About Platform Tennis | History of Platform Tennis

Platform Tennis is one of the best kept secrets in American sport. A high-paced and entertaining game, it has great appeal to people of all ages. Platform Tennis, as it is played today, was born in October 1928 Scarsdale, New York, when neighbors James Cogswell and Fessenden Blanchard began a quest for an outdoor winter sport close to home. Out of the discussions came the idea to build a wooden platform where they figured they could play deck tennis almost all of the time, badminton on calm days, and once in a while round up the neighbors for a game of volleyball.

One day, Cogswell turned up with some rectangular-shaped paddles and balls, which he discovered in a sporting goods store, and thought that he might try them on his platform. Cogswell and Blanchard had never heard of the now seven-year-old city paddle tennis which utilized this equipment. That first day, a mixed doubles game was drummed up following the rules of conventional tennis.

Keeping the balls in the court posed another problem, so around the platform went chicken wire of two inch mesh stapled to two-by-four uprights. During an early match, one of Blanchard’s opponents hit a ball that landed in the court, then flew up and stuck in the back wire. “It’s still in play!” announced Blanchard, who then proceeded to run around the fence and gave the ball a good whack - sending it back into play. After appropriate arguments, a new rule was agreed on allowing a ball to be played off the screens, given it had first bounced within the regulation court. The rule made strategy and finesse of equal value.

Over the next several years, the sport grew. In response, the American Platform Tennis Association was formed in November of 1934. The original purpose of the association was to standardize rules and equipment, to promote the popularity of the game, and to sponsor tournaments.

During the mid 30’s, Richard Grant improved footing by mixing sand into the painted court surface and Donald Evans created a backstop to evenly distribute screen tension to increase bounce reliability. By 1940, platform tennis even had a feature article in Life Magazine.

Growth was steady coming up to 1970 - the year which R.J. Reilly had perfected the all-aluminum court. Sports Illustrated defined Reilly as “the master builder who took the game out of an era of warped boards and sagging screens.” Later in the year, a study reported 150,000 people to be playing platform tennis.

With the 70’s boom of tennis came a boom in platform tennis. In 1978 there were an estimated 400,000 players. Howard Cosell even supplied the NBC television coverage during the 1979 $169,000 Tribuno Tour’s National Championships at Forest Hills, NY.

Platform tennis, like tennis and racquetball, saw a significant decline during the 80’s, followed by a gradual growth in the 90’s.

Today, there are more than 4,000 courts across the northeastern and midwestern U.S. and approximately 100,000 avid players and equally as many recreational players.

Through an active recruitment campaign, the APTA has been reinvesting in their sport. Through corporate sponsorship, Platform Tennis Magazine, and a rejuvenated instructional body, the APTA membership has doubled its size over the past two years to over 8,000 members. Growth is expected to continue well into the new millennium.