Robert A. Brown elected APTA President (1973-1975)
Back to TopRobert A. Brown. Photograph taken at Fox Meadow Tennis club on January 22, 1978 at gathering of APTA's "President's Council"
Platform tennis came of age while Brown was President, and he had a major influence on the APTA’s policies and plans as both an Officer and Director.
During his term, the APTA published its first official “Rules of Platform Tennis” booklet, under the lead of Bill Ballard.
He hired the association’s first full-time Executive Director, got the APTA on sound financial footing, and instituted detailed record-keeping of National Championship results.
He also engineered the transition during 1973-1974 from orange to yellow ball, which was used for the first time in the Nationals in 1975, and authored the booklets “The Etiquette of Platform Tennis” and “How to Conduct a Tournament Draw.”
APTA President Mike North noted, when thanking Brown for his service to the organization at the end of his tenure as President, “Brown has just begun his contribution to platfor[...]
The first issue of Off The Wire had the full Tournament Sanction Policy:
“The APTA has recently adopted a policy on Tournament Sanction, which is quoted in full as follows:
The purpose of sanctioning of platform tennis tournaments by the American Platform Tennis Association is to insure a high standard of quality covering all aspects of competitive platform tennis tournament play. Tournaments which are sanctioned will be included on the APTA ‘Sanctioned Tournaments’ schedule.
In order for a tournament to receive official sanction from the American Platform Tennis Association certain established standards and procedures must be agreed to in advance by the local tournament committee. Likewise, tournament play itself and post-tournament reporting must be carried out in accordance with established APTA standards. APTA reserves the right to withhold, or withdraw, sanction if [...]
This booklet, authored by Robert A. Brown, included suggestions on the makeup of the draw committee; how to determine the byes and where to place them; how to seed and rank competitors; and how the seeds, and the other teams should be placed in the draw.
In the centerfold of the booklet, there was a sample draw that showed where each team would go. The procedure for conducting the draw was to be followed by all tournaments on the APTA Sanctioned Tournament Schedule.
Source: Off The Wire, Vol. 5 No 1
Dick Squires organized the first truly commercial play-for-pay event. Sea Pines Plantation, in Hilton Head Island, SC, hosted the first Vat Gold Cup Invitational Tournament on November 10-11. It was also the first major platform tennis competition to be played in the Deep South.
The marketers of Vat 69 Gold, a brand of scotch whiskey, appreciated the demographic appeal of platform tennis enthusiasts. For the first time, top teams competed for money. The purse was $10,000, and “CBS Sports Spectacular” broadcasted highlights.
The New York Times covered the event in an article by Charles Friedman, entitled “And Now a Word for Platform Tennis” in the Sunday, November 18th edition.
For the event, the top sixteen men’s teams in the country were invited to participate. The offer included all-expense-paid travel, and the winners received a ten-day trip to Europe courtesy o[...]
Back to TopThe APTA gets serious about foot-faults
The rule was essentially the same as in tennis, but because of the shorter distance from baseline to net, and the higher premium on being at the net in paddle, foot-fault infractions were seen as more serious. The problem was two-fold: first, whether the statement of the rule itself should be revised; second, how to enforce the rule.
A seven-man working committee formed to cope with this rather controversial question. Chaired by Bob Brown, the committee consisted of Chuck Baird, John Beck, Brad Drowne, Bill Hoffmann, Paul Molloy, and Dick Squires.
In addition, the APTA called a 26-member Advisory Committee for the purpose of providing the broadest possible cross-section of views on this delicate matter.
The formation of the APTA’s Umpires Committee in 1974 was an outcome of the Working Committee’s deliberations.
Source: Off The Wire, Vol. 5 No 1
During the early 1970’s, commercial sponsorship came knocking, raising difficult policy questions for the APTA.
The exposure gained by commercial sponsorship would bring the sport to a much wider audience, but critics argued that money would detract from the game’s social aspects.
Foreseeing the likelihood of company-sponsored “tours,” the APTA formally established its policy on commercial activities and decided to maintain control over all commercial tournament activities.
This decision allowed platform tennis to broaden its horizon. The alternative would have undoubtedly led to the establishment of a separate professional organization.
Corporate sponsorship ended up attracting several professional tennis players to the sport, with Herb S. Fitz Gibbon II, Clark Graebner, and Hank Irvine being the most successful.
Fitz Gibbon ranked among the world’s top tennis players between 1961 and 1973, and became the first amateur to beat a professional in the 1968 Wimbledon.
Graebner, originally from Cleveland, was on the winning U.S. Davis Cup team and ranked seventh in the world in 1968.
Irvine was from Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and represented his country on the Davis Cup team in 1968 and 1969, and at Wimbledon from 1970 to 1972. In 1970, he teamed with Helen Gourlay from Australia and made it to the semifinals of the Mixed at Wimbledon.
The tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs at the Houston Astrodome on September 20, 1973, captivated America and was a triumph for women’s athletics. Platform tennis benefitted with an increase in participation by women.
King entered the Astrodome in Cleopatra style, carried aloft in a chair held by four bare-chested muscle men dressed in the style of ancient slaves. Riggs followed in a rickshaw drawn by a bevy of scantily-clad models. Riggs presented King with a giant lollipop and she gave him a piglet named Larimore Hustle.
Rather than playing her own usual aggressive game, King mostly hugged the baseline, easily handling Riggs's lobs and soft shots, making Riggs cover the entire court as she ran him from side to side, and beating him at his own defensive game. After quickly falling behind from the baseline, where he had intended to play, King forced Riggs to c[...]
© 2025 Platform Tennis Museum and Hall of Fame Foundation, All Rights Reserved.