Trilogy Of Greatness: Page, Hahn, Barnaby
by Rob Dinerman
March 1, 2002 -Squashtalk
sadly notes the deaths of three great squash champions in the past 10
months. Though they differed greatly in personality, style and area of
expertise, all three men shared the quality of having left a lasting
and unique impact on their sport.
Tom Page, who collapsed and died on a lower-Manhattan sidewalk on April
28th at the grievously premature age of just 44, was a teenage prodigy
and winner of many amateur and pro singles and doubles championships
(including winning the '77 National Singles title at age 20) who,
however, battled personal demons and diagnosed schizophrenia for much
of his adult life.
At his scintillating best, he won the '80 Philadelphia WPSA stop
(defeating Mario Sanchez, Sharif Khan and Clive Caldwell), had multiple
victories over every North American (including perennial No. 1 Mark
Talbott) and became quite possibly the greatest right-wall doubles
player ever, especially during the three-year late-1980's period when
he and partner Todd Binns dominated the tour.
His breath-taking five-game North American Open quarter-final battle
with Jehangir Khan at Town Hall in midtown Manhattan was arguably the
greatest hardball match ever played on this continent and the esthetic
highlight of the WPSA tour, and the devil-may-care flamboyance of his
all-court game made him truly a charismatic performer for more than a
decade. It is a measure of the essential goodness of the man's
character that, even in those last lonely years, he never lost the
affection, hope and support of his peers, hundreds of whom traveled
great distances with virtually no advance notice and in a mercilessly
oppressive heat wave to attend the memorial service his surviving
brothers, Palmer and David, arranged for him last June at the Episcopal
Academy in suburban Philadelphia, where Page had spent his carefree
high school years.
Ed Hahn, who peacefully passed away in his New Jersey home on November
13th at age 88, was in his own quiet way one of the most historically
important figures in the history of American squash. The first 43
editions of the Nationals had all been won by players who hailed from
either New York, Philadelphia or Boston, were in their 20's or early
30's, had attended (or in the case of a few undergraduate winners, were
attending) Ivy League schools and were members of exclusive private
clubs.
Hahn was remarkably unusual in that he fit into NONE of these
categories when at age 37 he won this prestigious event in 1950(the
oldest first-time Nationals winner ever) by continually playing
over-achieving underdogs who had exhausted themselves in upset wins
over seeded players and hence had nothing left when they then faced
Hahn. This latter circumstance, as well as Hahn's midwestern roots and
Detroit home base, caused the provincial Eastern establishment to
initially dismiss his '50 title as a fluke, an assessment Ed
emphatically disproved one year later when he successfully defended his
championship with a 15-14 fifth-game final-round thriller over Boston's
Henri Salaun.
He also teamed forces with his older and more extroverted brother Joe
to win the National Doubles in 1956, by which time both men were well
into their 40's, making them, in a reprise of Ed's achievement in
singles, the oldest team ever to win the Open event. He also won the
Michigan state title FIFTEEN straight times from 1948-62 and again in
'64 and was Western Squash Singles Champion 11 times during this same
lengthy period, but what he accomplished IN the region was less
important than what he achieved FOR the region, whose entire previously
understated squash profile was dramatically and permanently elevated by
the Nationals breakthroughs he attained.
The foregoing made Hahn almost a pioneer and caused the Detroit News to
name him the sixth most important amateur athlete in Michigan history,
the man who blazed the trail that many others from the midwest would be
inspired to follow in the decades to come.
If Hahn was the oldest National champion and Page one of the youngest,
Harvard's legendary coach Jack Barnaby, who painlessly passed away on
February 13th in his Lincoln, MA home at age 92, was unquestionably the
greatest coach of all time and arguably the single most important
influence on squash during the twentieth century.
From his laboratory, the Harvard squash courts in Hemenway Gymnasium,
he used his singular genius to produce more squash champions by far
than anyone in the history of the game. From the time he graduated
Harvard as a romance languages major in 1932 and immediately became
assistant to then-head Harvard coach Harry Cowles to his retirement in
1976 after 44 glorious years at the helm (39 of which were spent as
head coach after Cowles stepped down in 1937), "Barnabus Rex" won 17
NISRA national titles, 16 Ivy League championships and 346 dual meets
(against just 95 losses) while coaching numerous individual team
members to Intercollegiate and/or Open championships.
These included Victor Niederhoffer, Peter Briggs, Anil Nayar, Henry
Foster, Mike Desaulniers, Larry Terrell, Charles Ufford, Germain
Glidden and Ben Heckscher, but just as important to Coach Barnaby were
the players further down the Crimson varsity ladder who greatly
improved during their undergraduate careers and provided crucial wins
towards the Harvard dual meet tally in the Nos. 6 through 9 positions.
Unlike many coaches, who concentrate on the reflected glory they can
gain from the exploits of their stars, Barnaby was always building up
his second- and third-echelon players, which is part of the reason
Harvard always had the most depth of any college team. He took special
delight in taking players, including Niederhoffer, who had never played
squash before entering Harvard, and helping them become valued varsity
members by the time they were seniors.
The several books this squash professor wrote are required (and highly
entertaining) reading for any serious squash aspirant, but his most
important legacy may lie in the overall effect this true mentor had on
the character and lives of his charges, many of whom have described him
as the most important influence in their lives. He was one of the most
revered figures in the entire squash world, and his contributions live
on through his books and in the memories of the many people, both at
Harvard and everywhere else, whose lives he touched with his knowledge,
boundless enthusiasm and caring.