Sad news! Long-time squash teaching
professional from Pakistan, (living in Seattle), Yusuf Khan passed away
this-past Thursday morning. Yusuf was in his early 80's. He suffered a
stroke about two-years ago and wasn't doing well since. Yusuf is the
father of current Seattle, WA squash professionals Ayub, Azam, Shabana
and Latasha Khan. Latasha has earned top honors throughout her career,
being the seven-time U.S. National women's champion, the first American
to win an individual gold medal at the Pan American Games, holds 10 WSA
world tour titles and was the US Olympic Committee Athlete of the Year.
Shabana reached a high world ranking of 23 and was the American women's
national squash champion in 2001. Yusuf was related to the great Hashim
Khan (the U.S. Squash Open champion between 1951 and 1958) by a distant
marriage, himself a ten-time all-India champion. He emigrated to
Seattle in 1968 as a tennis pro, introduced the international game of
squash to the city and built some of the first glass-walled
squash-courts in the country. Yusuf was born near Peshawar, a city in
Pakistan that borders Afghanistan.
