I knew Treddy Ketcham
All
I must say, Rob Dinerman's glowing tribute of Treddy Ketcham rang very true to me.
During the time when I ambitiously pursued squash excellence by travelling east to absorb the epicenter of hardball squash (New York, Philadelphia, and Boston), I had the pleasure of meeting him.
The Merion Club Invitational; the Cowles, Jacob, Barnaby; the Boston Open, the “Boodles”, and Montreal’s Smith-Chapman were a few of the fixtures that I played in (he seemed to be everywhere!) holding court dressed regally in his blue blazer with the prominent Jesters logo for all to see and admire. Upon meeting me for the first time, he was most likely quizzically muttering to himself. "Who was this west coast curiosity?"
And at each event, there was Teddy, who made a point to seek me out, to greet and to welcome this west coast hippie-fish-out-of-water oddity who was trying to navigate this blue-blooded realm of east coast squash.
to be continued.......
By Rob Dinerman
July, 2024
Probably no individual established a more visible and multi-front persona in the American squash world during the second half of the 20th Century than William Tredwell Ketcham, universally and affectionately known as Treddy. At various times he was President of New York Squash (at the time known as the MSRA) from 1959-61, US Squash (at the time known as the USSRA) from 1965-67, and the Rockaway Hunting Club (Ketcham’s squash stomping ground as a youngster) in Lawrence, Long Island from 1987-2003, making him the longest-ever holder of that position. Rockaway, founded in 1878, was one of the MSRA’s three founding member clubs --- the University Club of New York in Manhattan and the Montclair Athletic Club in northern New Jersey were the others --- when that Association was launched in January 1924.
In addition to holding those important positions of leadership, Ketcham served as captain for more than 20 years of the American team in the annual U.S-vs.-Canada Lapham-Grant competition; as Tournament Chairman for nearly 40 years (from 1960-98) of the prestigious Gold Racquets Singles/Ray Chauncey Doubles Invitational, hosted every year at Rockaway during the first weekend in December; as President of the Friends of Yale Squash from its formation in 1976 until the late 1990’s; as both the American representative for the Jesters Club and a Trustee for the USSRA's highly successful Endowment Fund (in each case for more than a decade); and as the donor of honorary cups at virtually every competitive level.
Ketcham also had stints as both a Vice President of the International Lawn Tennis Club and a member of the Board of Governors for the Prentice Cup, a biannual tennis competition matching up six members from current Yale and Harvard squads (three from each school) against a similarly composed Cambridge-Oxford group, with each country alternating as host. The players in that event are selected both for their ability and for their goodwill-ambassador standing, and Ketcham, himself the fairest and most highly regarded of players during his own lengthy era, had an important role in determining the composition of the U.S. team for many years.
Born in New York City on August 2, 1919, Ketcham started playing squash at, as noted, Rockaway during his grade-school years at Lawrence Country Day School. He then followed his father and uncle to the Hill School in suburban Philadelphia, whose squash teams he played on, before attending Yale (also his dad's alma mater), where he rejoined two contemporaries from his Rockaway junior years, Worthy Adams and Ewing Philbin, as solid members of the outstanding Yale squash teams in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s.
After volunteering for military service several months after his graduation in 1941, Ketcham spent five years in the Marine Corps, a time he often recalled, always with great fondness and respect, and the distinction and devotion with which he served during World War II culminated in his receiving the revered Navy Cross for heroism at Iwo Jima in 1945. Upon his return to the States, he completed the three-year program at Yale Law School and spent several years each, first with the New York law firm of Davis Polk and then in France and London working for the government. This latter experience overseas landed him a prestigious post as Special Counsel of the IBM World Trade Americas Far East Corporation beginning in the mid-1950s (when he permanently returned to New York and began his squash career in earnest) and continuing until his retirement at age 65 in 1984.
Ketcham was both a proud product and staunch advocate of a period in squash's evolution when camaraderie was more important than competition, when the amateur ethic was truly an honored doctrine and when great fulfillment was derived from giving something back to the game that gave one so much pleasure. It was out of respect for that credo that over the years he would donate the President's Cup "to that person who has made a substantial contribution to the game of squash racquets" while USSRA President; establish the MSRA counterpart to that honor, the Board of Governors Award, during his MSRA Presidency; present the World Pro Squash Association’s Man Of The Year Award to North American squash's foremost professional organization in 1971; bestow a Junior Award for improvement and sportsmanship several years later; and initiate the Ketcham Cup as a doubles-oriented companion-piece to the longstanding New York-Philadelphia-Boston Lockett Cup Tri-City competition.
This latter contribution points up his well-known interest in doubles, which he felt entailed a degree of strategy and teamwork that made the game more appealing to him than singles. It is worth noting in this context that Ketcham, far from being merely a vocal proponent of doubles, was a highly proficient practitioner of this discipline as well; in fact, during the decade-long period from 1965-74, he won the USSRA Senior (50-and-over) Doubles Championship seven times with four different partners, and the Eddie Standing Trophy "for sportsmanship combined with a high level of play" which he received at the MSRA Annual Banquet at the conclusion of the 1961-62 season accurately reflected both his long-recognized good-hearted comportment and his sometimes overlooked racquet acumen, which caused him to win multiple club championships at Rockaway, the Yale Club and the Racquet & Tennis Club.
Ketcham’s ever-present and energetic involvement in squash over such a lengthy time span combined with a gregarious hail-fellow-well-met personality to have made him a welcome fixture at every significant event. In 1998 the now-thriving College Squash Association’s (CSA) Intercollegiate Doubles Championship, which he had practically singlehandedly revived a decade earlier after a lengthy hiatus, was named in his honor. And in 2001 at the annual ceremony at Franklin D. Roosevelt's Hyde Park estate in upstate New York honoring FDR's famous Four Freedoms speech, in which each of the four major services are represented by one of its former heroes, Ketcham was chosen to carry the banner for the Marines Corps which he served with such distinction nearly six decades earlier, and was given a medal in recognition of his valor. During the last few years of his life, he lived mostly in the same house (located just a few yards from the 15th hole of Rockaway’s golf course) where he had spent his childhood years, and, virtually to the end, he could be counted on to appear at the club every day that he was in residence to enjoy his time with his fellow members and assure that all was in order.
One of the few Honorary Life members of the USSRA, Ketcham was inducted into both the US Squash Hall of Fame in 2001 and the CSA Hall of Fame in the “Friends And Patrons” category in 1992. When he was asked in an interview shortly before his death in 2006 at age 86 to share his strongest squash memory, his response, characteristically, was not of the victories he achieved or the many awards he has both given and received, but rather of what a wonderful time he had playing the game for so long and of the multitudinous friendships and relationships throughout the country, and indeed the entire world, that he had formed during his 70 years of richly-diversified involvement in the game. He was one of squash’s most prominent figures during a crucial time in the game’s development, while also becoming a truly respected and admired person in the sport.
Rob Dinerman is a squash historian who was the Official Writer for the MSRA Yearbook from 1985-94 and has written nearly 20 books about squash, all of which are arrayed on the robdinerman.com home page. His next book, on the first 100 years of college squash (1923-2023), is scheduled to be released in February 2024.
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