Former U. S. Nationals Finalist Russ Ball Jr. Inducted Into Haverford School Athletic Hall Of Fame by Rob Dinerman Dateline March 11th ---
Russell Ball Jr. was one of 10 inductees (consisting of six players,
three teams and one coach) in the Class of 2018 when Haverford School
had its Athletic Hall of Fame ceremony on the evening of February 24th.
Located in suburban Philadelphia within short walking distance of the
Merion Cricket Club, whose junior squash program has for decades been
the spawning ground for top players of Philadelphia-area high school
and first-tier college teams, Haverford School captured the U. S.
National High School crown in 2017 and has won more than three dozen
Inter-Ac squash championships emblematic of the best team in the region.
Ball, who made the high-school varsity even as a
precocious seventh-grader, was part of six of those title-winning teams
during the period from 1979-84 and played No. 1 throughout his senior
year. He was named to the all-Inter-Ac team four times; went undefeated
in dual-meet play throughout his Haverford career; captained the team
his senior year; and won both the U. S. and Canadian National Junior
Under-17 championships during his sophomore year. He also earned five
varsity letters in tennis and served as team captain on that team as
well as a senior. The 1982-83 squash team --- on which Morris Clothier,
later a nine-time winner of the U. S. National Doubles, the Spahr
brothers, Chris and Terry, and Beau Buford also played major roles ---
was so strong that it was inducted into the Haverford Hall of Fame in
2006.
After Haverford, Ball played on a Harvard squash
juggernaut that went undefeated throughout his four-year college
career. He made first-team all-Ivy all four years, played No. 1 his
senior year and reached the final of the 1988 U. S. Nationals in
Denver, defeating 1987 winner Jeff Stanley in the quarters and pushing
Scott Dulmage to a fifth game in the final. Nine years later, he again
upset the defending champion (in this case Keen Butcher) in the
quarterfinal round of this event to claim a spot in the semis. In later
years, he, along with his former Harvard teammate Greg Lee, endowed the
head coaching position at Harvard, which is currently held by Mike Way,
whose teams have won either the national men’s or women’s college
championship for each of the past seven years.
Ball becomes the fifth Haverford School squash player to
be awarded a spot in the Athletic Hall of Fame. Prior inductees include
Ralph Howe ’59, who later won the Intercollegiate, U. S. National and
North American Open championships, inducted at the inaugural ceremony
in 2003; Carter Fergusson ’42, after whom the U. S. Squash association
has named one of its most prestigious awards “to recognize lifetime of
contributions and accomplishments in the game of squash, inducted in
2009; Stephen Vehslage ’57, a three-time Intercollegiates winner and
1965 U. S. Nationals titlist, inducted in 2010; and Sam Howe ’56, a
two-time U. S. Nationals winner, inducted in 2011. The 1976-77 squash
team was also inducted in 2016.
