Fessenden Blanchard, first APTA President, 1934-38
IN 1898, at Albion, Michigan, a fourteen-year-old boy had been watching with envy the tennis matches going on at near-by Albion College, where his older brother was one of the students. The boy's own backyard was too small for a tennis court and, besides, tennis courts were expensive to put up and to keep up. But the idea of batting a ball back and forth across a net would not be downed. If the court were not over one quarter of the size of a tennis court, it would just fit in.
Persuading the caretaker of the college courts to let him have some of their discarded tape and talking himself into the possession of a few old tennis balls, he went to work, fitting his court to his own backyard. Some old chicken wire served as his net, and out of a one inch maple plank came his first "paddles." Laminated wood had not yet entered his horizon. The name of this boy was Frank Peer Beal, the founder of Paddle Tennis.
Paddle tennis in its first primitive form was soon given up by him for tennis and for a number of years nothing further was done to develop the game. Gaduating from Harvard and Andover Theological Seminary in 1915, Reverend Beal, as he then became, gave a forecast of the contribution of paddle tennis to tennis by becoming, a few years later in France, the tennis champion of America's First Divisioin, of which heas then Chaplain. In 1921, when he accepted the position of Associate Minister of the Judson Memorial Church, at Washington Square, New York, came the next important step in the history of paddle tennis. Courts were laid out on the floor of the church gymnasium and Chaplain Beal, as he is still called by many of his friends, took up the cause anew. His mind was carried back to the boyhood game in his own backyard and his imagination stirred by the thought that what that game had meant to him as a boy, it might mean to many boys throughout the nation.had meant to him as a boy, it might mean to many boys throughout the nation.
The next step was to persuade James V. Mulholland, the friendly Director of Recreation of the Manhattan Department of Parks, in New York City, to sallow courts to be laid out like several spokes of a wheel around a hub, in the center of the rotunda on Washington Square. The hub was the well-known fountain around which the buses 9u. The first water hazard for paddle tennis balls was not the ocean at Jones' Beach. Bus stanchions were used to hold up the nets, and soon the game became so popular among the neighborhood kids that the ingenuity and resourcefulness of American youth had a chance to express itself. More courts were needed. On Sullivan Street, near by, there was a broken barrel of lime. Our research hasn't solved the problem of how the barrel got broken; all we know is that before long the lime was mixed with water and put to good use. Sullivan Street soon gleamed paddle tennis with the white lines of a paddle tennis court. Boxes on each side of the street held up the "net,", which consisted of some iron piping found near at hand. Some future head of a salvage committee conceived the idea Of using the barrel staves for paddles. A new field for paddle tennis had Come over the sports horizon. Play on city streets followed the starts already made on a gymnasium floor and in a park.
The first outdoor tournament ever held in paddle tennis was, quite properly, won by an attendant of the Judson Memorial Church, where the game started: Dalio Santini, who thus became the first singles champion. Mr. Beal believes in doing things in proper style, and he had able supporters in Mr. Mulholland, and the New York Rotary Club, who co-operated in handling the tournament. The tournament was held in 1922, during Rotary's Boys' Week. Frederick Mansfield, the famous tennis umpire with the high pitched "deuce" known to all players of his time, officiated, and Vincent Richards, the tennis star, was on hand to help things along.
By this time a much improved bat had been developed. Those of one inch maple were too heavy and broke too frequently. Experiments made with various types and combinations of laminated wood, involving different plies, finally resulted in a three equal ply resin bonded paddle, rectangular shaped with rounded corners. This proved very satisfactory and was the principal Paddle used for a number of years. It still is the cheapest and most popular type.
Seeing the possibilities and value of the game, Mr. Mulholland proceeded to give paddle tennis his strong support. Soon the game was being played in New York's Central Park, where other tournaments were held. In its early stages, paddle tennis had its greatest development on parks and playgrounds, among which it rapidly spread. In 1923, the United States Paddle Tennis Association was organized (known for the first three years as the American Paddle Tennis. Association now the name of the leading association for Platform Paddle Tennis). Court measurements, balls, paddles and net size and heights, were standardized. Official tennis rules were observed.
When Mr. Beal, in 1924, became Executive Secretary of the Community Councils of the City of New York, paddle tennis took another big step forward. With his love of boys and his missionary's zeal for finding them an inexpensive sport that all could play, Reverend Beal plunged into the task of spreading the paddle tennis gospel. The converts poured in. Soon paddle tennis courts were being laid out not only in parks and playgrounds but on certain streets in the city where there were no playgrounds near by which were called "supervised play streets." Before long paddle tennis went indoors for the winter months and gymnastics and basket ball had a rival. Many gymnasiums time heard for the first time the words "forty-love" and "deuce."
The National Recreation Association played a large part in aiding the rapid development of paddle tennis in many parts of the country. In 1925 the year book of this Association did not even list paddle tennis as among the important recreational activities. In 1930 the game was listed as being played in 165 cities, though the number of players was not given. By 1940 474 cities were playing the game in their public parks and playgrounds. Of these cities, 250 reported that a total of 137,866 different individuals had taken part. Since New York was among the cities not reporting the number of individual players, it is probable that this figure would have been as high 350,000 if all cities were included. And remember that these figures include only the players counted by the Recreation Director through official city channels. They cover only public recreation activities, and do not include the uncounted thousands of players on city streets, on the playgrounds of private schools or developments, or those of various social agencies such as the Y.M.C.A.
In 1941, paddle tennis had reached twelfth place out of forty-five recreational activities reported, based on the number of cities engaged in these various activities. The number of cities reporting paddle tennis was 499, with badminton following close behind with 497 cities taking part. These figures were reported in the magazine Recreation in June 1942. An article in Recreation, in November, 1940, read as follows, in speaking of paddle tennis -- "Today the game is being played by over a million young people on play streets, school and public playgrounds, indoors and outdoors, in parks, churches and gymnasiums, and is fast becoming a popular intramural sport at colleges and academies.
Jacksonville, Florida; Salt Lake City Raleigh Recreation Commission, Raleigh, N. C. We could go on and fill many pages. Chaplain Beal "builded better than he knew."
Despite the rapid spread-of paddle tennis to all parts of the country, New York City is still the hub of the paddle tennis universe, so far as the original form of the game is concerned. It is impossible to do more than guess at the number of courts and players in New York. James V. Mulholland, Director of Recreation of the New York Department of Parks, wrote that in December, 1943, there were three hundred eighty-seven courts in the New York public park system alone. There are hundreds more on school playgrounds; play streets; gymnasiums of schools, churches, and other institutions; on the property of private schools, housing developments; and on roof gardens. Last but not least, so far as glamor is concerned, on the roof of a tall building in Radio City, New York's famous Rockettes keep in trim for their marvelous precision chorus by chasing paddle tennis balls back and forth high above the crowded city streets.
Mr. Beal estimates that there are from 3000 to 4000 paddle tennis courts in metropolitan New York. As to the number of players, let us form some idea of this from reading what the New York Herald Tribune of September 26, 1937, had to say about a tournament conducted by the Police Athletic League. If the reader has ever had the job of running a tennis tournament and perhaps has complained about his hours on the telephone, trying to line up sixteen or thirty-two players, let him contemplate with admiration the task of organizing and running this tournament.
"800 FINALISTS BATTLE IT OUT FOR P.A.L. TITLES.
"PAT LILLIS, 17, CAPTURES 2 CITY CHAMPIONSHIPS IN PADDLE TENNIS.
68,000 STARTED IN CONTESTS WHICH BEGAN ON JULY 1, (1937).
"Shuffleboard playing that would do credit to the deck of any cruise ship and paddle tennis that yielded nothing in intensity, skill and thrills to the lawn variety were displayed on two city streets near mid-town Manhattan yesterday as 800 finalists from all five boroughs competed for the Police Athletic League city championships. Over 60,000 city children, enrolled P.A. L. members, took part in the elimination contests which began July 1 and continued through vacation.
"Finalists in the midget and junior grades, eight to fifteen years, fought it out on Fifteenth Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, interrupting an occasional hard set of paddle tennis to dump the net, letting ice wagons and grocery carts trundle through the courts. The intermediates and seniors competed on Sixtieth Street between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues, a block studded with vacated rookeries and consequently less disturbed by commercial traffic.
The day lent brilliance to several names that are already synonymous for achievement in closed-off streets through the city and several other teen- age youngsters attained to city-wide play center fame after years of hard and unheralded trying.
"Hecklers Carry Slingshots: The same skillful play was demonstrated by the midgets and juniors and many a hard serve and deft lob went over the nets. Things were complicated a bit by a score of heckling four and five year olds who, during the contests, operated slingshots, the latest juvenile rage in Chelsea, but no complaints were turned in to the referee by sharp-shot contestants.
"Children from Manhattan, Harlem, Greenpoint, Central Brooklyn, Bay Ridge and Coney Island, Jamaica, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island competed. Gold medals will be awarded to first prize winners, silver medals to second."
If any tennis tournament has ever approached this one in the number of contestants, the writer has never heard of it. We have no report on the extent of self-restraint existing among the players under sling-shot attack. However, we can be sure that the players who came out on top in this tournament have the makings of champions and will not be easily put out by mere remarks from the gallery that might arouse a Tilden.
When China was enjoying one of her recent brief interludes of relative peace, she was also enjoying paddle tennis. Here is a brief excerpt from a pre-war letter written to Mr. Beal by Dr. J. H. Gray, M.P.E., Acting Director, Council on Health Education of a number of American organized institutions (including the Y.M.C.A., Y.W.C.A. and others), in Shanghai, China.
".. . It may be interesting for you to know that we have for the past year been carrying on the promotion of Paddle Tennis rather vigorously throughout China, using our forty city Associations in the chief cities in China as promoting agencies and have met with considerable success, which leads us to believe that there is a real future for this game in China ..."
The fountain at Washington Square has been left a long way behind.