Hosting a major international tournament always attracts the odd legend from the past. For a long time, it looked like the one great player on hand at the world juniors in Allston, Mass. was Vicki Cardwell. The coach for Australia, Cardwell won four British Opens and one World Open in the eighties.

And then one afternoon the doors blew open, literally, and in walked my old friend, mentor and step-sister Aggie Kurtz. Ag of course was there at the start of quite a lot of U.S. women’s squash history (the founding of the women intercollegiate singles and then teams; founding Dartmouth women’s squash; and playing on the last Wolfe-Noel squad and the first U.S. women’s professional tournament, the Bancroft Open in 1977).

In tow with Aggie was another legend, someone she was dropping off at the tournament after hosting in Hanover. She introduced herself as Sue King. Didn’t ring any bells. After a few minutes of chatting, it was clear this was a former British Open winner. I said, hesitatingly, “What was your maiden name?”

“Newman.”

Ah, that explained it. Sue got to the finals of the Bancroft Open, that inaugural pro event. And she’s the answer to the trivia question about who won the first British Open after Heather McKay retired. A feisty Aussie, Sue told me about her first club. I said, “Oh, the usual, right, two courts and a bar?” And she said, well, sort of: two courts that her father, a car mechanic, built above his garage.

Not too many British Open champions can claim that for their first courts.