Charles Ufford, 1931-2018 by Rob Dinerman
Photo by Dean Bauer, Harvard Class of 1967
August 29th, 2018
--- During the winter of 1966, USSRA President William “Treddy” Ketcham
decided to donate an award called the “President’s Cup” to go each year
“to that person who has made a substantial contribution to the game of
Squash Racquets.” He convened a small ad hoc Committee and instructed
each member to list five potential recipients of the inaugural award in
order of preference. When the Committee members handed in their ballots
a few minutes later for tabulation, Ketcham noted that each of them had
listed only one name – Charlie Ufford. This apocryphal-sounding story
(which I skeptically checked out with several Committee members, all of
whom confirmed its historical accuracy) is immensely revealing, for it
is doubtful that any individual more fully personified the qualities of
sportsmanship, achievement, service and integrity than Ufford, who died
on August 17th at age 87.
A two-time Intercollegiate Individual champion
during the early 1950’s, when he played a major role in Harvard’s
victory in the USSRA National Five-Man Team Championships in 1951 and
led the Crimson to multiple Ivy League and national college team crowns
as well, Ufford would go on to win virtually every important event on
the amateur schedule --- including the Harry Cowles, Gold Racquets,
Apawamis and Atlantic Coast Invitationals --- while also capturing six
New York State and five Met A titles. In addition to the 1966
President’s Cup, he received the Eddie Standing Sportsmanship Award in
1964 and the Edwin Bigelow Trophy “for excellence in play” a staggering
four times during the decade of the 1960’s, while serving as President
of the New York regional squash association from 1965-67 and on the
USSRA Discipline and Rules Committees and as a Trustee on the Endowment
Fund of the USSRA, which made Ufford an Honorary Life Member during the
mid-1980’s in recognition of his multi-front years of service and
achievement.
Although he played No. 1 in both his
junior and senior years as a prep-school student at Deerfield Academy,
Ufford’s game really developed under the tutelage of Harvard’s
legendary coach Jack Barnaby, who reconstructed what had been a flawed
forehand and taught his receptive pupil how best to take advantage of
the powerful wrist with which he had been gifted. Ufford became a
master at “holding his shots” by drawing his racquet back early and
then keeping it there long enough to disrupt his opponent’s flow and
disturb his balance, mental as well as physical, due to the number of
options Ufford had at his disposal as a result of the subtle
adjustments that his wrist was capable of making even very late in his
swing. This trait, combined with his uncanny knack for varying his shot
selection, caused him to “wrong-foot” opponents and demoralize them by
sending them in the wrong direction. Paradoxically for someone who was
6’5 (possibly 6’6) and powerfully built, Ufford’s game was predicated
on subtlety, deception and finesse rather than power. He captained
Harvard teams in both tennis (twice) and soccer, where he earned
first-team all-American honors as a fullback, and these athletic
exploits, combined with a strong academic record, earned Ufford a
one-year fellowship at Cambridge University, where he became the first
American ever to earn the much-honored Cambridge Blue in squash.
After then completing a two-year
military commitment and spending three years at Harvard Law School,
Ufford moved to New York and began both a successful business career
(ultimately as a partner at the Skadden Arps law firm specializing in
wills, deeds and trusts) and a decade-long stretch during which he and
Steve Vehslage engaged in a prolonged rivalry atop the New York
competitive pack. Ufford reached the final of the U. S. Nationals in
1963, where he lost to Ben Heckscher, and was a major contender even as
late as 1970, when at age 38 he knocked off Penn all-American Elliot
Berry, Harvard No. 1 Larry Terrell (who would win the Intercollegiates
just a few weeks later) and 1968 U. S. National champion Colin Adair to
advance all the way to the semis! He got to at least the quarterfinals
of the U. S. Nationals 14 times, a record total by a sizable margin.
Two years after his extraordinary performance at the 1970 Nationals,
having attained his 40th birthday, Ufford played in and won the U. S.
National 40’s title, though his memory of that accomplishment was
tarnished somewhat by the absence of Henri Salaun, one of Ufford’s main
rivals, who had been declared ineligible just before the tournament
began. Ufford himself lobbied strongly for Salaun’s reinstatement,
which was eventually granted, and which made Ufford’s triumph over
Salaun in 1974 in a riveting four-game National 40’s final satisfying
in a way that his ’72 win could not approach. These two stylish
protagonists would frequently meet in U.S. National age-group finals
for most of the next decade, often drawing larger crowds than even the
Open matches.
Encounters with Ufford were all-at-once educational,
inspirational and humbling, with an emphasis on the latter.
Although he was an engaging conversationalist with a keen degree of
insight, a ready laugh and a marvelous sense of humor, it is
nevertheless chastening to be in the presence of such courtly dignity;
one leaves determined to at least make an effort to act more in
accordance with Ufford’s ideals in the future. In a squash world
largely populated by “takers,” Ufford was a “giver” of the highest
order, fully willing to play with and impart his squash wisdom to
lesser players, especially youngsters, if he sensed that they were
eager to learn and improve, and someone who gave his time and energy to
building the game and fostering its growth. When asked once about Mark
Talbott during the 1980’s time frame when Talbott was dominating the
WPSA pro tour, Ufford’s strongest praise was aimed less at Talbott’s
exceptional record than at the excellent example of sportsmanship and
clean play that Talbott was setting for the rest of the squash world to
emulate. This seemed a most appropriate association, for throughout his
lengthy squash career, indeed throughout his life, Charlie Ufford by
his actions, his enthusiasm and his palpable generosity of spirit was
the definition of a role model and the pre-eminent personification of
everything that is best about the game of squash.
