USSRA Centennial Dinner A Resounding Success By Rob Dinerman
October 5, 2004-
In one of the most spectacular squash happenings ever staged, the
United States Squash Racquets Association (USSRA) gave itself a 100th
birthday party at the University Club of New York this past Saturday
evening, and more than 600 squash aficionados, close to triple the
originally anticipated number, turned out to join in the celebration.
The speech given by Sharif Khan at his induction ceremony into the U.
S. Squash Hall Of Fame, throughout which he rejoiced at how strong the
state of the game has become, could have been the cornerstone of the
entire evening, given the eloquence with which he paid tribute to the
game at which he and his iconic family excelled so mightily for so long.
Khan, whose total of 12 North American Opens (during the 13-year period
from 1969-81) and 28 major championships dwarfs those of everyone else
in the history of the hardball squash on this continent, was one of six
inductees, four of them living, who comprised the class of 2004 that
were officially welcomed in the Hall Of Fame during the course of the
evening.
The others were two-time North American Open Doubles
champion Peter Briggs, whose introductory speech was given by Peer
Pedersen, Briggs's doubles partner during their recent successful runs
to the 45-and-over 2002 U. S. National and 2004 Worlds titles; Demer
Holleran, the all-time record holder in terms of national titles won
and statistically the greatest woman squash player in U. S. history,
who was introduced by Dinny Adams, a former early-1960's Harvard
teammate of her father, Romer, and longtime family friend; Aggie Kurtz,
a pioneer on both the women's playing tour and the women's
intercollegiate coaching front, where she made her mark during 17 years
at Dartmouth, who was introduced by one of her star players, namely
Kris Shutz Brownell, who later followed Kurtz's footsteps as Dartmouth
coach; and the late Ned Bigelow, a USSRA administrator of unparalleled
excellence and Harry Cowles, the first of the Harvard trilogy of
legendary coaches that would later include his star disciple Jack
Barnaby, also a Hall OF Fame member, and Barnaby's foremost
protégé Dave Fish, who combined to man the Crimson helm
for 67 resplendent years from 1922-1989. Cowles's grand-daughter was
overcome by emotion at the bestowing of this honor upon her ancestor,
and her son gave a stirring speech of gratitude at the manner in which
his great-grandfather was praised both for the extraordinary coaching
record he compiled and at the impact the "Rules To Live By" that he
created affected the lives of the student-athletes he mentored.
That latter theme of high on-court achievement
combined with service to the sport permeated many of these speeches,
ranging from Pedersen's citation of the enormously positive role model
Briggs has become during his tenure directing the squash program at the
Apawamis Club for well over a decade, to Brownell's celebration of the
far-reaching nature of Kurtz'z influence during her long career
coaching squash and lacrosse in Hanover, to the tribute paid by Sharif
to his father Hashim, to the salute given by Adams to what Holleran
accomplished first in coaching the University of Pennsylvania to its
first women's national college championship in 2000 and then to her
coaching success just this past week in guiding the U. S. women's team
to its first top-eight finish in a full decade at the World Team
Championships in Amsterdam, an event from which Holleran had flown on
its final day that very morning, arriving in Newark less than three
hours before the beginning of the evening's festivities!
There were other honorees as well: seven people or
foundations who gave the USSRA $50,000 or more in the past year were
recognized and thanked for their beneficence during this crucial period
in the expansion of the game in this country, and Richard Chute, the
legal counsel to the USSRA for nearly 30 years and an active
Massachusetts-based A player for many years, received the President's
Cup, an annual award presented "to that person who has made a
substantial contribution to the game of squash."
But the prevailing tone of the evening was geared far more to the "Your
Squash, Your Teams, Your Community" theme than to honors or awards. In
his welcoming remarks, Eric Fast, a co-chairman of the Centennial
Dinner and parent of two daughters on Ivy League varsities, marveled at
how enthusiastically the prospect of this dinner was embraced by the
entire squash community. "Wouldn't miss it for the world," "Mark us
down for a full table," "What a great idea-anything we can do to help,"
were frequent responses, resulting in fact in an OVER-subscription to
the dinner to an extent that nearly overwhelmed even the considerable
capacity of the host club's seventh-floor banquet facility and
necessitated the installation of television screens in adjacent rooms
so that attendees allocated to those areas could watch the speeches
through that medium.
The weekend had its share of active competitive
opportunities as well. Most noteworthy of these was a $ 15,000
invitational pro singles tournament presented by the University Club
and won by its head pro Damien Mudge in an exciting four-game final
over Viktor Berg, but there were also a pair of "season kick-off"
open/amateur doubles events, an MSRA Open that was won by Eric Vlcek,
the only top-10-ranked ISDA player entered, and Kip Gould, over the
Jernigan brothers, Kenton, who in the 1980's along with Jamie Bentley
formed the top pro doubles team for several years, and Kevin, one of a
dozen former USSRA Presidents who came to the dinner, as well as a
"Century" tourney for teams with a combined age over 100, which was won
by Kit Tatum and Ken Leung over Dan Frisch and Joel Rosenman.
Within a day of the hugely successful event that he
and his staff had put together, USSRA CEO Palmer Page and the
association's current President Kenneth Stillman were on their way to
the World Squash Federation's annual meetings in South Africa, during
which Mr. Stillman is expected to be named one of the three WSF first
vice-presidents, which would be the first time a USSRA official has
been so designated, yet another hopeful sign of the next 100 years
being as productive and successful as the first 100 have been.