Today was the day that collegiate squash started a century ago. The men’s squash teams of Harvard and Yale played each other in February 1923 at the Racquet & Tennis Club. This is the global start of university squash\u2014the annual varsity match between Oxford and Cambridge began in December 1925. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harvard beat Yale 4-1. The only Eli to win was Luke Williams, then the national intercollegiate tennis champion. Crimson winners included Palmer Dixon, future National Singles champion and Carroll Harrington, who I wrote about here a dozen years ago: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/squashword.ussquash.com\/?m=201104<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n There is some confusion about whether this historic match was played on Saturday the 17th or Sunday the 18th. The New York Times<\/em> reported on Monday the 19th that they played on the 18th: <\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/timesmachine.nytimes.com\/timesmachine\/1923\/02\/19\/100819372.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Crimson<\/em>, the Harvard school newspaper, also published a piece on the match on Monday the 19th. They said that it occurred on Saturday the 17th:<\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/www.thecrimson.com\/article\/1923\/2\/19\/squash-team-wins-two-matches-in\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, on the exact day\u2014or perhaps a day late\u2014I went to New York to quietly celebrate the centennial. The R&T courts used by Dixon and Williams have long been renovated out of recognition. But I could hear a squash ball being thumped on a court, echoing down long passageways, and I thought this is enough: the sound of a ball hitting a wall, the squeak of sneakers, the call of the score. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Those ten men in February 1923 didn’t know it, but their matches were the start of one of the greatest stories in all of squash. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today was the day that collegiate squash started a century ago. The men’s squash teams of Harvard and Yale played each other in February 1923 at the Racquet & Tennis Club. This is the global start of university squash\u2014the annual varsity match between Oxford and Cambridge began in December 1925. Harvard beat Yale 4-1. The … Continue reading 18 February 1923<\/span>