Pearl Harbor and US enters WWII – Dec. 1941

National Championships

The 1941 Finalists, Holbrook (Hobey) Hyde and Leland (Lee) Wiley from Hartford GC, CT, capture the Men’s over the 1940 winners from Manursing, Witherbee Black and Paul Hicks. The steady play of the winners and their lobbing skill finally offset the speed of Hicks and the reliable play of Black. Hicks won the Mixed with Madeline Price and FMTC teams again dominated the Women’s with Madge Beck and Marie Walker adding a fifth consecutive title - a record that still stands. It was in the semifinals of that same tournament that Sidney B. Wood (former Wimbledon tennis champion) and Kenneth Ward beat the lobbing game of Sutter and Maguire, the defending champions, by Sid's hard-driving and Ward's deceptive chops. This was a match in which the offense of the winning team overcame the largely defensive play of the losers. Perhaps they were inspired by a remark that Sid made to Ken be[...]

Robert S. Gordon elected FMTC President (1942-1943)

Robert S Gordon (1898-1979) was long time civic leader in Scarsdale. He practiced law at Sullivan & Cromwell before becoming general counsel at National Dairy Products Corp. (now Kraftco Corp.). One of his sons, James P Gordon, (1928-2013) was credited with the development of the fore-runner to the laser and narrowly missed being awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics for his work; he also was a multiple APTA National Champion. The other son Dr. Robert S Gordon, Jr. coordinated AIDS research at NIH and died in 1985

National Championships

The Women’s and Mixed National Championships were not played because of wartime travel difficulties. Fox Meadow teams dominated the Men’s, which was the only tournament held. Charley O'Hearn won his third title over future Hall of Fame inductee John Moses. Historical Factoid: At the time Moses, who had grown up at Fox Meadow, was 19 and in military service between stints at Yale; he became the youngest finalist in the history of the game. Source: Fessenden S. Blanchard, Paddle Tennis, 1944

Oscar F. Moore elected FMTC President (1943-1945)

Moore also served as President of the APTA from 1946-1948, which proved to be important growth years. He was credited with developing the mixed Scrambles or Jamboree, a format that gave the game much of its social overtones and proved to be very popular. Few people gave so much of their time and energy, or were so dedicated to platform tennis.

Fox Meadow final able to acquire the land leased from the Crane’s in 1938 in order to build additional courts

In 1943, Hazel Barton McClintock bought a twenty-five acre parcel from the Crane heirs, and she agreed to sell the Club nearly all the land on which it already had paddle courts, approximately three-fourths of an acre, for $4,200. One paddle court still lapped over onto McClintock's property, but she permitted the Club to leave it in place. A few years later the McClintocks joined the Club. Source: Diana Reische, Fox Meadow Tennis Club - The First Hundred Years, 1983

APTA Annual Meeting Minutes

APTA Annual Meeting Minutes 1943

APTA Annual Meeting – innovation in the face or war-time shortages

J. P. Allen of The New York Sun covered the meeting: Old Mrs. Necessity, who has mothered a brood of inventions, has presented her latest offspring to the American Paddle Tennis Association. To keep the game going, despite ball shortage due to war, clubs have arranged to rent spheres to players. That decision was arrived at during the eighth annual meeting of the organization at the Yale Club.....[see article for more] Meeting Minutes: APTA Annual Meeting Minutes 1942

National Championships

As in 1943 the Women’s and Mixed National Championships were not played because of wartime travel difficulties. Holbrook Hyde and Leland Wiley from Hartford GC, CT, won their second Men’s Nationals in a repeat of the 1942 finals. Source: Fessenden S. Blanchard, Paddle Tennis, 1944

Benjamin H. Tichnor II elected APTA President (1944-1946)