Approximately 20 years after the first paddle court was installed at the Fox Meadow Club in Scarsdale, New York (November, 1931), a few newcomers to Sewickley, a suburb northwest of Pittsburgh, were planting the seeds for what was to become the first known paddle court in the Pittsburgh region.
The Ramsburgs had moved to Sewickley from New Canaan, where they had been members of the Country Club that housed one of the first few paddle courts in the country. In 1951, Chassie Ramsburg talked Henry Chalfant into allowing him to build a paddle court using the concrete base of a greenhouse that had been torn down.
Ramsburg ordered architectural plans from R.J. Reilly in Rye, New York then turned over those plans to a local contractor in Sewickley.
According to a report, the contractor used “reject pipe from the Spang Chalfant plant along with some sort of wire.” When Chassie as[...]
The event was held at the New Canaan Field Club with major sponsorship from Viking Athletics, Green Mountain Platform Tennis Company, and the New Jersey Women’s Paddle League, and drew 80 players in four divisions.
For the first time, a 10-under division was added and boys and girls were allowed to enter as teammates, instead of holding separate events for each.
There were many familiar sounding names in the tournament prompting Robin Rich Fulton, the events chair to comment:
“It seems like the next generation of players is going to include a lot of legacies from our times, with names like Slonaker, Marold, Stefanik, Adams, Tucker, Cash, Jones ... the list goes on and on. The dads and moms who have made their mark on the game and passed on those forehand genes to their kids should be especially proud that they're jumping in to carry the torch.”
Source: Platform Tenni[...]
Region V reigned supreme in both the men's and women's divisions.
Region IV was a close second in the men's division, while Region I accepted "second best" in the women's flight.
National Championships and coverage of Men’s and Women’s
Back to Top1997 National Championships, Pittsburgh, PA, March 14 - 16, 1997
PTN Spring 1997 covered the Men's and Women's Nationals:
With 64 women’s teams and 114 men’s teams in the tournament, the field was deep enough to carry the men’s quarterfinals into cocktail hour at the host club, Pittsburgh Field Club in Fox Chapel.
The men's semifinalists were defending champs Flip Goodspeed/Scott Mansager who defeated the third seeds, Bob Conklin/Andy Kinney, in a hair-raising three setter (3-6, 6-3, 7-5). George Zink/Greg Stipa, seeded fourth, knocked out the first-seeds Peter Gruenberg/Art Williams in an equally competitive match (6-4, 3-6, 6-4).
In the final, in a match that somewhat mirrored their melodramatic, three-set semifinals, Goodspeed/Mansager outlasted Zink/Stipa in a marathon third set that had anxious spectators' Sunday dinner-with-family on hold. Stipa and Zink had convincingly muscled past their opponents in the first set only to[...]
Pamela Macrae Bermingham grew up in Scarsdale and saw her parents play on the Cogswell court. She started playing at the Manursing Island Club in Rye, NY, and made it to the finals of the Women’s Nationals in 1958. A year later, she found herself living in Sewickley, PA, with no real chance to play.
She and her husband, Eldridge “Wooley” Bermengham, (Hall of Fame 1979), changed that and she set about teaching and promoting the game.
Her zeal and enthusiasm were instrumental in developing a vibrant paddle community, with active leagues and junior play, and formed the base for one of the” hot-spots” in the country for the game.
On a Sunday early in March, before a packed house of members and invited guests, the Fox Meadow Tennis Club in Scarsdale New York, affectionately known as the "Home of Platform Tennis," presented a historical review of the sport.
Molly Ware, daughter of one of the founders of the game, Fessenden Blanchard, and her husband, John, narrated the photographic slide presentation. Also present was Do Deland, daughter of James Cogswell, also recognized as a founder of the game.
Of most interest to the Club's members was the explanation of how the introduction of the game of platform tennis literally saved the Club from bankruptcy in 1932.
A question and answer session followed the slide presentation, with many of the Club members present adding their own recollections of the times when the game was begun and the Fox Meadow Tennis Club was the first club to have courts.
On display w[...]
Back to TopThe summer edition of Platform Tennis News paid tribute to Charley as a man and as APTA President
One of paddle's brightest lights, hardest workers and nicest guys, Charley Stevens, who had just resigned as APTA President after a three-year term, died of cancer at the age of 63.
During his term, the change in the rules to play net cord services was a controversial step, and he led the Association during an era of new competition in equipment. The Wilson Sporting Goods Corporation entering the market with new racquets, and acquired the Vitteret platform tennis ball line from the Hedstrom Corporation, and Viking Athletics, formerly A2Z Products, rose from the ashes of its purchase of the platform tennis business of the Marcraft Corporation to become a major player.
Howard Sipe remembered, “…. he used [his] strength and competitiveness to help build a strong foundation for platform. You could fault Charley for tact, but you could never fault him for passion, especially when [...]
Each dot on the map is the five digit zip code of a customer but some have more than one court. Court costs at the time could be as much as $40,000 and most were installations at private clubs and schools.
Source: R. J. Reilly Co. Brewster NY
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