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USA Hall of Fame to New Haven
by Rob Dinerman © 2003; all rights of reproduction reserved.
Dec 24, 2003      

With the recent selection of its three new members---Sharif Khan, Ned Bigelow and Demer Holleran---for the class of 2004, bringing the overall total of honorees to 30, the USSRA Hall Of Fame will be establishing what it hopes will be a permanent base just adjacent to the Brady Squash Center at Yale's Payne Whitney Gymnasium in New Haven, CT. The anticipated $70,000 cost of setting up the site will be borne by the Friends Of Yale Squash and the USSRA, and the reconstitution and formal opening of the four-year-old Hall of Fame, set for early next fall, will be one of the most prominent aspects of the centennial celebration of the USSRA, which came into existence in 1904 and is therefore by a healthy margin the oldest national squash association in the world.

Coincidentally, 2004 Hall Of Fame designates Bigelow, Khan and Holleran between them have had careers that have spanned that century-long history.

Sharif Khan (l) and Victor Niederhoffer, hall of famers. Photo © 2004 SquashTalk Archives.

Bigelow was an important administrative and organizational figure who exerted a powerful and ongoing influence, especially in both chairing the first-ever U. S. Open in 1954 (in the face of strong opposition from those who wished to see squash remain an amateur-only sport) and creating and donating several competitions and cups that still bear his name.

Khan eclipsed the records of his family Hall Of Fame predecessors Hashim (his father) and Mohibullah (his first cousin) in the nine WPSA Championships and 12 North American Opens he won during
his glorious reign of the late 1960's through the early 1980's.

Holleran, considered by many the greatest American woman player ever (and, like Bigelow, a graduate of the Phillips Exeter Academy), coached the University of Penn women to their first national intercollegiate title the same year (2000) that the USSRA Hall of Fame was formed and co-won with Keen Butcher their ninth U. S. Mixed Doubles title as recently as 2002.

As it happens, the induction of Bigelow, who died at age 84 in 1970, comes exactly 50 years after his inaugural U. S. Open, that of Khan comes 20 years after his last big win (over Ned Edwards in the deciding match of the 1984 Loews Cup, which Canada thereby won 3-2 over a favored U. S. team), and that of Holleran comes 15 years after the first of her record 30 combined women's and mixed hardball, softball, and doubles titles, when she thrashed Karen Kelso 3-0 in the final round of the 1989 U. S. hardball women's nationals.

US Hall of famers Hashim Khan (l) and Henri Salaun. Photo © 2004 SquashTalk Archives.

They join a list that already includes such superstars as Mark Talbott, Victor Niederhoffer, Barbara Maltby and Gretchen Spruance, such coaching immortals as Jack Barnaby and John Skillman and such administrative giants and benefactors of the game as Darwin Kingsley and William (Treddy) Ketcham. A complete list of Hall Of Famers is provided at the conclusion of this article.

The Hall Of Fame was originally located at the Philadelphia Racquet Club in midtown of the city that has long been considered the birthplace of American squash, but it eventually became apparent that insurance and public access issues made it inadvisable for it to remain there. The planned location on the third floor of the fabled Payne Whitney Gymnasium in immediate proximity to the spectacular Yale squash center will provide a spacious and welcoming environment for the plaques, banners, photographs, glass display cases and memorabilia that comprise the Hall Of Fame.

USSRA CEO Palmer Page is understandably thrilled both at the announcement of the trio of new Hall Of Fame inductees and at the forthcoming opening of the Hall Of Fame at its new location, calling this dual event "a celebration of the past and a preparation for the future." He also is convinced that the centennial dinner, also planned for next fall, will be the largest of its kind in squash history, and further details of this gala event will be provided in the next several months.

USA Squash Hall of Fame Inductees:

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