Doug McLaggan, Squash Pro For 49 Years, Dies At Age 85
By Rob Dinerman
May 4, 2007 - We have recently learned of the death on April 27th of William D. (Doug) McLaggan,
85, at the Haven Health Care facility in Rutland, VT, not far from
Arlington, his home since 2002. Remarkably, the Scottish-born McLaggan
worked as a squash professional for 49 years, beginning in his native
Edinburgh, where at age 15 he started as an apprentice to the noted
head pro Jerry Varnes in the afternoons when school let out, and ending
with his retirement from the University Club of New York in the spring
of 1985.
After serving as a British Royal Marine Commando during
World War II, McLaggan spent two years at the Cornish Riviera Club
before returning to the Edinburgh Sports Club from 1948-52. He then
moved to North America, where he was the head pro at the Montreal
Badminton & Squash Club from 1952-60; at Racquet & Tennis in
New York from 1960-67; at the Denver Club from 1967-73; at the
University Club of Chicago from 1973-75; back to R & T from
1975-77; and finally at the University Club of New York from 1977-85.
At each of these venues, he transformed the
character of the squash program with his work ethic, patient good humor
and absolute professionalism. McLaggan carried himself with the quiet
but unmistakable confidence of the world-class person and player that
he was. Unfailingly polite, as pros of that era tended to be, he was,
however, never obsequious; there was never any question who was in
charge of the pro shop or squash area, and when giving a lesson, he was
all business, eschewing the condescension of a “customer’s
game” and giving the member the respect of assuming that the
latter was genuinely seeking to improve his game.
McLaggan was old-school in the best sense of the term, with a
Cal Ripken-like aversion to missing a day of work (even when he was
under the weather) and a fierce dedication to maximizing the squash
experience of any member, regardless of playing level, who was under
his charge. He became a mentor to numerous aspiring pros, most notably
Jim McQueenie, who later became President of the North American Pro
Squash Racquets Association (NAPSRA) before it became the World Pro
Squash Association, and his own son Ian, who became a squash pro as
well, and who survives Doug, as does another son, Brian; three
daughters, Shelagh, Judith and June; his wife, Edith; 11 grandchildren;
and six great-grandchildren.
McLaggan’s competitive playing career mirrors his coaching
legacy in its quality and especially its longevity, a phenomenon best
symbolized for his advance to the final round of the NAPSRA annual
championship both in 1953 (where he dropped a fifth-game tiebreaker to
John Warzycki in Milwaukee) and FOURTEEN years later, when at age 46
(!) he came up just short in a close four-game battle against the
much-younger Mohibullah Khan in the 1967 final at the New York Athletic
Club. It is instructive to note that during the first several decades
of McLaggan’s North American tenure the tournaments were almost
completely “closed” to pros, who were pretty much barred
from almost all of the invitationals and were therefore limited to a
very few predominantly low-purse events, most of which were dominated
throughout that time by the Khan clan and the Egyptian star Mahmoud
Kerim.
In spite of these severe barriers, McLaggan fared well in
the events he was allowed to enter, reaching the semis of the first U.
S. Open in 1954 (where his match against Hashim Khan was covered by
Life Magazine, which features several photos of that match taken from a
camera installed in the tin at the front wall), winning the New York
Metropolitan Open on several occasions and receiving a plaque from his
Montreal membership acknowledging his tournament-winning
accomplishments in the U. S. Pro Doubles and the Canadian Open and
Canadian Pro singles during his inaugural 1952-53 season. Prior to his
move to North America, McLaggan had attained a No. 2 U. K. ranking and
had earned the right to challenge reigning British Pro champion A. E.
Biddle for that title, but he was forced to make his move to Montreal
before that match could be played.
McLaggan’s playing style was controlled and canny, a
reflection of his off-court persona as well. He had a slow
sidewall-front-wall shot, an expert adaptation of the softball working
boast into the hardball game. Especially on his forehand flank, he was
so difficult to read that his opponents would start leaning and even
moving in anticipation of a forehand drive, only to have to frantically
reverse direction and attempt to track down McLaggan’s trickling
roll-corner. At one point, the Racquet & Tennis Club had three
top-21 ranked players (’65 National champion Steve Vehslage, Pete
Bostwick and Bart McGuire) and McLaggan would beat them back to back to
back in one continuous late-afternoon foray.
Even in the early 1980’s, by which time he was in
his early 60’s and his knees (each of which had by then undergone
multiple surgeries) were giving out, McLaggan managed to rally from two
games to love down and out-last the vaunted and decade-younger
age-group champion Charlie Ufford in the final round of the 50-and-over
Eastern State Veterans event at the Yale Club, whose members had
initially been reluctant to invite a pro to play in what had heretofore
been an amateurs-only event. However, they were so enthralled by the
intricacies of the exchanges, the impeccable fairness and sportsmanship
that prevailed throughout between these two brainy standouts and the
drama of McLaggan’s comeback effort, that the club’s
attitudes were permanently changed for the better in one instructive
Sunday afternoon.
In his own quiet way, McLaggan influenced other
important improvements in the playing environment as well with his
stature and passion for justice. As one example, when the USSRA
produced what were clearly poorly-done tentative rankings at the end of
the 1978-79 season, and it was subsequently learned that the committee
had not followed the proper guidelines, the New York regional
association, led by its activist president, the late Ames Brown, formed
a special MSRA National Ranking Committee in what could be construed as
something of an act of defiance that produced its own
significantly-better rankings. The presence on that latter Committee of
McLaggan, as well as Bostwick, effectively shamed the USSRA into
acknowledging the superiority of those MSRA national rankings and
performing a much-needed reconstruction of the USSRA ranking committee
that resulted in a prompt implementation of a ranking system that
represented a major improvement over what had preceded it.
For the dignity with which he comported himself, for the
impact he had on those whom he worked for, worked with and coached, and
for everything that he represented so well for so long, Doug McLaggan
deserves to forever be remembered as a universally respected leading
light of his squash generation, as someone who cared deeply that people
played the game RIGHT and as one of squash’s truly legendary
figures for nearly half a century.