Photos by
Ralph E. Smith

In 1981 the area just southeast of Houston Texas was a racquetball hotbed. The Clear Lake Racquetball Club was a terrific facility offering 10 courts, a swimming pool, a good size weight and exercise room, and a restaurant serving good food and drink. The restaurant sat on the second floor with it's front door opening out on the observation and refereeing balcony right where the two "fishbowl" challenge courts met. The balcony was a walkway that ran along the perimeter of all ten courts. With 10 courts and all the comforts of home, the club attracted a bevy of excellent players, and the challenge courts were invariably alive with excitement.

Waitresses would take an order from a customer only to find that the next walk-in announcing "Hey the Raging Bull is on with Stretch" starting an exodus to the rail overlooking court 1 where a monumental battle was about to begin. The "Raging Bull" needs no further description, he waited for the serve with a electric attention, his right foot pawing the ground preparing to charge, and keep on charging and powering that ball, till the volley was over. Stretch was a gawky 6 foot 5, right up to the instant the ball was in play, then he was all over the court everywhere, digging out all the impossible shots, but often finally earning a "duck" which he could as easily flub with an overdose of self confidence that sapped his concentration.

The problem of serving the dinners could quickly become compounded by the "gazelles" assuming command of the second challenge court. Hopkins and Jacobson, both 6'4 to 6'6, never seemed to run, but rather flowed smoothly, unhurriedly, and with deadly efficiency to arrive well ahead of the ball, and propel it at will with ease, grace and unerring accuracy. For those of us old enough to remember, it was reminiscent of Joe DiMaggio chewing up ground effortlessly in the vast center field of Yankee Stadium, the ball inevitably settling softly in his extended glove, as though "that was the way it was meant to be.".

Other attention getters were "Dr Freud" and "the Physicist". Here the game was entirely cerebral. "Dr Freud" was psychoanalysing the next move of "the Physicist", and positioning himself in just the right place to field his volley, while one could hear the wheels grinding as "the Physicist" calculated the ball's projectile motion, determined the optimum intercept point, and the shortest path to that intercept point. A match between "Squirly Shot" and "Roadrunner" was also a big crowdpleaser, as high soft lob serves, "around the world" shots, standard and inverse Zs, and dinks sent "Roadrunner" scurrying to every extremity of the court, allowing "Squirlyshot" to regain position at center court, keeping seemingly ended rallies allive for even more exchanges.

While all this was going on, not more than half a mile east the 8 court Bay Area Racquetball club was serving up it's own brand of "no holds barred" warfare. One could find "the Dentist" drilling his opponent with pinpoint precision, and a serve in which the ball was so well concealed that it bordered on illegal. There was no way he could hide it from "the Minister", who would wreck Hellfire and Brimstone with his cannonlike blasts teaching everyone he played to have real fear of the lord. This was the bastion of power racquetball, with homegrown Texas names like Cotton, Chip, Buck, Chief, Russler, and Bronc, and clear the way or you might just get stampeded..

But hold on, we're not finished because half a mile west (of the linchpin Clear Lake club) there was the young buck set. University of Houston at Clear Lake (UHCLC) had another 8 courts and a hellbent for leather group of fiery competitors. That added to a total of 26 busy courts in one very tight geographical area, and a competitive fury that warmed the heart of every racquetball enthusiast.

Then things began to unravel like in a Greek tragedy. It was a nightmare that slowly piece by piece dismantled the beautiful tapestry of comradeship and competition that bound together a super group of people.(or three super groups of people). To appreciate the resiliency that the love of this game lent to it's survival, and the tenacity of the people that kept it alive, you have to understand how it came apart. The first place where cracks in the armor began to show was the Clear Lake Club. The facilities began to be left unmaintained, little repairs were not made, cleanup crews did a slipshod job, and talk began to circulate about the place "going to the dogs". Not the figurative "dogs", but the real ones at the local greyhound track a scant few miles south. By 1986 the rumors talked about bankruptcy and receivership, and they turned into reality by years' end. The club continued to operate, was bought out by a medical combine, changed it's name, it's philosophy, it's management, it's concern for the players, and managed to limp along till it's final demise in 1988.

The Bay Area Racquetball club picked up a windfall from the orphaned Clear Lake players, while others went to a newly opened, but harder to reach, and more expensive 4 court South Shore Fitness Center. Some that worked in center town Houston dispersed to the 22 court downtown YMCA. The setback was far from a disaster…YET.

Bay Area Racquetball owners, however, were in the midst of a falling out that ever increasingly distracted them from the business at hand. As the cracks in their relationship grew wider and less resolvable, so deteriorated the operation of running the club. A mere 2 years after the demise of the Clear Lake Club, Bay Area Racquetball closed it's doors as it too spiraled it's way into bankruptcy.

UHCLC directors had in the meantime decided that the building housing it's racquetball courts could be knocked down to be replaced by one that could provide classrooms for hundreds more students. This was after all their main purpose, and their main source of income, and so the last of the original 26 courts became history.

As with all Shakespearian or Greek tragedies, the light of hope that might just save the situation was again snapped on. A national fitness chain (who shall remain nameless because I am not disposed to afford them any free advertising) announced construction of a new, nearby facility. It promised lifetime memberships to racquetball players that agreed to pay $1000 up front to help them construct an excellent facility with 4 racquetball courts. We got in line to help get it built, bringing local court availability to 8 courts when it was completed in 1990. All was again "Right with the world".

Things went well for the six years from 1990 to 1996 when the National fitness chain suddenly decided to remove one of the courts to expand the nursery. The players petitioned, showed that there were alternative paths to nursery expansion without removal of the racquetball court, showed that the alternative paths would employ currently "Dead/unused space", and forwarded the signed petition to the chain's local, district, and national headquarters. Management's attitude was that the concerns and opinions of the customers wasn't of any interest. They proved just how little they valued the customer by dealing the death blow just 2 years later in 1998 when the remaining three courts were dismantled despite a petition signed by 200 players. The signed petition which was forwarded to their local, district, and national managements, with the same negative results.

The number of available courts was now back down to four, and the frustrated player community was again scrambling to resurrect some semblance of order in their world.

The search for new places to play was spearheaded by Bill Block who generated a website with names and contact information on all players, as well as regular updating of efforts to locate and determine the joinup requirements of any candidate facilities. This resulted in disbursement of the players to the downtown YMCA, (45 mile round trip), Northwest Fitness Center (55 mile round trip), Alvin Community College (32 mile round trip), and South Shore Fitness (A shorter distance, but difficult to reach due to traffic bottlenecks at crucial times of day. An extra hour in traffic to get to a place to help relieve the built up stress of the day is counterproductive). The guys had a FAREWELL SHOOTOUT on the last day before the courts were to be destroyed, and that was almost that.

Several months ago tropical storm Allison visited the Houston area, significant amounts of water were dumped on South Shore Fitness, causing swelling and buckling in the floor of the challenge court. The court was closed for play, and remained so for an extended period of time. Players inquired of management when repairs were to be implemented. The reply at first was that the insurance adjusters had not finished their assessment. After three months that metamorphed into we are not intending to repair it.

Author's off court antics

The players formed a committee, prepared a letter to management, and had the letter signed by the people who joined the center because it offered racquetball. We submitted the letter, along with documentation as to how much revenue the center was realizing directly from 80 folks who joined only because of racquetball availability. Management's posture was that management ought to be highly commended for keeping racquetball available for this long, and that they fully intended to have the remainder of the courts replaced within the next couple of years. Needless to say the search for a new home had to be renewed.

At this point enter San Jacinto Junior College which has three courts, and had been considering opening them to the public. We opened a dialogue with the school, described the potential local demand for public courts, and suggested a "One Day Shootout " class that would allow the school to present the concept and terms under which they could make their courts available to the community on a permanent basis.

To quote Winston Churchill "That was the end of the beginning" 

Larry Holdorf and Rudy Shaw (Dick Daugard inside court).

Pete Volpe's "Cat that swallowed the canary" grin.

Roy Massengale being signed up by San Jac Staff member, other staff working in background.

Jim Rowlands and Jesse Bales

SAN JACINTO JR COLLEGE recognizing the need for exercise facilities in a city (Houston) that has just been awarded the dubious honor of first place as the fat-est city in the U.S, a country where the Morbidly Obeisity ratio has risen has risen to 25%, has opted to open it's doors for Community Access to it's Racquetball facilities.

Kicking off the drive to create a Community Racquetball Access Class was the BALLYHOO RACQUETBALL REUNION SHOOTOUT which, in order to keep it simple, was organized with a challenge court format. Invitations were forwarded to the 200 players that had petitioned a national fitness club not to destroy its' courts(4 years earlier), to the folks who had appealed to the local club to repair it's rain damaged court(4 months earlier), to local new players, and to San Jacinto students.

Court 1 was Singles Challenge, Court 2 was Doubles Challenge and Court 3 was Challenger's Choice. The challenge sign up sheets were posted outside each court, and the tournament coordinator ran down the halls like a "town cryer" heralding the plea:

"LET THE GAMES BEGIN !"

BUT begin they did not, at least not right away. The real purpose of this event took over immediately. The players started catching up on old times, renewing old friendships, finding out how each other had fared in the four years since they played each other every week at their old club, who had new kids?, new jobs?, new directions in life?, Each time another "old face" appeared it started a new round of reacquaintenceship and sheer joy ruled. What this event was really all about was giving the guys a place to play, it was letting the guy who had family obligations that would not allow him to drive 50 or 80 miles round trip three times a week to get some exercise, it was to help him continue to compete in a game he loves against good friends that were an integral part of his life, to keep up longterm friendships, to let out the steam of a busy and taxing workday, to maintain his health, and to do all that at a reasonable cost. It was all about turning glum faces into ear to ear "Cat that swallowed the canary" grins.

COMPETITIVE JUICES did not, however, remain suppressed for long. Statements like: "It's been too long since I whipped your butt!" were soon heard. Individual challenges were levied, teams formed up, players signed up, and the wars were on. Matches would be 2 games to 11 with a most points tiebreaker. The 2nd tiebreaker was a 1-point "sudden death" with first serve decided by coin flip. Winners would retain the court for up to three matches.

From that point on things settled down to just plain out and out fierce competition. The San Jacinto College Staff registered players, for the new COMMUNITY RACQUETBALL ACCESS membership program, and distributed game balls provided by PENN RACQUETBALL.

The players had fun, exchanged contact information and, set up games for the future, the SHOOTOUT INSTIGATOR could clown around in front of the E-FORCE display and prize table and Ralph Smith and Steve Cowans who were the tournament coordination committee without whose efforts this thing would never have flown, could finally get to play too. Everybody had a blast, and …

RACQUETBALL DIDN'T LOOK LIKE A DIEING SPORT