The Seventies

1970

Elfie Carroll

From Forest Hills, NY and St. Petersburg, FL

Woman's national champion 1950, 1955 and 1958; runner-up 1951, 1952,1953, 1957 and 1960

National mixed doubles champion (with her husband) for four straight years - 1949, 1950, 1951 and 1952; runners-up 1953 and 1958

 

 

 

 

 

Alexander Carver

Men's national champion three years in a row - 1961, 1962 and 1963

Mixed national champion 1964; runner-up 1958, 1962, 1963 and 1968

Men's senior national champion 1963 and 1970; finalist 1968

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mary Adair Moore

1951, 1952, 1953 and 1954; finalist 1940, 1941, 1942 and 1950

Mixed national champion 1946; finalist 1939 and 1951

Known as Maizie, she was Madge Beck' s sister

 

 

 

 

 

 

1972

Philip W. Osborne

Founder, Fox Chapel Racket Club

Pioneered the development of Pittsburgh platform tennis.

An early proponent of the aluminum deck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1973

Gordon S. Gray

Mixed national champion 1966; finalist men's open nationals that same year (the year he first took up platform tennis)

Mixed champion 1967 and 1968

Men's open finalist 1968

Men's open champion 1969, 1970 and 1971 - three in a row (a feat done only once previously); finalist 1972

 

 

 

 

1974

Richard J. Reilly, Jr.

House-builder turned platform tennis court manufacturing pioneer

Developed a better system for tightening screens; hinged snow boards

Did away with the four upper-corner braces

Added walnut chips (and later granular aluminum) to the deck paint for traction on courts

Developed the aluminum court

Expanded platform tennis to Canada, Italy, Germany, France, Japan, Indonesia and Poland to name a few.

 

 

1976

John R. Moses

Fox Meadow fixture

Captain, Yale tennis team.

Youngest men's nationals finalist ever at 19 years old.

Youngest men's open national champion at 23 years old.

Nationals champion 1947 and 1957.

Nationals finalist 1943, 1948, 1953 and 1955.

Mixed national champion 1955.

Introduced Kansas City to platform tennis.

Also a number-one ranked squash player.

Susan Wasch

Youngest woman to be inducted into the Hall of Fame

Fifth-ranked woman in total number of points earned for winning and running-up in APTA championship play

Youngest mixed doubles nationals finalist (1957)

Mixed doubles champion 1972; finalist 1960, 1965 and 1973

Women's open national champion at age 24 (for many years the youngest to ever win the title)

National champion four times - 1959, 1960, 1962 and 1965; finalist 1964 and 1967

Only platform tennis player to be highlighted in Sports Illustrated'sFaces in the Crowd (after winning the mixed national championship in 1972 with her brother and despite a 7-year layoff from the sport)

 

1979

Eldredge L. Bermingham

Built the first courts in the Pittsburgh area in 1960

Introduced the sport to the area via scrambles tournaments (where half the team had to be from another town)

And in so doing he helped introduce platform tennis to Cleveland, Detroit, Cincinnati and Toledo

Founded the Western Pennsylvania Platform Tennis Association in 1967 (the first regional organization)

APTA Director 1973-75

Peggy Stanton

Winner of 4 national women's championships (1967, 1968, 1969 and 1970); nationals finalist 1971

Winner of senior women's nationals in 1974 and 1977; finalist 1976

Finalist, national mixed 1969

Worked for more and better tournaments, bigger draws and prizes

First woman Director of the APTA

First APTA Women's Tournament Director