New Classes of U.S. SQUASH Hall of Fame Announced
from USQ Media

August 17, 2012 - The U.S. SQUASH Board of Directors approved the recent Hall of Fame Committee’s recommendations for inductees to the Classes of 2011 and 2012. The Class of 2011 includes Robert W. Callahan, Joyce V. Davenport and John F. Herrick, and the Class of 2012 members are Leonard A. Bernheimer and Thomas M. Poor.

The inductees will be formally announced during the Saturday, October 6th Hall of Fame Day at the 2012 Delaware Investments U.S. Open Squash Championships taking place in Philadelphia this October 4th – 12th.

Formal induction ceremonies and celebrations co-hosted by U.S. SQUASH and the inductees’ respective communities are being planned for the 2012-2013 season.

Class of 2011

Bob Callahan is the legendary coach at Princeton University. Raised in Philadelphia, he learned his squash at Merion Cricket Club and played for Episcopal Academy. At Princeton he played on three national title teams, including his senior year when he captained the Tigers to an undefeated season in 1976-77. A two-time All American, he was ranked fifth in the intercollegiates his senior year. In 1981 he returned to Princeton as men’s coach. In his thirty-one seasons, he has a record of 315-71. He has led the Tigers to national team titles in 1982, 1993 and 2012, as well as eleven Ivy League titles. He also has coached five players to the national intercollegiate individual championship (Jeff Stanley in 1987 and 1988; Peter Yik in 1999 and 2000; David Yik in 2001; Yasser El Halaby in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006; and Todd Harrity in 2011). Bob founded the nation’s first major squash camp in 1982 and has run it continuously ever since. In 1998 he directed the World Junior Men’s Championships at Princeton, the first time the U.S. had ever hosted a world singles championship.

Joyce Davenport is a lesson on longevity. She began playing in the early 1960s under the tutelage of Cynwyd Club coach Norm Bramall. She won the national singles in 1965 and 1969. She won the national doubles in 1969, 79, 80, 81, 82, 87, 89, 90, 95 and the national mixed doubles in 1980, 81, 84, 89, 92, 93. She played number one on two Wolfe-Noel Cup teams. She has won more than thirty more national age group titles in singles and doubles. Joyce was part-owner and manager of Berwyn Squash, the oldest commercial squash club in the nation, and even at age seventy gives lessons there regularly as well as plays on the women's pro doubles tour.

Jack Herrick has been more influential globally than any other American in history. A Cleveland native, he played #1 at Dartmouth before graduating in 1960. He was the head of Cleveland’s squash association and president of U.S. Squash in 1982-84. Jack received the President’s Cup in 1988. He was the U.S. men's team captain at the world championships four times in the 1980s, and in 1983 he won the 45s World Masters in New Zealand, becoming the first American to win a world singles title. He has held dozens of squash roles including president of Jesters, chair of the Friends of Dartmouth Squash, member of several World Squash Federation committees, and the commissioner of WPSA hardball tour. From 1994 to 2008 he was the chair of board of PSA men’s pro squash tour, playing a central role in the development of the game around the world.

Class of 2012

Lenny Bernheimer has won more than thirty national age-group in singles (hardball and softball) and doubles. Along with Tom Poor, he was the founder and director of Boston Open (for seventeen years, one of the majors on the pro hardball tour. Since then he has co-directed the pro doubles tour stop at the University Club in Boston and the Can-Am Cup. He was president of U.S. Squash in 1984-86 and president of the Jesters. He has also served as a Board member of Massachusetts Squash for more than four decades. For the past fifteen years he has been the chair of SquashBusters. He was awarded the President's Cup in 1993. He is a founding board member of SquashBusters and has served as its chair for more than a decade.

Tom Poor has won more than twenty national age-group doubles titles. He won the Canadian national title in 1974, 1983, 1984, 1985 and 1990 and twice reached the finals of the U.S nationals. Along with Lenny Bernheimer, he was the founder and director of Boston Open for seventeen years and more recently the co-director of the pro doubles tour stop at the University Club, as well as co-chairing with Lenny the Can-Am Cup. He served as a Board member of Massachusetts Squash for more than four decades, and was given the Mass Squash President’s Award in 2007. Tom has directed dozens of junior squash tournaments and is the current chair of the Mass Squash junior committee. He has served as a member of the U.S. SQUASH Board of Directors and an invaluable member of the of the U.S. SQUASH Investment Committee. He is a founding board member of SquashBusters.




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