SQUASH IN FRESNO
authored by Hank Palmer, 8 November 2022
All
Over the years and with summer’s end, San Francisco’s squash community eagerly anticipated the onset of the squash season. And Fresno was the happening place to be.
John
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What follows is a brief (incomplete and possibly inaccurate) history of squash in Fresno, California.
Once upon a time, the Central Valley YMCA in downtown Fresno had two hardball squash courts. In the 1950s, Floyd Svensson, a nationally ranked squash player from the Bay Area, somehow came across those seldomly used courts and convinced members to try this strange new (to them) game. Fresnans knew about tennis, badminton, ping pong, handball, and even racquetball. But squash was unknown. Floyd’s enthusiasm and instruction inspired Leonard DeFendis, Vince Palmo, Peck Lau, Rod Goebel, Jack Sarafian, Larry Chargin, and others to take up the game. Which they did with great enthusiasm.
After honing their skills, these newcomers began entering squash tournaments at the University Club and other locations in the Bay Area. Though not products of eastern prep schools or universities where squash racquets had been played for many years, they soon began making their presence felt. Vince Palmo – who grew up in St. Louis, played football at Fresno State, and started a successful construction company – was a tiny tiger on the squash court. His buddy Leonard DeFendis, also a fierce competitor, became highly skilled at squash. Jack Sarafian was a funeral director who somehow mastered the game despite having a glass eye. Peck Lau, a radiologist and excellent ping pong and tennis player, moved like a teenager and developed a variety of tricky shots. Rod Goebel was an architect and clean-living sports enthusiast who competed hard and regularly.
In the early 1960s, Fig Garden Swim and Racquet Club was built in Fresno. The club’s logo featured a tennis racquet with a small black dot on the strings. That dot was a squash ball. Club founders promised to later build squash courts, in addition to the tennis courts and swimming pools originally constructed on the property. That promise was fulfilled in the early 1970s. Once again, Floyd Svensson played an important role: designing and building the courts. Many of the original Fresno squashers transferred most of their play from the YMCA to these new courts. Australian Peter Doerner, who became the tennis pro at Fig Garden, was also an excellent squash player and teacher.
I moved to Fresno in 1968 from the Midwest, and subsequently joined the Fig Garden Club, where I learned to play tennis, having realized that the previous sports in which I’d previously engaged – football, basketball, and wrestling – were no longer practical. After the squash courts were built, the by-then-highly-accomplished squashers recruited me to learn that game as well.
Then they introduced me to competition in the Bay Area squash tournaments. At that time, play was primarily hardball singles, since the U. S. had not yet converted to the international soft ball version of singles and California’s only doubles court was at the University Club. However, John Lau, the University Club pro, put together impromptu doubles matches for those who competed in the singles tournaments. And thus awareness of and interest in this fascinating and different game of doubles was born for Fresnans.
Stevenson Yost, a squash playing member of the University Club, traveled California selling steel and looked for matches wherever he went. He encountered me, so we played when he was in Fresno. Steve loved doubles, and he invited me to be his partner in tournaments. Including the Kiva Classic in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which he had entered for years. I enjoyed doubles and decided I’d better learn how to properly play the game by coming to the University Club whenever I could. Many matches followed with Jack Bickel, Ed Helfeld, Peter Susskind, Murray Smith, Jim Kempenich, Bob Mosier, Paul Fisher, Owen O’Donnell, John Callander, David O’Neal, Jim Gibbons, Brett Elebash, and others. John Lau once remarked while watching a match that he finally understood how I could play so many doubles games insuch a short period of time. He realized it was because I never moved my feet. Doubles soon rewarded me with many wonderful experiences.
These included:
Learning the game alongside partner Dick Silbar of Los Altos, New Mexico with the help and generosity of Canadians in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Playing in tournaments around the country – including the nationals – with Ivan Glover of the University Club.
Joining other San Franciscans in matches against teams from New York, Atlanta, and Montreal.
Competing in the Kiva Classic annually (until COVID) for over twenty years.
Representing the U. S. versus Canada in the Lapham-Grant Matches in Montreal and the Can-Am Cup in Toronto.
Larry Huebner, a Fresno native, was one of the founders and the first president of the Fig Garden Swim and Racquet Club. Larry had graduated from UCLA in 1950, where he was the NCAA men’s doubles tennis champion. He later achieved multiple national
singles and doubles titles, including – during 2003 – when he won national Father-Son championships with each of his two sons plus the Father-Daughter nationals with his daughter, Karen, and then added the national Grandfather-Grandson title as well. (For this incredible accomplishment, the U.S. Tennis Association named the Huebners the National Family of the Year.) Jim, his eldest, received a track scholarship to San Jose State, then transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, where he became a member of Dick Crawford’s squash team and then, for a time, the best squash player in Northern California. Jim Huebner had begun playing squash at the Fig Garden Club. He often lured me onto court where – for conditioning – he would have me hit ball, after ball, after ball to all parts of the court, which he retrieved and hit softly back so I could give him another shot to chase. Following graduation from UC Berkeley, Jim went on a worldwide squash odyssey to Great Britain, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Australia, and New Zealand, where he found work at squash clubs and competed against top-flight national players.
singles and doubles titles, including – during 2003 – when he won national Father-Son championships with each of his two sons plus the Father-Daughter nationals with his daughter, Karen, and then added the national Grandfather-Grandson title as well. (For this incredible accomplishment, the U.S. Tennis Association named the Huebners the National Family of the Year.) Jim, his eldest, received a track scholarship to San Jose State, then transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, where he became a member of Dick Crawford’s squash team and then, for a time, the best squash player in Northern California. Jim Huebner had begun playing squash at the Fig Garden Club. He often lured me onto court where – for conditioning – he would have me hit ball, after ball, after ball to all parts of the court, which he retrieved and hit softly back so I could give him another shot to chase. Following graduation from UC Berkeley, Jim went on a worldwide squash odyssey to Great Britain, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Australia, and New Zealand, where he found work at squash clubs and competed against top-flight national players.
Some other miscellaneous stories:
The original Fresno squashers, with help from the Bay Area, started a hardball singles tournament played at Fig Garden and the YMCA in autumn which was well attended by many players from all around Northern California. Featured was a barbeque party at the miniature Old West town that Leonard DeFendis had built among the orchards outside town.
When the Fresno squash group went to tournaments in San Francisco, they introduced Rod Goebel to fast food at McDonalds, a new experience for him. Rod didn’t drink or smoke and played squash religiously, but somehow, inexplicably, needed to undergo six-way heart bypass surgery. Thanks to his excellent physical conditioning from playing squash, he made a full recovery and
resumed his addiction to the game.
Another of the original players during the old days suffered a heart attack and died on court at the YMCA.
Ed King achieved local fame for his dedication to squash. He spent most of his waking hours on court at Fig Garden, leaving only to lift weights and run up and down the Fresno State football stadium for conditioning. Nobody could outlast him on a squash court.
As he advanced in age, Vince Palmo gave up squash for swimming and golf. I once asked him why he no longer played squash. He replied, “No competition!”
Peck Lau had heart valve replacement surgery, after which he would surreptitiously contact me to play squash, making me promise not to tell his wife. He continued playing for many years.
I often competed against Dick Crawford in tennis tournaments around Northern California. Whenever he came to Fresno, I would challenge him to a game of squash. But he never did accept.
2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. Jim Kempenich, a member of the University Club, is watching the tennis competition. Seated beside him is Kenny Hallstone, a member of the Fig Garden Swim and Racquet Club. Jim says, “Pardon me, sir. Are you an American? Kenny responds, “Yes, I am. And you?” Jim, “Yes. I am as well. Where are you from? Kenny, “Fresno, California.” Jim, “I’m from San Francisco. By any chance, do you happen to know Hank Palmer? He lives in Fresno.” Kenny “Amazing! I certainly do! He’s my tennis doubles partner. We are the Northern California 65+ champions.” Jim, “Wow! Astounding coincidence! Hank and I both play squash at the University Club in San Francisco.” This marked the unlikely beginning of a friendship. Having met by serendipity half a world away from home.
Sadly, squash is now gone from Fresno. The Central Valley YMCA, with its two courts, has closed, unable to compete with the numerous, new, better equipped, privately owned gyms which have no courts of any kind. The Fig Garden Swim and Racquet Club – unwilling to convert its hardball singles courts for softball – has changed them to a workout room. The original group of Fresno squashers have either passed away or adopted other forms of exercise. Such as pickleball, which is growing rapidly in Fresno and nationwide, is easy to learn and inexpensive, being primarily played on little-used public tennis courts. The once glorious heyday of squash racquets in Fresno is now just wonderful memories.
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