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Squash Hall of Fame Back to General Information & Links page |
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Squash Hall of Fame Back to General Information & Links page |
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The USSRA Squash Hall of Fame inductees for 2000, 2001 and 2002 can be found listed with the USSRA on-line yearbook.
PSRA representatives include:
Class of 2004
Class of 2002
Class of 2001
Class of 2000
HALL OF FAME
CLASS OF 2004
Demer Holleran
(19 - )
Considered by most to be the greatest woman ever in the U.S., Demer Holleran has rewritten the record books. Until her retirement from singles in 1999, she won six hardball nationals and six softball nationals. On the doubles court she has taken, to date, nine national doubles titles, eight national mixed doubles titles, three women's world doubles titles and two mixed world doubles titles. A 1987 graduate of Princeton, Holleran coached the women's varsity at Penn for seven years, leading them to their first Howe Cup victory in 2000. That year she was also awarded the USSRA's President's Cup, becoming the first woman pro to receive that honor.
HALL OF FAME
CLASS OF 2002
Cecile M. Bowes
(1914 - )
With greater span between first and last hardball national victories than any other man or women in U.S. history, Cecile Bowes proved to be an enduring and vivacious force in the early years of women's squash. Known as Babe, she played at the Cynwyd Club outside Philadelphia; an early mixed doubles partner was Norm Bramall, later to coach a half dozen national champions at Cynwyd. In 1931 Bowes burst onto the scene as a sixteen year-old when she reached the finals of the nationals. She lost four more times in the finals, but also managed four wins-usually playing her archrival Anne Page. Bowes, a brilliant shotmaker and tactician, won the Pennsylvania state singles in 1938, the doubles in 1935. In 1936 while on tour with the U.S. side in the Wolfe-Noel Cup she reached the quarterfinals of the British championships.
HALL OF FAME
CLASS OF 2001
Darwin P. Kingsley, III
(1927 - )
A part of the Kingsley clan that has given so much to squash administration, Darwin Kingsley served as the first executive director of the United States Squash Racquets Association from 1974-1992. He was raised at the Rockaway Hunt Club where he played in the annual Gold Racquets tournaments and was club champion. At Yale, class of 1950, he played number one on the famous Skillman team that went undefeated for four years and 47 matches in a row until losing to Princeton in the final match of the 1949-50 season. In later years Kingsley partnered with Alfie Hunter to win the national senior doubles in 1979 and 1980 and the national masters doubles in 1988. But it was behind the scenes where he made his largest impact. Both his father, Darwin, Jr., and his brother, Charlie served as president of the USSRA, and he did likewise from 1973-75. When the association decided it needed its first full-time director, Kingsley was hired. He established an office in Bala Cynwyd and for eighteen years presided over the greatest growth the game had ever seen in the U.S. - membership soared from 160 member clubs and 800 individual members in 1974 and 350 member clubs and over 10,000 members when he retired in 1992. Throughout his tenure he was an active, ebullient leader and solid force for the amateur game. In 1984 he was awarded the President's Cup.
HALL OF FAME
CLASS OF 2000
Margaret Varner Bloss
(1927 - )
National Champion 1960 1961, 1962, 1963
A racquet sports maestro, Margaret Varner picked up squash at age thirty-one after winning the badminton world championship in 1956 and reaching the finals of the ladies doubles at Wimbledon two years later. Training with Norman Bramble(?) at the Cynwyd Club, she lost in the finals of the nationals her first season and took the title the next four years in a row. A native of Texas, Varner was a member of the U.S. team in the Wolfe-Noel competitions in 1959 and 1963, a part of the winning Philadelphia team in the Howe Cup in 1959-1963 and a finalist in the national doubles in 1961.
HALL OF FAME
CLASS OF 2000
Charles M. P. Brinton
(1919 - )
National Champion 1941, 1942, 1946, 1947
National Doubles Champion 1946, 1948
The top player in the 1940s, Charlie Brinton was an early pupil of Bill White at Merion Cricket Club. His junior and senior years at Princeton he won both the intercollegiates and the nationals, as well as leading a team of Stan Pearson, Jr., Hastings Griffin and Cal McCracken to the Ivy League title. After the war, he won two more nationals and the inaugural Harry Cowles in 1947. Partnering with Don Strachan in 1946 and Stan Pearson Jr. in 1948, Brinton took two doubles titles. For many observers there was no finer stylist in the history of squash than Charlie Brinton.
HALL OF FAME
CLASS OF 2000
Anne Page Homer
(1909 - )
National Champion 1936, 1937, 1939, 1947
National Doubles Champion 1952
The first dominant woman player in the U.S., Anne Page played at Merion Cricket Club. A four-time All-American in field hockey, she was the first secretary of the USSRA's women association and a contributor to squash magazines. Page, a hard-hitting, competitive player, represented the U.S. in six Wolfe-Noel Cups and reached the quarterfinals of the English nationals in 1934 and 1936. In doubles, she won the first women's nationals with Sarah Madeira and later won again with Agnes Lamme.
HALL OF FAME
CLASS OF 2000
Hunter Lott Jr.
(1914 - )
National Champion 1949
National Doubles Champion 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1949, 1950, 1953
Hunter Lott was considered the greatest right-wall doubles players of the twentieth century. Armed with a ferocious forehand, Lott took eight titles, five with Bill Slack before the war and three after with a young Diehl Mateer. In 1949 he managed to take the national singles by perfecting a backhand double boast. In tournament play he won one Gold Racquets Invitational and three Atlantic City Invitationals. A longtime supporter of the Penn squash team and a mentor to generations of Merion Cricket youths, Lott was honored in 1974 with the naming of a new local junior tournament after him.
HALL OF FAME
CLASS OF 2000
Barbara Maltby
(1963 - )
National Champion 1980, 1981
National Doubles Champion 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990
National Mixed Doubles 1988
A woman who redefined women's squash, Barbara Maltby - won the doubles four years in a row, with Joyce Davenport and Joanne Law and mixed doubles once with Mike Pierce.
HALL OF FAME
CLASS OF 2000
G. Diehl Mateer, Jr.
(1928 - )
National Champion 1954, 1956, 1960
National Doubles Champion 1949, 1950, 1951, 1953, 1954, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1962, 1965, 1966
U.S. Open Champion 1955, 1959
Diehl Mateer, with his unmatched eleven national titles, was the greatest doubles player the game had ever seen. With his classic Philadelphia backhand and indomitable determination, he was unstoppable on the left wall. He won his first doubles title as a senior at Haverford College with Hunter Lott, and went on to win titles with Cal McCracken, Dick Squires, John Hentz and Ralph Howe. He lost nine times in the finals, including twice with his son Gil (his boys Gil and Drew took five doubles titles in all, once together in 1986) On the singles court, Mateer was equally formidable. He took two intercollegiate titles, won six Harry Cowels, six Gold Racquets, five Atlantic City Invitationals, and was the only amateur to win the U.S. Open twice.
HALL OF FAME
CLASS OF 2000
Stanley Webster Pearson, Sr.
(1890-1950)
National Champion 1915, 1916, 1917, 1921, 1922, 1923
Along with Charles Read of London, Stan Pearson was the first great world champion of squash. He played at Germantown Cricket Club and the Racquet Club and was invincible. From 1915 through 1923, Pearson never lost a single match - in tournament, intra-club, league or inter-city play - save for the finals of the nationals in 1920. Besides winning the nationals six times, Pearson won the inaugural veterans (over 40) nationals in 1935. He taught the game to the great Germantown Cricket players of the 1930s, including national champions Neil Sullivan, Roy Coffin, Don Strachman and his son Stan Jr.
HALL OF FAME
CLASS OF 2000
Gretchen Vosters Spruance
(1947 - )
National Champion 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1978
National Doubles Champion 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977
National Mixed Doubles Champion 1970, 1971
The leading player of the 1970s, Gretchen Spruance came from the Wilmington Country Club. Her mother, Bunny Vosters, was a major doubles players with eleven national titles, and her sister, Nina Moyer, won two nationals. After losing to her sister in the finals in 1972, Spruance never lost again in the nationals, taking five titles. On the doubles court, she teamed with her mother to win five titles, and with Kit Spahr to win two mixed titles.
