are liberally sprinkled
throughout the book, at the end of which an Appendix details
year-by-year each Howe's achievements in squash, tennis and court
tennis. Anyone wishing to acquire copies of Brothers & Champions
can do so by emailing their contact information to championsbookorders@mpcprinting.com
to contact Millennium Printing Corporation, the company that printed
the book. A company representative will promptly respond to get the
person's credit card information and mailing address.
