WHAT I WOULD HAVE SAID IF I HAD KNOWN

I feel quite certain that anyone present at the Hall of Fame induction at the Fox Meadow Tennis Club on Saturday, March 5th knows that I was truly surprised. I swear on the proverbial “stack of Bibles” that I had no knowledge of my induction into the Platform Tennis Hall of Fame that evening. If I had known, I would have sweated it out and prepared some remarks along these lines.

First I would have drawn on a lesson about humility that I heard Bob Newhart tell Ellen DeGeneres on her TV talk show. She asked him how long he had been married and how his wife had taken to his fame. He answered that he had been married for 31 years and that she still told him to take out the garbage. He said one time he asked her if she thought that Joan Woodward asked Paul Newman to take out the garbage and his wife replied “if you were Paul Newman I wouldn’t ask you”. Well, I’ll be still taking out the garbage and washing the dinner dishes too.

Of course, my first “thanks” would have been to my wife who has had to put up with my obsession for this sport for the past 28 years. (In defense, however, I’ve been equally patient with her love of sailing.) She has put up with my devotion to writing about the sport, taking lots of playing time both at home and on the road, the piles of paper in the basement relating to APTA and LIPTA and my latest gimmick, a web site. “Thanks, my love.”

Then there are two names that you have never heard before, George Anderson and Frank Harder.

I would have also thanked my former neighbor and friend, George Anderson, who I also call my “surrogate brother”, and his wife Kay, who introduced my wife and I to the sport of platform tennis in 1977. They have retired to “The Landings” in Savannah, Georgia where two platform tennis courts were installed a few years ago. The Andersons' no longer participate in the game but there are a group of mid-westerners there who knew the game and campaigned successfully for the courts. We used to play “paddle tennis” at a local park and I can still remember George saying to me, “This is fun but wait until you play platform tennis”. In the late 70’s you may remember our sport was getting very popular and was considered the next “big” game. A “pay-to-play” facility opened in Great Neck with two courts and a trailer which was used as an office and “warm-up hut”. George saw an advertisement in “Pennysaver” and we signed up for a season.

The next year the facility closed and we had no place to play. So back to the park and “paddle tennis” we went. But I couldn’t get platform tennis out of my system. I went so far as to consider a trip to Norwalk, Connecticut to a pay-to-play operation run by Bob Callaway. When I came to my senses and realized the time of the trip from Long Island, I abandoned the idea. A couple of years passed.

My next “thanks” would have been to Frank Harder. That’s another long story. Suffice it to say that he was responsible for advising me of courts at the Cherry Valley Club in Garden City, the village where I was employed. A place to play was right under my nose and I didn’t know it.

A list of others to whom I owe a great debt of gratitude would stretch from here to Sheboygan and, as everyone at the “Oscars” always say, I would be sure to leave someone out. Nevertheless, there are several who stand out and deserve to share in this recognition that the APTA has bestowed upon me.

These names will be more familiar.

It certainly starts with Ginna Ohlmuller. I hired her to be the Association’s Executive Director when I was its President. Her energy, sense of duty and devotion over and above the call of the job were immeasurable.

Brian L. P. Zevnik who followed me in the President’s position and with whom I worked closely with editing and publishing the Association’s newsletter, Platform Tennis News, for ten years. He was a hard working volunteer from whom I learned a tremendous amount about getting the word out to the membership.

Bill Jones, President of the Long Island Platform Tennis Association, was a devoted leader who helped me get through some pet projects when he was elected to the APTA Board.

Last but surely not least, Bob Brown. He has been, and still is, my platform tennis supreme being. We have collaborated on many items such as the Hall of Fame and Rule changes. The really amazing part is that, while we don’t always start with the same solution to a situation, we eventually agree to the same action.

In closing I want to thank the Board of Directors of the APTA and the Hall of Fame Committee for this great honor. I have never won a National Championship or a ranking tournament. In fact, my only APTA prizes have the inscription “Consolation Reprieve Finalist”. I accept this place in the Hall of Fame on behalf of all those who labor in the sport, “beyond the screens”, hopefully helping others to enjoy the competition and camaraderie that it offers.

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