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Human Interest |
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This unpublished
"extra" is available exclusively online. All ideas expressed
via RACQUETBALL Online [www.racqmag.com] are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official
position of the USRA. |
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First published in the
Fall 2001 edition of the Maryland Washington This isn't a story about the history of racquetball, besides I don't think I could do justice to that. IT's a story about a man and his racquet, a man and his CBK. Racquetball racquets evolved basically from shortened versions of tennis racquets. I still have a wooden racquet (without a wrist tether) that has printed on it "Paddle Racquet". It actually looks like a short tennis racquet. I have another racquet made of lightweight wood with a rubber grip that has slipped off from so much play. In the late 70's the first aluminum racquets appeared. The Bill Schmidtke model was a popular model the pros used. Then by the early 80's the fiberglass and composite racquets began to be introduced by Ektelon and other manufacturers. I don't know the exact date the Ektelon CBK was born but it was around 1981 or 1982. The CBK was made of Carbon, Boron and Kevlar (hence the name CBK) and was lighter, longer, stronger and had a slightly larger hitting surface than any of the other racquets made (still small by today's standards though). Most other composite racquets were made of graphite and fiberglass and would break pretty easily. Most of the pros used the CBK and it was extremely popular by many top amateurs as well as the general racquetball community. One of those top amatueurs was a fellow named Richard Driessen. Richard started playing racquetball in the early 70's at his local Jewish Community Center in Rockville, MD. By the mid 70's we was beating everyone and won the MD State Open Singles and Doubles Championships. His Doubles partner was Tom Whipple, who also won the MD State Open Singles when Richard didn't win it. When the CBK was introduced Richard bought one and after playing with it a few months and decided that he liked it so much that he bought a couple of them, just in case. Richard would take off the leather handle grip and shave it down to a smaller size that felt comfortable to him (this was when the handles were usually still a littler larger and he liked a smaller grip). Finally he would rewrap the grip and be ready for battle. Richard used a "CBK" racquet. He was a very methodical racquetball player. He didn't hit with much power but had excellent control and had a knack for knowing where his opponent would hit the ball and anticipated his shots. Richard designed and built the White Oak Racquetball Club and the Laurel Racquetball Club both in Maryland. He later sold the clubs and started a partnership with a couple of associates buying, selling, leasing and managing business properties. This left him with lots of time to play racquetball, using his CBK of course. Every once in a while the strings would break and he would have to get it restrung or on a rare occasion, since he didn't hit the ball very hard, a racquet would break. When that happened he would have to buy another racquet. The CBK stayed around the end of the 80's when the first midsize racquets were introduced. A midsize CBK became available, but Richard decided he liked the smaller racquet and stayed with his original Ektelon CBK. In fact he figured he better buy a few more, just in case. As the racquets grew in size, the game began to change as well. In the late 70's, while the racquets were still small, Marty Hogan was the first pro to incorporate the power game into racquetball as well as maintaining control of his shots. The larger racquets were a little more forgiving and as the game sped up so did the players. The pros continued to hit harder while the racquets grew in size, but Richard continued to use the small CBK and was still able to defeat most of his younger, stronger and quicker opponents. He just had a knack at putting the ball where he wanted it and was still very good at anticipating his opponents shots. Richard still used a "CBK". In the early 90's the size of the racquets increased even more. There were several manufacturers of racquets and dozens of types of racquets. Surprisingly though, the cost didn't jump that much over the years. The first CBK racquets in the early 80's cost $129 and the larger racquets of the 90's were around $149. But Richard still used the small CBK. After all he had purchased several before Ektelon halted production and he always kept an eye and ear out for someone who might have one for sale. Every once in a while he would get lucky and pick up another CBK. He figured he should have enough CBKs to play with for the rest of his . . . wait, he had to stop and think about what he was saying. Would he really be able to keep playing with a CBK from now on. He didn't want to think about it. But, how could he play with any other racquet? He was used to the CBK and frankly he could still beat nearly everyone he played even though he was older than they were and he used a smaller racquet. From the mid 80's through the early 90's Richard didn't play in any tournaments. He just enjoyed playing with his friends at the local clubs. During the nicer weather he even played outdoor one-wall racquetball with a group of his friends at a local park, still using his CBK. In fact that is where he would usually do the most damage to his racquets because of the hard concrete surface. In the mid 90's Richard decided to play in the Maryland State Singles again, but this time in the 45+ Open Masters Division. All the other players were using their large weapons and Richard had his tiny CBK. At first no one knew who he was and when his opponents saw him show up with this little racquet to play against them they would think that they were in for an easy match. After all, only a beginner or someone who didn't know that much about racquetball would still be using a little racquet. Boy were they in for a shock when he'd beat them two straight! In fact he won the tournament all with the little CBK. He played the doubles that year in the 45+ and again won. All in all he won the doubles and singles three years in a row --- all the time using a CBK. Now we are in the 21st century and racquets have evolved into many different designs and composites. Nothing really new. Just some different ways of building racquets. A few of the manufacturers have folded but some, including Ektelon, are still around. And even though Ektelon doesn't make the CBK anymore, Richard still uses a CBK. Richard is getting a little worried now. He only has one spare CBK left. He's been looking around but hasn't had much luck. He's put adds in newspapers, checked the computer on ebay for people that might be selling racquets, but no luck. He was playing at his local club one day when it happened. He broke his racquet. Now he was down to his last CBK. He knew it was just a matter of time before it would break too. He couldn't bear the thought. He even thought about switching to one of those "bigger" racquets, but he figured. Why? He liked the CBK and maybe he would find another one. One day a guy was visiting the club from out of town and was looking for a game. He was a good A player and wanted a good game. The manager of the club, Mel Goldstein, said he knew a guy that would give him a good game. He usually comes in around 3:30 - 4:00 and could check then. Mel told him his name was Richard Driessen. The guy said he had some business to attend to but would call about 3:30 to see if Richard would be able to play. As it turned out Richard's regular playing partner wouldn't be coming in that day so he would be able to play with him. After the two met they started warming up and the guy noticed that Richard was using a small racquet. At first he didn't look to see what kind of racquet it was but just thought to himself, oh great, this guy is using a small racquet, he must be a novice or C player. He was going to call it off at first but noticed that while Richard was warming up he hit the ball pretty good and with good accuracy. He figured, OK, I'll play with him, but it probably won't be much of a game. Well he was right, sort of, Richard beat him 15-5 the first game. The guy was in shock, he couldn't figure out how this old guy (Richard's self proclaimed nickname was "olphart" as it appeared on his custom license plate) could beat him with that tiny racquet. He figured he'd play a little harder the second game because maybe he took him too lightly. Well it didn't help much, he lost 15-6. After the second game the guy was ready to quit when he asked to see the racquet he was using. When he saw it said CBK and was made by Ektelon, he told Richard he had been playing for 10 years in tournaments all over the south but had never heard of a CBK. Is it a kid's racquet, he asked? Well Richard could barely contain himself he laughed so hard. He told him about the CBK and that it was first made in the early 80's. They played a couple of more games and Richard won both of those games too. The out of town guy asked Richard why he hadn't switched to the larger racquet? He would do pretty well with them. He just shook his head and said, I do alright with the CBK. And indeed he does. Richard uses a CBK. Richard continued to play racquetball for the next several months but only had the one CBK left. Then one day during his regular match it happened. The handle on his shaved down CBK busted. Well it didn't just break it sort of shattered. He couldn't believe it. His last CBK was broken. He just sat there in the chair looking at the last CBK trying to figure out what to do next. He had looked around but couldn't find one anywhere and he didn't really want to switch to a larger racquet. While he was sitting there a new member of the club was walking by and noticed Richard sitting there with his broken racquet. He was an older guy and he noticed that the racquet was a CBK and asked Richard if he still used a CBK? Richard said, well yes sort of, I can't find another one and this is my last CBK and it just broke. The guy told Richard that he used to use a CBK and thinks he might still have one somewhere in his house. The only thing was he just moved into the area and it could be in any number of boxes. I'll look for it tonight and if I find it I'll bring it in tomorrow. Richard didn't have much hope that the guy would actually find it, let alone bring it in. He couldn't get it out of his mind that he may never get to use a CBK again. His last CBK was gone. Well the next day Richard went to the club to sit in the sauna like he usually did when he didn't play racquetball and try to get used to life without a CBK. It was sort of like a member of the family to him. After all he had used a CBK for over 20 years now. That's longer than he spent with either of his two wives! When he got to the club, guess who was there? The old guy was there and greeted him with his CBK. Richard couldn't believe it. He started jumping up and down yelling a CBK, a CBK, a CBK, I can't believe it a CBK, he hugged the guy, he hugged strangers walking buy, he hugged girls, telling them about the CBK. Most of the people thought he was a little crazy because they didn't know why he was so excited. The old guy knew. He used a CBK for many years too, but switched to the bigger racquets because he couldn't find anymore CBK's. He was glad that someone would be able to use it. Richard offered to pay for the racquet, but the guy told him to forget it. If it makes you that happy then it's yours. Just one thing I ask. Let me be the first to play you with the racquet. Richard agreed and they would play tomorrow. Guess what Richard did when he got home? He took off the leather grip and shaved down the handle to the size he liked. Then he rewrapped the grip. He was ready to play racquetball again. He was so excited he couldn't wait until the next day. The racquet was still in pretty good shape too. Apparently the guy hadn't used it for very long before he decided to switch racquets. Richard also knew that he wouldn't be this lucky again to find another CBK. So he better start thinking about going to a larger racquet some day. But for now he can still use a CBK, the last CBK. Well 3:30 the next day finally arrived and Richard was already at the club stretching and warming up. He was just getting ready to start hitting the ball when the guy showed up he was going to play. Guess what the guy said? I found another CBK in the boxes. And it's brand new, never been hit. I must have gotten it in the mail as a replacement and forgot about it. He told Richard it was his. Well now Richard was totally ecstatic. He couldn't believe it. He now had 2 CBK's. This was awesome. He could play forever. (??? really) Well the two of them played 4 or 5 games of racquetball. Richard was so excited that he could virtually do no wrong. He took all of the games from the guy. He probably would have won anyway, but this time he was unstoppable. The guy couldn't believe how good Richard was with that little racquet. He wished him good luck and he was glad he could help him out. Richard now knew he could go at least another couple of years with the CBK. He was getting older and didn't hit nearly as hard as before, not that he hit hard anyway, but the racquets should last a little longer. After a couple of months of playing Richard broke the string on one of his CBKs so he switched to the other CBK. This was the new one. He had used it a couple of times but wanted to save it so it would last longer. Near the end of the game he was going for a shot along the wall when he hit the wall a little too hard and heard a snap, he thought the worst and it was true. He broke the racquet. He couldn't use that one anymore, and it was the brand new one, that was bad luck! Now he truly was down to his last CBK. His buddy offered him one of his spare racquets and he actually tried to hit with it but didn't like the way it felt so he said he'd pass and get his other one restrung. The next day he was playing and the same thing happened along the wall. He looked down at his racquet but it looked ok. There was a little surface chip but the frame was ok. He finished the games and everything was ok. Then one day the following week Richard was at the club and he ran into the guy who gave him the racquets. It had been nearly six months since the guy had given him those two CBKs. He had been out of town on a couple of trips and hadn't been to the club very much and when he did it was usually later than when Richard was there. He asked Richard how the CBKs were doing. He told him about the one that broke but that his last CBK was still doing good. The guy asked Richard if he wanted to play a few games. Richard said ok since his regular partner couldn't make it that day. They had a couple of pretty good games, in fact the guy even won a game from Richard. You see, the guy had been out of town playing in a couple of tournaments, one of them being the National Championships in Houston where he went to the semi-finals in the 50+ OPEN division. Richard was duly impressed. The two talked about their experiences with racquetball and found out they had a lot of similarities. And the fact they both used a CBK took up a good part of their conversation. They decided to play another game and Richard took an early lead. Then the guy made a come back and the score was 13-12 Richard. Richard served a nice lob to the guys backhand and he returned it right down the wall. Richard went after it as he always did and clipped the wall as he hit a perfect return down the line for a winner. Richard didn't check his racquet because he barely touched the ball but if he did he would have noticed that his racquet was broken. The shot he took the week before along the wall must have slightly cracked it and when he hit the wall again it must have done the rest of the damage. Well now the score was 14-12, Richard. Again he served a lob and the guy tried for a cross-court passing shot, but left it up, Richard reached for it and hit a winner. 15-12. When he looked down at his racquet he saw the break. Instead of rejoicing in his winning shot he just sat down and looked at his racquet. I can't believe it broke, I can't believe it broke, my last CBK, is all he kept mumbling. The guy sort of understood what Richard was going through so he left him alone. The last CBK was broken. Richard didn't play racquetball for a couple of months after that. He tried to hit with a new longer racquet and even played a few games but he hurt his shoulder one time hitting a ball that was hugging the wall. He just misjudged the distance and sort of jammed it. Turned out his collarbone was slightly dislocated. It's been over a year now since he's played racquetball. Maybe someday he'll get back to the game he loves, but it will have to be without a CBK because the last CBK is broken. Some of the events in this article are fictional but many are true. Andy Forsyth has been playing racquetball with Richard since the mid 80's and he and Richard both used a CBK when they first met. Andy went to the larger racquets but Richard stuck with the CBK. Richard winning the MD State singles 45+ in the early 90s using the CBK inspired the article. The original article was lost when Andy's hard drive on his computer crashed. He couldn't find the original printed article and had to rewrite the article. Believe it or not Andy still has a brand new CBK that has never been used in a match. He received it as a replacement for a broken one and has never used it because he switched to the larger racquets before it arrived. If Richard ever wants to go back to using a CBK again he knows where he can get one. Andy has the last CBK. Comments about this article can be emailed to Andy at alf0007@comcast.net . Thanks. |
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