Jimmy Bostwick, 1937-2024, World Court Tennis Champion And Star Multi-Sports Athlete by Rob Dinerman
Left to right: Wayne Davies, Jimmy Bostwick, Pete Bostwick and Norty Knox
Dateline May 13, 2024
– DSR is sad to report the passing of James F. C. Bostwick, universally
known as Jimmy, this past April 29th. He was 87 years old, the same age
that his brother Pete --- a three-time U. S. national age-group squash
champion --- was when he died in July 2022. The Bostwick brothers
partnered each other to championships in golf (winning the Anderson
Memorial in 1970 and 1974) and court tennis (most notably three U. S.
Open doubles titles), and for years they were teammates on the St.
Nicks Hockey Club, one of the most well known amateur hockey teams in
the United States.
They also opposed each other in a number of tournament finals, as well
as in the World Court Tennis Championship Challenge Match in both 1970
(when Pete successfully defended the title he had won in 1969 over
Frank Willis) and 1972, in which Jimmy prevailed, seven sets to two.
Jimmy then had a successful title defense of his own two years later in
a match against challenger Howard Angus that became memorable
because of the closeness of the score --- 4-6, 6-5, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-5,
6-2, 6-3, 4-6, 3-6, 2-6, 6-5 --- and the manner in which Bostwick was
able to repulse, albeit barely, Angus’s eleventh-hour rally after
Angus, trailing six sets to two after the match’s second leg, won the
next three sets and had three set-points to square the match at six
sets apiece. That 12th and final set is widely regarded as one of the
greatest sets ever played in a World Championship match, and Bostwick
conjured up some of the best shots of his career to close it out. The
match initially started in mid-April, but was declared null and void by
the Committee when Angus was diagnosed with a major chest infection
after the first leg had been played. The Championship Challenge Match
was therefore replayed starting from scratch several weeks later in
early May, and both Bostwick and Angus deservedly received universal
praise for the sportsmanship and class with which they responded to the
Committee’s ruling by playing such a high-quality match. Bostwick
resigned his title in 1975 and Angus defeated Gene Scott in the
championship challenge in 1976 and retained the crown for the next five
years before losing to Chris Ronaldson in 1981.
In addition to Jimmy Bostwick’s reign as World Champion from 1972-75
and the trio of U.S. Open doubles titles that he and Pete won from
1968-70, his court tennis achievements included seven U. S. Open
singles crowns (1960-62, 1967, 1969, 1970 and 1972), four U.S. Amateur
Singles triumphs (1958, 1964, 1970 and 1972) and U.S. Amateur Doubles
titles in 1969, 1973 (both with Pete) and in 1980 with Norty Knox. In
1994, both Bostwick brothers were among the eight inductees in the
inaugural class of the International Court Tennis Hall of Fame. An
excellent golfer as well, Jimmy Bostwick won the 1964 French Amateur,
qualified for the 1968 U.S. Open at Oak Hill and (in a compelling sign
of his longevity) won the club championship at the Piping Rock Club in
Locust valley, Long Island in six different decades. In addition, he
and John Reese (a U. S. Nationals finalist in squash in 1971 and 1976)
won the Piping Rock tennis doubles championship multiple times during
the 1970’s.
Jimmy Bostwick had a charmingly eccentric personality. There were golf
balls all over the lawns in front of both of his homes --- the main one
in Brookville, Long Island, and a summer home in Northeast Harbor,
Maine --- which he would use to practice hitting wedge shots over the
house. Once in a while a window got in the way of a ball that he failed
to lift enough to clear the roof, but only rarely. He was beloved by
the youngsters (and their grateful parents) whom he coached for many
years in hockey at the Beaver Dam Winter Sports Club, as well as by the
students at the Green Vale School whom he coached in squash at
Piping Rock until he was well into his 60’s. At the Northeast Harbor
Golf Club, he was known almost as much for the coaching tips he
willingly shared with the club members around the practice tee and
driving range as for the numerous club championships he won in both
tennis and golf.
His fascination with the history of the sports he played so well for so
long caused him to acquire an enormous collection of old tennis
racquets (dating back to 1910, with no grips on the handles back then),
golf clubs (from 1920 to the present), hard-rackets racquets, court
tennis racquets and photos of horses and polo games (his father, Pete
Sr., was a great polo player, jockey and horse trainer). There are
trophies everywhere especially in the Brookville house, which has
become a shrine of sorts to his remarkable athletic career. The
Bostwick brothers personified the ideal of amateur athletes throughout
an era that has become more bygone than ever with their passing. In
addition to Diana, Jimmy Bostwick’s wife of 62 years, he is survived by
his three children, Jimmy Jr., Lisa and Tommy, and eight grandchildren.
