Charlie Brumfield: King of Racquetball

22-Time National and World Champion

By Steve bo Keeley

Free Man Publishing Co. Published 2013 by Free Man Publishing Co.

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Printed in the United States of America

The only authorized biography of Charlie Brum field.

CREDITS Cover photo: 1975 Las Vegas Tropicana Nationals photo by Davey Bledsoe. Editors: Janet Murphy, Brian Wright, Jamie Lawson, and Mike Anguille.

Dedication

This biography is dedicated to Charlie Brumfield’s three coaches: Carl Loveday, Bud Muehleisen, and Chuck Hanna.

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them. — William Shakespeare Charlie Brumfield: King of Racquetball—Testimonials

The ‘Holder’ was a multiple national champion in racquetball, paddleball and outdoors in both singles and doubles. Charlie Brumfield is the greatest rackets players ever! – Marty Hogan, Six-Time World Champion

Joe Sobek may have invented racquetball, but Charlie Brumfield perfected it! This book tells it. – Pro Jim Spittle

Wonderful Reading! – Charlie Brumfield

Outspoken, brash, entertaining. Brum knew for the game to grow it had to be a spectacle and he never disappointed. Watching him maneuver ‘within’ the rules was always something to which I was tuned in, as it ultimately became my job to enforce those rules. – Chuck Leve, IRA Director, Racquetball Hall of Fame

As you know my Brumfield is one of a kind. I went into every match with complete confidence we were going to win. Most teams including the top pros at the time were intimidated when we stepped on the court, which accounts for my satisfactory performance. – Dr. Bud Muehleisen, Winner of 69 National and International Titles, Hall of Fame

In a way, I think that Brum was motivated to work hard and become good enough to gain his father’s attention and praise. That’s the first insight that I got out of this great book. – Davey Bledsoe, World Champion 1977, Hall of Fame

As a kid I could not wait to receive my IRA magazine and read about the game in SI. I wanted to read what the true superstar of the game was doing- Charlie Brumfield. There were other stars but there was only one Brum. – Dave Fleetwood, Touring Pro

i Charlie Brumfield: King of Racquetball—Testimonials

I appreciate as a historian the eyewitness reports and many anecdotes in this wonderful sports biography. Keeley’s writing is gifted and excellent. When Charlie Brumfield dislocated his finger playing handball, racquetball’s gain was handball’s loss of this intense Dark Knight. Brumfield ‘Ali’ got many of his outlandish sayings from George the wrestler. What made Charlie great in his fiery quotes in advanced degrees was he added intellectual polish and clever wit. – Andrew Hollan, Sport Historian

We ran around and always bumped into each other. There were no avoidable hinders except among gentlemen, and there were few gentlemen in the sport on close calls. That’s what Charlie Brumfield: King of Racquetball is about. – Mike Zeitman, Three-Time National Doubles Champion

Brumfield was the grand master, Keeley his former racquetball nemesis who gets inside the master's mind. This is a sensitive biography. – Brett Elkins, LA Racquetball, WOR Hall of Fame Committee

Charlie Brumfield looked like the Prince of Darkness, moved like Groucho Marx, and had the flawless arsenal of a platypus on steroids. – Brad Kruger, Canadian National Three-Sport Champion

In ten minutes it was obvious that the referee was very drunk, loud and obnoxious, and I motioned to have him removed. It succeeded, and that’s how I met Charlie, went on to win the tournament, and we became drinking buddies. The rest is in the book. – Rodan Pucallpa, Contemporary Pro & Attorney

With a slower ball, I don't think anyone would have been able to compete at his level. With a fast ball, he would be one of

ii Charlie Brumfield: King of Racquetball—Testimonials many close to the top. Keeley is writing cover to cover in both spheres. – Jerry Hilecher, National Champion, Hall of Fame

I am proud of having played with and won multiple National Doubles titles with Charlie, and Keeley has written a biography of my partner that is of that quality also. – Steve Serot, National Doubles Champion, National Junior Champ, Hall of Fame

Brum was able to implement the Tour of the Court against anyone, and Keeley has put it excitingly into a Tour de Force. – Rich Wagner, NRC Top 8

Yet I still recall how he held forth for an hour or so before a group of Vermont instructors on the dynamics of the grip. He had more faith in himself than the average movie hero, and he wrote his own script as he went along. – Art Shay, Official Racquetball Photographer, Official Olympic Photographer, Racquetball Hall of Fame

Interesting and entertaining reading. – Doug Ganim, US Open Founder

Steve bo Keeley wrote the ultimate instructional The Complete Book of Racquetball and now the biography of the sport’s ultimate machine Brumfield, whom we both beat in national competitions. – Charlie Garfinkle, 12 Hall of Fames, Touring Pro, and Buffalo sports writer for 35 years.

The biographer is known to me as a champion of sport, an acute observer of racquetball, a historian and superb analyst of the game, and its protagonist. Charlie Brumfield is also known to me as the most outlandish player I ever saw take the court. Keeley fleshes out the People’s Champion, and the fans

iii Charlie Brumfield: King of Racquetball—Testimonials are the winners! – Cathy Williams, Top Four Pro, Cofounder WPRO Tour, National Paddleball Champion

Steve bo Keeley is a gift to the game with either racquet or pen. He has already written the best-selling book on the sport, The Complete Book of Racquetball, and this biography of his enfant terrible rival is another treat. – Rick Frey PhD, Sport Psychologist

Reading this was for me like taking a step back into history during the most exciting time in racquetball—the formation and foundation of the Pros. Brumfield was a unique and charismatic personage, who comes alive in this telling. – Bo Champagne, Six States & Multi-Regionals Champion, The ‘Spirit of Racquetball’

It is such a struggle to do justice to Charlie as a player because he was so great with the small-head racquet that had our careers overlapped into my large-head era it would have been tooth and nail in the tiebreakers of many finals. His biographer Keeley, the best sport writer and Brum's nemesis, will kindle an urge to old time racquetball and using forehand and backhand in this page burner. – Cliff Swain, Six-Time World Champion

Keeley taught me the backhand frisbee stroke and Brumfield the backhand golf stroke that turned me into a pro. I love reading Keeley on Brumfield. – Hank Marcus, WOR Director

No one has accomplished so much in a sport relative to his natural attributes. Amazingly he was like Poncho Gonzales in tennis. Able to be the best without a backhand. – Victor Niederhoffer, World Squash Champion

iv Charlie Brumfield: King of Racquetball—Testimonials

Charlie Brumfield was the master ‘psycher’ of all times. However, he had the game to back up his ‘psyching’ ploys. – Charles Garfinkle, Pro, Author, Coach

What’s it like to know Charlie Brumfield? Suddenly the court becomes smaller as he comes closer. Who has been with your game since day one, trained harder, practiced more, and will keep driving as though he’s fresh in the tiebreaker. - Charlie Brumfield King of Racquetball

CONTENTS

1: Born on an Outdoor Court...... 1 2: Sum m er of Ceiling Balls...... 8

3: Rules of Engagem ent...... 16 4: Roots of Pro Racquetball...... 25 5: Glitz...... 46

6: The Golden Era ...... 72 7: On Court and In Court...... 96 8: The True History...... 106

9: The Lion in W inter ...... 114 Appendix A: Charlie Brum field’s Stats...... 125 Appendix B: Brum field’s Greatest Quotes...... 127

About the Author...... 132 Links...... 133 Photo Credits...... 134

vii

1: BORN ON AN OUTDOOR COURT

The son of a US Marine Corps officer and a former chemistry teacher, Charlie Brumfield’s first home was on base at Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, CA. There are threads to support his rise to Racquetball King during this period. His sister reports he ‘drove’ a TV antenna around the house at night ‘sleepwalking in search of something.’ His father put young Charles on a raft in the middle of a lake and told him to swim for shore. On jumping in, Charlie decided he couldn’t make shore until dad stepped on his fingers to prevent him from clawing onto the raft. At high school recess, he remembers, ‘I was the last picked for every sports team, and it hurt. I was determined to be the best at some given game.’ Hence, the Holder of All Titles was born to racquetball in 1962 on a Mar Vista Junior High School outdoor court. He hit the cement court hard, daily, at lunch, PE, and before and after school. The sport was pink ball handball, the painful predecessor to pink ball paddleball that gave rise to pink to black ball racquetball, which is where I stepped into Charlie’s life. ‘I started playing pink ball in 7th grade while in junior high at Mar Vista in 1960. We moved to San Carlos, in the south of the county in 1963, and I played my first paddles after dislocating my finger in early ’64. Then, in 1965 in the eleventh grade, I won the San Diego City Schools pink ball doubles championship with DC Charleston.’

1 1: Born on an Outdoor Court Brumfield: King of Racquetball

The next threads of championship came quickly in graduating magna cum laude from the University of San Diego (USD) with degrees in economics and business administration. He then went on to earn a degree in law from USD, all during the period he was playing championship amateur, and thereafter professional racquetball. Unfortunately for his opponents in both courts, sport and law, he has by his own admission a photographic memory to catalog everyone’s moves. This, however, does not make a world champion. It’s said dragons lurked in the dungeon courts at the San Carlos Racquet Club just down the street where

Charlie teethed and lived Unfortunately for his on black ball racquetball. opponents in both courts, A single bulb hung from sport and law, he has by a ceiling cord illuminated his own admission a the action. Charlie photographic memory to catalog everyone’s Brumfield, 6’, 175 lb. moves. and built like Jim Thorpe with a ducktail haircut slayed everyone in sight. When the ball rattled around the in-court pipes and returned, it was playable. The Donkey Kick of lunging for shots while kicking the rival out of center court was born. There was no such thing as an avoidable hinder; you risked getting hit with the ball or paddle. Late in the day, as the hours of games wound down, someone flipped the High Sign – a signal to warn by raising the hand to the chin and wiggling the fingers at the opponent. The loser of the final match, after the high sign, would bend over,

2 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 1: Born on an Outdoor Court grab his ankles, and his victor would line up behind him and blast a point blank kill shot. Many years later, 1977 It’s said dragons lurked in the dungeon courts at the NRC National Champion, San Carlos Racquet Club Davey Bledsoe, recalled just down the street where playing doubles against Charlie teethed and lived Charlie on those San on black ball racquetball. Carlos courts in a close match. ‘The courts were dungeons with concrete back walls and ‘California Cut-Outs’ meaning an open area on the side walls of two adjacent courts.’ Bledsoe and partner Randy Stafford (curator of the US Racquetball Museum) took it to a third game and went to the wire. Randy takes up, ‘Davey hit a rollout and we were to serve for the game, but right as the ref was calling the point, Charlie pointed on the floor to a ball that magically appeared, yelling, ‘Ball Hinder!’ We had to replay the point and lost the next point and game. After the match, we found out there was no one playing next to us. I am not saying that ball came out of Charlie’s pocket, but from then on we always checked to make sure Charlie did not have any balls in his pocket. I put Davey in charge of that.’ In 1964, his play came to the attention of Bud Muehleisen who would become a lifelong friend. Dr. Bud had been a Navy badminton champion where he was tagged ‘Birdy Basher Bud Muehleisen,’ and later was a college tennis star at Berkeley, participating in that school’s national tennis title in

3 1: Born on an Outdoor Court Brumfield: King of Racquetball

1953. Muehleisen dominated paddleball when Charlie, overwhelmed at 15, first met him at the Kona Kai Club in San Diego. The hotshot kid was a handful, and in two years they adjourned up to the real competition in San Diego at the Pacific Paddleball Association (PPA). The one-court facility was built in 1966 on private land of sport aficionado, Jim Skidmore, on a hill overlooking present day Charger Qualcomm Stadium. It’s a shrine, as the first court club in the US for paddleball, and soon racquetball. Paddleball is the beautiful older sister of racquetball, and some of the best players in each sport graduated from the court of hard knocks on this hill. Brumfield, Muehleisen, Carl Loveday, and Dr. Chuck Hannah played daily doubles in paddles, and later racquets, for wagered steak dinners and beers in the balcony lounge next to the well-stocked trophy case. The gate to championships via Brumfield, Muehleisen and Loveday in the early 1970s was out of the PPA. It became a racquetball mecca in attracting the future world champs Jerry Hilecher, Steve Serot, Dave Peck, myself, and Marty Hogan blasted a few there. At the PPA these young gentlemen were tactfully taken apart and put back together in losing to Muehleisen who gave each player about 20 years, whereas Loveday gave 30 to each of them. Brumfield’s uncanny ability to move forward to the ball came from outdoors, and his coverage was honed in these daily doubles matches. Brum and Muehl became the best-record paddleball

4 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 1: Born on an Outdoor Court and racquetball doubles team of the 20th century, and both won dual sport National Singles titles multiple times. Carl Loveday, a former world badminton champion, was about to become another key figure in Charlie’s life of racquetball.

The traits to become #1 in sport may be abridged as: 1- Genetic gift without which no one gets to a competitive #1. 2- Inclination and time to practice long hours. 3- An organized, analytical chess-playing mind. 4- A strong coach or role model helps.

5 1: Born on an Outdoor Court Brumfield: King of Racquetball

5- A strong competitive field is useful. 6- The secret to being #1 in a strong field is an edge, a tiny advantage repeated over and over to defeat the rest. Now, Brumfield had all the traits to become #1 AND the coaches, but was yet to find the winning edge. It was all coming together to make Charles royal. That’s where I stopped in his way. Despite my beating every national racquetball champion during the Pioneer Era of the 70s, Charlie Brumfield had my number. Our monthly battles at tournament finals around the country for ten years are summed in one ratio: Brumfield 3, Keeley 1. He had my number, but it took him a long ways around the courts and country to get it. I saw him coming in 1970 for the first time. I had hitchhiked jacketless in the dead of winter to the Fargo, ND, paddleball Nationals to get my buttocks kicked by Dr. Bud who had a broken foot in the semis. But the high point of the tournament was a sight to behold: A lanky, thick legged player in a visor over coke bottle spectacles dropped and hit a dozen forehand kills from the service box like a Gatling gun. It was beautiful. Over and over, the ball rolled back to his waiting hand like fetch. He never hit a backhand in the one-minute reconnoiter, but I could tell from the forehand drill there was none, and trotted away to get kicked by Muehleisen. The next year at the Flint, MI, nationals, I met Brumfield in the semis and got my first dose of the

6 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 1: Born on an Outdoor Court

‘A Stuff’ including donkey kicks, blocking, intentional long serves, and a constant banter. Finally, he threw off his visor and screamed at the gallery, ‘All right, you Michigan farmers. Stick a fork in him, he’s done!’ And I cooked him. Under the Gatorade jug, lying supine with an open mouth under the liquid, he sputtered, ‘No one remembers #2.’ He slinked back across the country to the PPA to the surprised glares of Muehleisen and Loveday. What should he do? ‘Go live with him, Babe,’ advised Loveday. ‘Learn his secrets,’ counseled Dr. Bud.

2: SUMMER OF CEILING BALLS

During that summer, fresh from surrendering his paddleball title but determined to earn it back. Charlie Brumfield and I lived together on University Ave. in East Lansing, MI, in a rock n’ roll band’s house called the Woolies that backed up Chuck Berry during the American age of sex, drugs and rock n’ roll. Once there, Brum was on a mission. He ordered up paddleball, racquetball, and beer, day and night. My priorities were veterinary grad school, dogs, and horses. We came together every afternoon on court 1 at the Michigan State Intramural building to play paddles, and later in the summer for racquets. And most evenings, I met him at the Lizard’s Underground bar to amuse ourselves. He drank about 20 beers nightly, but I got drunker on the fumes. Once he assured me I could develop ‘a taste for beer’ if I drank two nightly for a month. I complied and then stopped. He drank only beer, and after the first six, got playful. In the middle of the barroom stood a Foosball table, first come first serve, where Charlie and I walked up to. Across the table, rocking on their heels, stood a pair of hulking hockey players back when the MSU team was ranked country high. Brumfield’s dark eyes glare and are magnified by glasses staring at you across the court, and so he out mad-dogged them. ‘Gentlemen,’ Charlie said matter of factly, ‘this is the first rule of Foosball,’ and he jammed the player rods into both of the gorillas’ privates. They recoiled and started around the table at Brum, who braced, until I intervened with a stride

8 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 2: Summer of Ceiling Balls and inserted, ‘He’s a California newbie,’ and stepped aside knowing nothing about Foosball. It was a joke because he beat them one on two. At home, we fell into a peaceful coexistence which did not extend to the court. I showed him how to cook flank steak, and he ate it every night for three months. He practiced We fell into a peaceful paddleball and basketball coexistence except on the hard all day, drank hard court. I showed him how into the wee hours, and to cook flank steak, and went to bed playing the he ate it every night for three months. same Bob Dylan song Lay Lady Lay night after night. I had been warned that at nighttime under tournament or practice stress the High Sign (Fair Warning!) would flash in a nightmare. From sleepwalking at night as a youth with the rabbit ears, he had graduated to pouncing on his sleeping housemates shouting, ‘Twenty-one!’ You could see the dreamy eyes were not quite focused, and we would gently ward him away as the referee instead of opponent. During that time, I was full course into vet med spaying dogs and castrating cats in the morning, followed by two hours of court time with Brum at noon, grooming and trotting horses later in the afternoon, the bar, and venturing out on nights and weekends to make barn calls to pull calves from dystocia mothers. Charlie’s daily routine was to sleep late to rise without a hangover, basketball for three hours, paddleball for two hours, practice an

9 2: Summer of Ceiling Balls Brumfield: King of Racquetball hour, hit the weights, and if he ever did any running, I didn’t see it. In basketball, he threw elbows among players who were bigger and shot well from inside the key. Our matches drew a crowd where he was perturbed by the fans hooting against him and assuming by his backhand and noisy footwork that he had lost, when actually he had won one in three games of paddleball. Once, he ran so fast into the front wall to cover a shot that he disappeared, and reappeared on the floor laying on the ball he had re- killed. He was the quickest court coverer I had ever played. One day, in the dim underground hall that accesses the nine MSU courts, Brumfield sang out of the blue, ‘Dr. Bud thinks the sport of the future is racquetball.’ ‘Who’s Dr. Bud.?’ ‘The guy who kicked your ass in the 1970 Fargo Paddleball Nationals.’ ‘The one I hitchhiked to without a jacket in winter after having played for only three years?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘What’s racquetball?’ He lifted his Loveday autograph wood paddle and tapped the face, ‘It’s like this but with strings.’ ‘We don’t have any racquets.’ ‘Muehleisen will send them’ ‘We don’t have any balls.’

10 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 2: Summer of Ceiling Balls

‘YOU don’t have any balls.’ So we played racquetball. The racquets and a batch of black Seamco balls arrived a week later, and while opening them, Charlie explained, ‘Respect for Muehleisen runs so deep in the West that when Dr. Bud shifts sports, many follow, myself included.’ With that, we jumped on the courts and started hitting. The transition from wood to string took about one day for me, since those early balls were slow. Our daily play throughout the last month of his summer stay was racquetball, out of respect to Dr. Bud. Even my fans could see Brum was superior, and started rooting for him.

11 2: Summer of Ceiling Balls Brumfield: King of Racquetball

The result of our workouts was the birth of three shots in one month that are still used in modern racquetball. In the beginning, there was no sound defensive shot to answer deep court situations. The inadequate options were a lob that was uncontrollable off the strings, a pass which was unsuited for balls struck above the chest, a risky overhead, or a ceiling shot that was out of the question. The 18’’ long, early small-head racquets and dead balls left us exhausted after three shots to the ceiling. Brum and I sensed that the first player(s) to develop a sound return from chest high in deep court would win a season’s trophies. It fueled a crazy battle. I ‘invented’ the Around-the-World ball that players would race after each angle of flight in a circle like a hamster in a wheel before ending up in the original spot. Also in The result of our workouts was the birth of three solo practice, I perfected shots in one month that the Z-ball return that are still used in modern wasn’t as useful since it racquetball. had to be struck over the service line. Charlie picked up on both shots, and we used them sparingly against each other as hole cards should the sport actually storm the country. A sneaky thing I did was to contrive an answer to the Around-the-World ball, and I never used it once that summer against Brumfield thinking it would be my tournament edge to win. My invention was the volley return before the ball bounced and carried to the back wall.

12 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 2: Summer of Ceiling Balls

Meanwhile, Brumfield put his muscle into practicing the ceiling shot. I never saw Charlie practice, but his gun arm got bigger each day, with a tremendous grace that modeled an upward full body golf swing. And NOW he had a backhand shield to go with the forehand sword to shortly begin an unprecedented 57 tournament win streak. Later he admitted, ‘I commenced my effort to incorporate the ceiling as my principal defensive shot. This was in the summer of ’71 when I stayed with Steve Keeley in Lansing, MI. I hit a thousand a day while Keeley was attending veterinary school in the mornings, and then I would play him using the ceiling ball system in the afternoon. Keeley did not like the ceiling game particularly as he felt it took the excitement out of the rally, not to mention as a shooter he preferred my defensive shot to be somewhere other than ‘wall paper’ at 39 feet.’ One afternoon, Charlie summoned me with an index finger to a desk where he was writing on a legal pad, ‘The Serve,’ and next to it, ‘And how to Return it.’ He said, ‘I think we should co-author the first racquetball instructional article for Ace magazine. Bob Kendler’s handball group in Chicago thinks the wave of the future is racquetball, and Ace is the mouthpiece. It would be good exposure for you.’ So he wrote the first half, and I the second half of the dual-article, and only after it was published, I realized he had picked my return serve strategies dry off the page for the more important aspect of the game.

13 2: Summer of Ceiling Balls Brumfield: King of Racquetball

A Sports Illustrated story (‘He Found his Racquet’, Nov. 19, 1979) covered, in part, our summer of racquetball. ‘At that point in his career, Steve was the best offensive player there ever was,’ says Brumfield. ‘He could kill the ball from any position on the court with a high degree of accuracy. The shots that we worked on were really reactions to his offensive advantage over me.’ It dawned on me as Charlie returned to the West coast that the summer visit had been a setup to inoculate me to racquetball for his fodder, as well as to see what I could show and tell. Charlie fondly recites, ‘It is actually a point of pride as to how well I was able to compete during my vacation at law school and ‘studying’ for the Bar exam.’ It was my introduction to racquetball, and I was ignorant at the time that he was second in the nation at the sport behind Muehleisen. The tables eventually turned, and upon graduating from veterinary school in a Michigan blizzard in 1972 I was California dreaming. I followed Brumfield out to San Diego. Of course, coaches Muehleisen and Loveday, and their point man Charlie, had been playing a sporting game of Risk on the West coast trying to annex the Midwest paddleball stronghold. Others followed me from MSU—Mini-Hippy, Wristman, Baldori, Alder, Kathy Williams, Bionic Woman, Orham and Behm, to name a few. Charlie gave them all a ‘tour of the court’ and frequent donuts (games in which the opponents score 0 points) singing a jingle at 20-0 called ‘The Heavenly Donut Truck’ to rub it in.

14 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 2: Summer of Ceiling Balls

Nonetheless they lined up to play him until he got hoarse. I watched, began a thickening scrapbook of notes on other players, and started a daily regimen that would endure. My decade in racquetball of running 6 miles, biking 30 miles, one hour of weights, two hours of play, and an hour of practice. My California state board passing grade came back just in time for the inaugural 1973 NRC pro tour where I defeated Brumfield at the second event in the October Long Beach ProAm. The Golden Era of racquetball began, and Charlie Brumfield was teed off.

___

3: RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

Brumfield and I hit the California coast swinging. A good gamesman like Brumfield carried an eight-point spread going into a game, if he wanted it, against a fuming pacifist. A conversant ref could halve it, but few in the country were more versed and willful than the touring pros, and particularly the eloquent Brumfield. NRC director Chuck Leve was, but could not be on top of every game at once. The fans in general loved an embroiled battle of the wits with a little pushing and shoving on the court, and during the 70s as the sport spread so did the level of gamesmanship. A newbie entering the pro ranks faced two choices that sooner or later everyone in business, love, and life must decide: Do I want war, or do I want to be a square shooter? Of the two philosophies, war was more prevalent. There's a beautiful rumor going around that the first two national racquetball champions were won by cheating. At the 1968 Milwaukee national ‘Paddle Racquet’ event, Bill Schultz admits in his

The fans in general autobiography that against loved an embroiled Bill Schmidtke at 18-18 in battle of the wits with a the final tiebreaker he was little pushing and tired, and Schmidtke was shoving. ‘strong and hot.’ Bill stepped in front of Schmidtke’s forehand and got hit on the arm to ask for an injury timeout. He took the full ten minutes and returned to win 21-18 for the championship. In 1969, it was Bud Muehleisen against Brumfield in the final at 20-14 with Charlie

16 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 3: Rules of Engagement serving for game, match and championship. This point deserves some backing up to set the scene. In 1969, there were only 50,000 players in Y’s, J’s and campus courts across the nation. A letter went out from the St. Louis JCC of the upcoming IRA nationals, and Dr. Bud and Charlie decided to compete only six weeks before the event. Since both were experienced paddleball champions, they got racquets for a crash course in the new sport. A few weeks later, Dr. Bud used the Dayton ‘Steel’ string racquet against Charlie and the wooden ‘Clunker’ Sportcraft in the final.

‘For the record,’ says Dr. Bud used the Dayton Muehl, ‘For my match ‘Steel’ string racquet with Charlie Brumfield in against Charlie and the the 1969 Nationals in St. wooden ‘Clunker’ Louis, I used a Dayton Sportcraft in the final. Steel Racket which was double strung with a corrugated smooth wire. The racket was very light in the head but would wear out quickly, because at the throat of the racket the single-tube steel would bend (back and forth) and finally give way and break.’ ‘For the record,’ counters Brumfield, ‘I preferred the Sportcraft wooden Clunker, and the 17-year spot Bud gave me.’ Going into the tiebreaker that day the ball was so dead that a ceiling ball was impossible to execute. A lot of maneuvering brought the pair to match point. ‘I won the first game easily and then in the second was leading 20-14 and was serving to Dr. Bud,’ says

17 3: Rules of Engagement Brumfield: King of Racquetball

Brumfield. ‘There ensued a disputed referee’s call that so upset me that I lost that game and ultimately the title. Someone in the gallery muttered within earshot, ‘For your first national champion would you rather have Dr. Bud or THAT?’ Marty Hogan was there. ‘I saw the match, an 11-year tot with Joe Zelson and Mike Zeitman. I will never forget Joe’s comment, ‘That ref’s call was the worst cheat I ever saw.’ ‘My feelings were hurt,’ lingers Charlie. ‘So please never talk to me about the meaning of ‘homered’ (home conditions, referee or crowd favorites). However, maybe the spectator was right and it was ‘for the best,’ both in my case and Schmidtke’s the next year. Then Serot, and Hogan. Things work out for the best, even between us.’ The ‘kid’ got robbed in ’69 and set the tenor for gamesmanship and championship racquetball throughout the golden era. ‘I am certain Dr. Bud has My feelings were hurt,’ lingers Charlie. ‘So long forgotten how it was he please never talk to won that ‘first’ nationals. me about the meaning Almost everyone who saw it of ‘homered’. is now dead. Even after all these years, I have not. But Bud has been a GREAT champion and has done more good things for the players and for the sport than anyone in history. He worked with me for years and helped me financially and otherwise.’ It begs the question why, after Dr. Bud broke three Dayton racquets in the finals and his protégé’s heart,

18 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 3: Rules of Engagement the two of them according to each remain lifelong friends. The answer is it was all in the game, the wonderful game. Charlie had been no angel before the avoidable that stole his crown. As he admits, ‘I’ve been thinking a LOT about my loss and I have reviewed the conduct of the ‘69 nationals PRIOR to the finals. In at least one of the matches and maybe two (Steve Schneider in the quarters and Ken Porco in the semi’s), I would not have won the match to advance without employing unsanctioned tactics. Porco was a beast and faster than his size should

I fully understand as well a have allowed. In those robust reluctance by my days, I played very close contemporaries to ever and when an opponent consider me as a victim. jacked me with a pass, I But to be sure, the calls pushed off aggressively and the pranks did not always go in my favor. with my left arm to go back and make the opponent pay for the temerity. Porco bitterly complained in all three games. It is improper for me to hold others to a higher standard than I myself employed. I fully understand as well a robust reluctance by my contemporaries to ever consider me as a victim. But to be sure, the calls and the pranks did not always go in my favor.’ Mike Zeitman, who went down in the quarters to PPA’s Chuck Hannah, effuses, ‘Yes, we ran around and always bumped into each other. There were no avoidable hinders except among gentlemen, and there were few gentlemen in the sport on close calls. With wooden racquets it was a different game,

19 3: Rules of Engagement Brumfield: King of Racquetball breathing down each other’s neck the whole match. The pinch wasn’t available because the racquet made it impossible to hit. Strategies were primitive. There was rare deliberate use of the ceiling because home town light fixtures delivered freak balls that could go in 20 different directions, leaving you exhausted. Plaster courts got chipped and balls took weird detours that caused players to collide. Doors weren’t flush. Refereeing without static rules was chaos. Cheating, not calling the skips, serving wet balls, taking away your opponents’ shots by deliberately standing in the ball’s path, was everyman’s game. Everything, everything, was in transition, and it, like the early nationals, was a messy birth.’ The High Sign in racquetball was on, and it began with Charlie Brumfield. The ante up throughout the 70s made the professional sport more interesting to television, Hollywood and betting to polish or tarnish the Golden Era (depending on how you look at it) from 1971-80. The pro tournaments during that growth and boom were all about the three different game styles of honesty, cheating, and gamesmanship. I was too ignorant to cheat and too graceful to get hurt except for one fractured finger, broken nose, and a dislocated knee. Yet, unlike Brumfield, I refused to succumb through a dozen national titles in paddleball and racquetball to develop a formula against any rival who cheated. Immediately, the first slight was let slide; the second cheat was politely pointed out; and after the third, it was tit-for-tat and I kept a running credit. In the 70s,

20 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 3: Rules of Engagement when Charlie started flipping the high sign to herald a match, and was about to come to blows, the entire racquetball scene was anxious with weak refereeing, ‘homering’ and gamesmanship. Gamesmanship is bending the rules, manipulating the ref, and hypnotizing the crowd to gain an edge on the court. The best gamesman in racquetball history was my nemesis Charlie Brumfield, a genius attorney who applies his techniques in the court of law and routinely gets thrown out by judges with stiffer spines than racquetball referees. A straight player gave away a point a cheat or shenanigan which added up to about eight points in each 21- point game. There are a hundred tricks. Intentional long servers control the game pace and double the length. Charlie’s lob serve into the back wall came gently to rest at the front wall for a stroll to get it for the second serve. You Gamesmanship is squeeze or wet the ball bending the rules, before serving to make it manipulating the ref, and knuckle and slide. A hypnotizing the crowd to sweating receiver lingers gain an edge on the court. in one spot until a pool forms, and the next time serves into it. Physical intimidation includes blocking opponents, or shots, striking with the racquet, or ball, thrown elbows, and all the combinations. Charlie donkey kicked with a jump and thrust backward into the foe’s midsection to propel himself to front court to cover shots.

21 3: Rules of Engagement Brumfield: King of Racquetball

The best strategy against a Yankee operator, given a shrinking referee and a conscience not to fight him, is stoicism. A strong stoic cuts the gamesman’s edge by 70% by not engaging him. ‘Silence is the perfect repartee.’ But sooner or later the luck of the draw brings on the cruelest strategist, and you get fan support. They heckle the clown to fair play or threaten him during timeouts. There’s no need for that. An opinionated girl in the San Diego gallery once sat through the glass in the left rear corner and flashed her underwear every time Charlie went for my passes. Ah, the golden era. Crafty Brumfield developed a dedicated following of screaming, drinking Brum’s Bums who lined the front row bleachers, and next to the referee where alcohol fumes sank heavily into the court that stunk it up like a dance hall. Sooner or later, the high sign would go up in the court from Brum, the Bums would whoop and place their bets, and inside the court the opponent was guaranteed a grind to win, or even survive. Three specific instances come to mind. The first was in 1969 at the Ames, Iowa paddleball Nationals against former champion Paul Lawrence. Charlie was getting thumped when Loveday thumbed his chin for the High Sign from the gallery, and yelled, ‘Hit it though him, Babe.’ The next deadly shot changed the town name to Aims and nicked Paul’s ear lobe, and the following straight into it, to knock Lawrence out of the game point wise. The second episode ignited a string of 25 straight tournament game wins against blooming

22 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 3: Rules of Engagement

Hall of Famer Steve Serot. Charlie rocketed a shot into Serot’s agape mouth as he concentrated, and it stuck in the braces. Throughout the career winning streak that followed, Brum had only to hold up The next deadly shot changed the town name to the game ball, stare at it Aims and nicked Paul’s and murmur, ‘Where are ear lobe. the railroad tracks?’ During a racquetball match, all sorts of psyching is permitted. It was perfectly common, if not ho-hum, for one player to threaten to kill another. Brumfield once stuck a racquet under young Hogan's chin, pushed him a few inches and threatened to bop him if he didn't back off. Brumfield was penalized one point… and won going away. Later he predicted, ‘I believe that as Hogan matures he will lose his nasty edge and be more beatable.’ ‘Outspoken, brash, entertaining’, recalls IRA’s Chuck Leve. ‘Brum knew for the game to grow it had to be a spectacle, and he never disappointed. Watching him maneuver ‘within’ the rules was always something to which I was tuned in, as it ultimately became my job to enforce those rules.’ Racquetball Museum curator and fellow pro Randy Stafford reflects, ‘One thing stands out about Charlie when I saw or played him. After a hard fought point or match he would look up at the audience or at the ref and yell out, ‘God’s Will!’ He would usually raise his hand as if pointing or his arms in an

23 3: Rules of Engagement Brumfield: King of Racquetball overhead ‘V’ thanking the court gods for his triumph.’ That is how I remember him also, as Brumfield and racquetball steamrolled into the Golden Era.

___

4: ROOTS OF PRO RACQUETBALL

The 1971 National Singles Invitational in San Diego for the first time brought all the top players together. The reason is that for the first time the 16 invitees were getting our plane fares paid for. The initial thing you noticed on walking into the Mel Gorham's Sports Center is Miss San Diego in a small, tight bikini, throwing a kiss. Next in line, Bud Leach with a Swinger racquet—the first fiberglass prototype—freshly forged in his garage with a $20 bill wrapped around the handle shakes each player’s hand with it. Then my attention fell onto the first glass side wall I had ever seen on an exhibition court, and I wondered if it would help my backhand against the best in the nation. Next you shook hands with the smiling club owner Mel Gorham, and everyone was pointed into the French fry men's locker room. There was a soda machine that sold cold 7Ups on that hot day for 25 cents. Brum’s Bums hit the stands! They clapped hands and stamped feet like an old tent revival bobbing signs ‘Brumfield #1, God #2, Keeley #3.’ The only match in His life that his father, the Marine Colonel, saw him play was against me in the semis. Charlie wore a Yuba City Disposal shirt for the occasion, as the beer guzzling Bums sang twisted odes to their Brum’s Bums hit the hero on my back wall stands! They clapped hands and stamped feet setups. I hit a drive to like an old tent revival Brumfield’s famous bobbing signs ‘Brumfield forehand on his game #1, God #2, Keeley #3.’ point that flailed, and the

25 4: Roots of Pro Racquetball Brumfield: King of Racquetball ball vaporized from the court—it disappeared. The gallery hushed as we discussed a second ball, and exited for a drink to await the ref’s decision. I stooped and pointed at his racquet where the ball wedged in the throat! The champion stomped back into the court with his arms upraised in a victory salute, the unseen ball dangling in the racquet from his wrist, and he screamed, ‘Tell Bud Leach to string the crotch!’ Bud Muehleisen and 15-year-old Steve Serot came up the other side of the draw. I had beaten #1 seed Bill Schmidtke in the first round, and Garfinkle in the quarters, and then I passed Serot to take 3rd. Brumfield defeated Muehleisen for the first invitational championship. Bathing beauties handed out awards, the Pacific lapped five blocks away, and the tournament set the tenor and seeds for future racquetball, and many future champions were produced. This was the beginning of professional racquetball, and equipment would mold the future game and its champions. Starting in 1971 and continuing to 1986, virtually every top player in the sport was sponsored by one of two San Diego-based racquet manufacturers: Ektelon and Leach Industries. Both companies were the brainchilds of retired elite athletes. With the help of racquetball pioneer Dr. Bud Muehleisen, Ektelon was founded by Bud Held, an Olympic Javelin Thrower and Pan Am Games Gold Medalist. Leach was started by its namesake,

26 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 4: Roots of Pro Racquetball

Bud Leach, a multiple National Trick Water Ski Champion. The two companies had similar roots but very different cultures, and both inspired fierce loyalty from their players. The most well-known from the Ektelon and Leach camps in the 70s and 80s were: £ Ektelon: Bud Muehleisen, Bill Schmidtke, Steve Strandemo, Jerry Hilecher, Mike Yellen, Dave Peck, Ed Andrews, Ruben Gonzalez, and Cliff Swain. £ For Leach: Charlie Brumfield, Steve Keeley, Steve Serot, Rich Wagner, Davey Bledsoe, Craig McCoy, Marty Hogan, Benny Koltun, Bret Harnett, and Gregg Peck. (Later on, Wilson signed 1977 National Champions Davey Bledsoe and Shannon Wright… and pro racquetball rookie Dave Peck in 1978. Vittert signed multiple National Champions Bud Muehleisen and Peggy Steding. Head signed Canadian National Champion and top pro Steve Strandemo and Junior National Champion Doug Cohen.) My little place in the pioneer companies began at the ’71 nationals when, with a nervous walk, I entered Ektelon and shook hands with the sole worker, Bud Held, in what was little more than a machine shop with metal benders and a couple stringing machines. However, Held greeted me with a warm smile, and after explaining that I was the incumbent paddleball champ and a participant in the ongoing invitational, he gave me a new Muehleisen metal racquet that

27 4: Roots of Pro Racquetball Brumfield: King of Racquetball henceforth was worth ten points per game. But I dared not use it in this tournament without practice. The only way to get an Ektelon racquet at the time was to visit the factory or to know someone. Bud Leach, who had put the first fiberglass racquet in my hand the day before, courted me after the Ektelon visit with a steak dinner and explained that he ran his car tires over his trick skis overnight to bend them into the shapes that had won him world championships. He predicted that he would take over the industry with fiberglass racquets designed in the same way. During dessert he offered me a verbal contract for equipment plus expenses paid to the Big Four tournaments (National Singles and Doubles Opens, and National Invitational Singles and Doubles), which I shook hands on, and remained loyal throughout my ten-year playing career while using a 312-gram orange Bandido. It was an honor getting to know the Buds Leach and Held over the years, and I remained fairly immune from the rivalry between the two player camps in San Diego. Canadian star Brad Kruger migrated to San Diego late in the Golden era and threw in with the Leach group, portraying the two camps as the innovators and the executors. The innovators were Loveday, Brum, me, and in fact, most of the Leach group, who challenged every rule, examined and modified every approach, and changed the game radically—these were the outlaws, imaginative and inventive, whose reward came not only with winning, but with creating. Our reputation was as point men of the

28 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 4: Roots of Pro Racquetball sport, its captains of industry focused as much on the game's progress as on our own careers. We were unpredictable, the wild card innovators who shocked the crowds with the crack of an ace or grace of an overhead. We were mavericks, and proudly unmanageable. In the other camp were the executors with Peck, Strandemo, Yellen, Hilecher—essentially the Ektelon camp. Our alter-egos were unimaginative but calculating, literally reducing, concentrating and optimizing what had come before… not to expand into new, complex and fascinating territories of discovery, but working the odds, working them over and over and reducing the fields of error until each developed a relatively simple and exceedingly effective game. These were the sport yuppies, who took what they could from what had been and developed an approach that rewarded reaction. They were the scavengers but nobody could tell because they looked the part, they wore the right clothes, lathered on the cologne and joined the right groups. They were predictable, absolutely, and whereas in earlier days the sport, with its long rallies and exhausting strategic requirements, originally rewarded the innovators, now with increased ball speed, improved equipment and decreased length of rallies, the sport evolved to the point where imagination and thinking was not only triumphed by reaction and instinct, but thinking on the court was becoming a detriment to the game. In 1972-3, as the ball livened and racquets improved, the innovators slowly, grudgingly gave way to the

29 4: Roots of Pro Racquetball Brumfield: King of Racquetball executors, until only Charlie Brumfield among us was our champion for the innovators. ‘I AM the People’s Champion!’ he began to shriek after wins. It echoed up and down the hall of America’s first court club, Mel Gorham’s Sports Center of San Diego. Built in 1971, a five minute jog up Turquoise Street from the Pacific beach where the players used to run 6.8 mile laps between Crystal Pier and the Jetty before returning to the Sports Center for racquetball, Gorham’s became the training and proving grounds for young promising players from around the country. Mel Gorham was a mild mannered grocery store and construction boss with handball hands in California, where dreams come true to the willing. As a mecca, Gorham’s produced more national champions during the 20th century than all the rest of the clubs in the country combined. Kruger describes, ‘A typical day at Gorham's began like

30 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 4: Roots of Pro Racquetball

Darwin's Origin of Species, moved through Nietzsche’s ‘That which does not kill me makes me stronger,’ and ended with us exhausted; we moved like extras in George Romero's Night of the A typical day at Gorham's began like Darwin's Origin Living Dead. But it was of Species, moved OK because we were through Nietzsche’s ‘That practicing in the Hall of which does not kill me Fame: Brumfield and makes me stronger,’ and Loveday would stun me ended with us exhausted. and a hundred others, over and over, with shots. There was a rest, and then back into the Hall to go through each point stroke by stroke that at first the young players thought was a ploy designed to awe them into submission of their intellectual skills, but we soon realized they were really doing a point by point analysis. As time went by, the disciples began to do the same on a new level of focus, to ‘move up.’ Brumfield was the marquis player for Leach Industries, the leading manufacturer of racquets at the time. From ’71 to ’76 Leach produced several Brumfield signature rackets including the very popular ‘Graphite Brumfield’ which was the first graphite composite. A full-page Leach ad in the trade magazines vaunted Brumfield posed in a classic forehand at contact with the ball wired to the strings of his new signature Graphite Brumfield. The banner headline surged, ‘Get the Feel of the Best. Charlie Brumfield did, and he’s a National Champ.’ I had no signature racquet, but learned a lot living with Leach President Charley Drake for three years,

31 4: Roots of Pro Racquetball Brumfield: King of Racquetball and in traveling with him and plant foreman Ray Bayer to Taiwan with a 4’ long racquet posing for photos and meeting Mr. Kunnan to forge the Kunnan-Leach Co. that became Pro-Kennex. For a brief time, Brumfield had his own sports brand label with pal Ron Starkman, known as BrumStar which marketed rackets and sports apparel. ‘Something went wrong with the molding,’ is Charlie’s rundown when the first BrumStar racquet I tried bent back like a tinker toy on the first few shots. When stuck in the back window of a car on a California afternoon, by sunset the racquet would warp like a leaf and was used for handicap matches. Later Brumstar models were better quality and, according to Ron Starkman, the sponsored players who won tournaments include Craig McCoy, Shannon Wright, Jeff Larson, Steve Dunn, Hank Markus and Mike Yellen. After a couple of years, Brumfield returned to Leach and the former company became known as StarMaster. San Diego attorney, Rodan Pucalpa, used his black Brumstar state of the art carbon as an introduction to Brumfield at an early tournament at the Helix Court House in San Diego. ‘I was playing C’s in about my third tournament, and Brumfield was a hero of mine for his cerebral play, and I had shelled out $20 to use the racquet that I didn’t particularly like the way it hit but it had Brumfield’s signature, and was an icebreaker to approach the star for an actual autograph. It was the quarterfinals, and matches had

32 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 4: Roots of Pro Racquetball run long, and ours started at 2:30 in the morning when the only one in the gallery was Brumfield drinking. I was ecstatic to have an autograph and a hero of mine to referee the match, and we began. In ten minutes it was obvious that the referee was very drunk, loud and obnoxious, and I … it was obvious that the motioned to have him removed. It referee was very succeeded, and that’s how I met drunk, loud, and Charlie, went on to win the obnoxious, and I tournament, and we became motioned to have him drinking buddies.’ removed. It In 1973, when Brumfield returned succeeded, and to Leach, sober things were taking that’s how I met Charlie… place in racquetball. The International Racquetball Association (IRA) saw chief Bob Kendler leave to form an amateur US Racquetball Association (USRA) and the professional National Racquetball Club (NRC). The three groups continued to grow throughout the nation and then the world in the 1970s and early 80s. In 1979, the IRA changed its name to the American Amateur Racquetball Association (AARA), and again in 1997 it took its present name USA Racquetball (USAR). All of the groups except USRA went belly up in the 80s with the decline of the sport due apparently to the rise of the health and fitness industry. But Brum’s 1973 reconnection with Leach foreshadowed the greatest advance in the sport’s history to date. The September 1973 Volume 1 #1

33 4: Roots of Pro Racquetball Brumfield: King of Racquetball

National Racquetball Magazine inaugural issue announced ‘Pro Racquetball is Here!’ The green cover shows Charlie in the rich paneled Leach office signing the first long-term equipment contract in history under a life size poster with sardonic grins on both faces while looking up and away from the paper at me cut out of the photo. The first year of pro ball literally did not run true to course of the photo. The first three pro money winners in history are surprises: 1. Steve Serot def Bill Schmidtke in Houston, TX—September 1973 NRC Houston Pro Am 2. Steve Keeley def Charlie Brumfield in Long Beach, CA— October 1973 NRC Long Beach Pro Am 3. Charlie Brumfield def Steve Serot in Milwaukee, WI—March 1974 NRC Milwaukee Open. Prior to these events we were playing for T-shirts and trophies… hitchhiking, busing, freighting and carpooling across the country to the Big Four annual events. The initial prizes were about $1000 to the winner, $500 runner-up, and $250 third. Serot used his purse to get his first St. Louis date with a top female player who worked the JCC cage and became his wife. I bought a ´74 Chevy van with a 7’ stuffed rabbit named Fillmore Hare riding shotgun and drove players to tournaments in the southwest. And

34 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 4: Roots of Pro Racquetball

Charlie Brumfield bought a new luxury Cadillac Seville and took his father around the block. The first two years of pro ball from were all about Brumfield, Keeley and Serot. The Brumfield-Keeley matches ran at a rate of about three per year throughout the 70s decade (after Muehleisen ducked into the Seniors and beyond to win 69 national and international titles!). These contests were model play for the pioneer era, and the shots and strategies remained in the young players’ form after we left tournaments, and were disseminated by the media. It made sense that our shots and strategies developed the winningest games in town after town. Each rally was scientific and interesting to the analytical mind: A player serves a lob or garbage, the other returns to the ceiling and a ceiling rally ensues. After five hits one shot comes up short or off the side wall, and a brief rally commences low to the hardwood ending in a killshot. My problem against Charlie was the same as other players had all the time. Like Alice, Brumfield often speaks of ‘getting small’ to move past an opponent and into proper court Like Alice, Brumfield often coverage, and ‘getting speaks of ‘getting small’ to move past an opponent big’ to prevent the and into proper court opponent from moving coverage, and ‘getting big’ into proper court to prevent the opponent coverage. This style from moving into proper executed to eloquence by court coverage. him was effective, as he

35 4: Roots of Pro Racquetball Brumfield: King of Racquetball tends to sacrifice technical swing mechanics when it allows him to move his opponent out of position, or when he can use his own body to block his opponent's view of the ball, particularly while the ball is traveling between Brumfield's racquet and the front wall. Even in ceiling rallies where Brumfield had the best game going, he was as pestiferous as a google-eyed fly touch and go repeatedly. This forces a dramatic reduction in the opponent's ability to anticipate the shot, to go forward to the ball, broke my concentration, and allows Brumfield numerous options. As such, I won one in three matches over the years, and fared poorer in the bigger pro stops and gala events where he upshifted the gamesmanship in relation to the import of the match. When you went into a final against Charlie you geared him down by sending him chocolates, as Bill Schmidtke did, or dates the night before per the Michigan subterfuge, or hired a Californian to take him drinking. Even with these handicaps, plus a weak backhand, he governed racquetball with back-to-back IRA National Singles championships in 1972 and 1973, and again in 1975 and 1976 with IRA/IPRO and NRC pro National Singles championships. How did he do it? The traits to become #1 include a repeating edge over the competition, and for Brumfield it was as simple as hitting the ceiling. The thousand a day ceiling drill he had practiced in the summer of ’71 had been further refined by the time he started stacking on the championships in ’72-‘73. The result

36 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 4: Roots of Pro Racquetball was the best Sword and Shield of the early racquetball conquistadors—you wouldn’t think it deadly but it was. In sword and shield, the forehand is the sword used to kill all setups and to administer the royal torturous tour of the court to those willing In sword and shield, the forehand is the sword to run down shot after used to kill all setups and shot and die a slow death to administer the royal via a racquet. By design, torturous tour of the court virtually all offense to those willing to run down shot after shot and comes from forehand die a slow death via a shots, so to employ this racquet. regal attack the forehand sword had better be sharp, and Sir Brum owned the sharpest. The backhand had better be thickly defended, and it was. The backhand is used as a shield of constant deep court ceiling shots, and when the foe erred with the dead balls it allowed a step around a backhand for the sharper forehand. The backhand was only used as an offensive weapon in advance of the short line where it's a high percentage put away. To cap it, Brumfield often sprang offensively from a defensive position with a slashing overhead. ‘No one has accomplished so much in a sport relative to his natural attributes. Amazingly he was like Poncho Gonzales in tennis. Able to be the best without a backhand,’ praises the usually removed world squash turned racquetball champion, Victor Niederhoffer.

37 4: Roots of Pro Racquetball Brumfield: King of Racquetball

Brumfield also committed the least number of Mental and Physical errors in a game, to which I was nearly his equal, and so may comment... Physical errors occur when you miss a shot due to bad footwork, a poor swing, or anything not having to do with a mistake in shot selection. Players make physical errors each rally and it’s no big deal, they say. It’s true that corrective instruction plus practice diminish the chance of repeating physical errors. On the other ledger, mental errors are faulty brainwork, usually in shot selection. You should have taken a specific shot from a certain court position, but for some reason did not. These mental errors may be corrected instantly by an assertion of will, even during a match. However unnoticed or uncorrected, mental slights become losing habits. Among club players every rally is fraught with both physical and mental errors, and the general rule is that the first player to correct them via lessons and practice advances to a higher division. There at the Open level he’ll still make a few correctable physical errors in progressing on to the pros, where the rule is no physical errors, period… it’s all mental there. Physical vs. mental errors is about delayed gratification, and Charlie Brumfield had learned early on at the raft’s edge from his dad, and then against Muehleisen when just one point away from winning the ’69 championship, just how to wait. He played hundreds of hours of practice games where his opponents/pupils agreed beforehand to pause after each rally to reflect, analyze and correct each

38 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 4: Roots of Pro Racquetball other’s mistakes. The ideal game—the Brumfield Way—was zero pauses with no physical and no mental errors. If both players in a high stakes match make zero physical and mental errors, what is the deciding factor? This is where Charlie steps up and few may follow. The professional level of any sport is all about intentions. Locke said, ‘Intention is when the mind, with great earnestness, and of choice, fixes its view on any idea.’ In sport, you study the opponent’s face, hands, gait and grace to quietly determine how he will act the next split-second. What is his design? How soon does the scheme dawn on him, and how long before he physically reaches a point of no return and executes it? Observing these signs is to predict his first intent, and make a counter even as, or before, he moves. The opponent, of course, is looking you up and down the same. Hence, second intent evolves during first: a counter to a counter. Intention is stretching the mind toward an object, and with practice you will anticipate a competitor’s actions before he does. How far intentions reach is problematic: 1st… 5th… in chess predicting ten moves ahead blindfolded. Keep grounded that second intention is reference to signs, properties, guesses and relations among first intentions. Sequentially, third intent is established during the second, and so on. Then decide how far you can or want to go. Brumfield went at least one intent further than all his opponents.

39 4: Roots of Pro Racquetball Brumfield: King of Racquetball

If Gamesmanship, Sword and Shield, plus intentions weren’t enough to win… Charlie lost. I always questioned the rare occasions when I beat him that it was in a grander scheme. By 1973, all the top 16 players could hit two perfect ceiling shots, I could hit four, and Brumfield about eight in a row that clung to the left side like wallpaper. His body torque and stiff arm backhand That’s how the ceiling game started, to my stroke became the knowledge, and was standard throughout his propagated up and down first two National Singles the court walls around the Titles in 1972-3 owed country. mostly to the ceiling. That’s how the ceiling game started, to my knowledge, and was propagated up and down the court walls around the country. Then the evolution of equipment shifted the focus from the ceiling to close to the floor. Charlie comments, ‘As the ball sped up in the ‘73 season, I converted my game back to the passing method as my ceiling ball did not reliably stay short of the back wall. Also, I had signed with Leach and the ceiling ball sticking to the wall was not easy to hit with a fiberglass instrument, which was less firm at the edges of contact.’ The reason the ball livened and at the same time racquetball became popular in the pivotal year 1973 is because the livelier ball had a shorter learning curve for a wider audience including kids, grandparents, the sedentary and, then the true motivating reason, females. Where the girls went, the guys followed. Thousands of clubs sprung up

40 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 4: Roots of Pro Racquetball like mushrooms across the country. Charlie married, selecting for genes and love, ‘The second fastest Caucasian girl in San Diego County, Pat Ritter.’ And the sport got so big that the players went outdoors. The invasion of the indoor pros to outdoor started in 1974. The Nationals the first two years were at the Orange Coast College outdoor three-wall courts a lob north from the San Diego home of the indoor champions. A couple weeks prior to the tournaments the four-wall pros typically left indoor practices for a couple weeks tune up outside before the opening day of the outdoor contest. They arrived with visors and sunburns and the fans pressing question was, who would win: Indoor Shirts or Outdoor Skins? Top indoor pro Steve Keeley arrived on a local bus late to his match at Orange Coast and stepped onto the court against his first-round opponent and the three-time national wrestling champ Myron Roderick. Roderick was already serving 3-0, and Keeley asked for a warm up having never played the sport. Roderick lifted him over his head like a propeller on a beanie in a dizzying airplane spin, and served him on the court to make the point, ‘Get to the court on time!’ Roderick lifted him over The southern California his head like a propeller on a beanie in a dizzying fans began lining the airplane spin, and served sidelines. The other him on the court to make problems in adapting to the point, ‘Get to the court the outdoor game on time!’ included no side walls to

41 4: Roots of Pro Racquetball Brumfield: King of Racquetball reflect passes in deep court, no ceiling, and sunshine instead of fluorescent lights. During the age of small racquets and slower balls, outdoors was truly a specialty talent. The court in those days was huge by indoor standards, there were no side service lines and the slower ball invited the three-wall players to torment the pros with lobs into the sun, Z-serves off the court, and three wall ball ‘out the door’ shots onto a side court. At the first 1974 Outdoor Nationals, Charlie beat Steve Serot in the Open Division Finals. He teamed with Muehleisen to win the doubles that year. ‘As you know my Brumfield is one of a kind. I went into every match with complete confidence we were going to win. Most teams including the top pros at the time were intimidated when we stepped on the court, which accounts for my satisfactory performance,’ says Muehleisen. The next year he beat Barry Wallace in the singles final, but lost with Muehleisen in doubles. Indoors had gone outdoors, and while Charlie was no virgin outdoors, he had surprised everyone. Brumfield had won the outdoor National Singles Championships in 1974 and 1975 in his only attempts at that title. Many were shocked to remember that he had been born to the sport on the Mar Vista Junior High outdoor court. In addition, there was only the sword and no shield required. You can step over the side line and hit a forehand at any time. Remember no side walls deep in court to stop a righty with a strong forehand to step to his left

42 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 4: Roots of Pro Racquetball and put it away. When the opponent tries to play the weakness they are playing right into the sweet spot. The 1974 Outdoor was rough for Charlie after so long indoors. He says, ‘The first national in ‘74 at Orange Coast was an unbelievable test. A large percentage of the pros lost in the first round, playing 3-wall players who looked like C-players but took most of us down to Chinatown. I and Serot were the best indoor-go-outdoor pros at the sport, for different reasons. He was extremely mobile and could shoot from sixty feet, where the four-wall player habitually found himself. I was able to survive the draw because I made few errors (i.e. kept the ball in the court), and stopped the Z-serve from getting wide when possible. The three wall god was Barry Wallace. He was kind enough to schedule the pros when the sun was cresting the cement front wall. Then came the blizzard of lobs and three-wall up and outs—Three Blind Mice.’ Indoor pro Rich Wagner competed and was in awe of Brumfield’s outdoor prowess. ‘Charlie crossed over to outdoor very well because he started in diapers on outdoor and knew how to analyze the differences in outdoor versus indoor racquetball. He followed the angles and was able to hit the shots that would move his opponents ‘out the door’. He also had the ability to hit amazing overhead corner kills from deep court, and he could hit the ball on the fly, and even developed a front court dump shot. In

43 4: Roots of Pro Racquetball Brumfield: King of Racquetball essence, Brum was able to implement the ‘Tour of the Court’ four-wall strategy into the outdoor game.’ During the next year, the 1975 National was a similar performance on wide, hot courts except Charlie defeated Barry Wallace in the final. ‘My opponents often played without shirts to try to stay cool. I was accurate and willing enough to take advantage of that fault.’ Veteran player, Jim Spittle, who watched him in 1975 observes, ‘He ran his challengers ragged from side-to-side and somehow hit inches from the sideline without hitting the ball out. When the opponent was in the front court, he punished them with nearly perfect lobs into the sun. With the small fiberglass racquets and He ran his challengers slow balls he couldn’t ragged from side to side rely on tricky serves like and somehow hit inches today’s outdoor players. from the sideline without He didn’t get free points hitting the ball out. on cheap aces on a wide court, but he gave free points to an exhausted opponent at the right moment by hitting it out.’ Marty Hogan has described Brumfield as ‘the best outdoor player ever to play the game.’ Charlie won both the singles and doubles titles at the 1974 and 1975 Outdoor Racquetball Nationals teaming with trusted partners Muehleisen in 1974 and Wallace in 1975. Brumfield would never again play the outdoor events leaving him unbeaten outdoors. Brumfield and Hogan are the only players to ever win the

44 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 4: Roots of Pro Racquetball

Triple Crown of singles championships in indoor racquetball, outdoor racquetball, and paddleball. Brumfield also won the triple crown of doubles championships, a feat unlikely to be repeated.

___

5: GLITZ

Charlie’s game was indoors when racquetball went pro in 1973, with an increased action and heat born of the feminine influence. Southern California was the early women’s racquetball hotbed. Sex happened, which set the pace for racquet and health facility development that sped across the nation. Women interested in racquetball filled their courts, so the industry responded by constructing thousands of fresh racquet and fitness centers in the US and then the world! Rock, Hollywood, and political chiefs smiled at you from glossy covers, while holding wine glasses and racquets in poor grips, as Brumfield and I sweated it out in dozens of well- attended contests at grand openings, exhibitions, and tournament finals. The game went glitz. It is easily said it all … as Brumfield and I sweated it out in dozens started with the belly of contests at grand dancer. Brumfield won openings, exhibitions, and her annual hug with his tournament finals. The trophy at the Queen Mary game went glitz. tournaments in Long Beach throughout the 70s. Stephanie Cordimas jiggled in an exhibition before the finals, usually between Brum and me, and was herself an entrant in the Queen Mary. In ’75, she won her first round with ex-Olympic gold medal winning diver, Pat McCormick, before being ousted. Brumfield used a sword and shield of sharp forehand and defensive backhand, and with each ensuing tournament came a stateroom for the King of Racquetball on the Queen

46 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 5: Glitz

Mary docked off Long Beach. The rest of the best occupied space in the hold. The Playboy Doubles Invitational was another sensuous perennial in Century City. The tournament offered little purses and a bevy of pretty girls in long ears strolling about the club before all-night parties. Brumfield fondly recalls the first Playboy Invitational. ‘I have the group picture with my arm around the playmate at home along with the champion trophy. Ah!’ says Brumfield, ‘the good old days.’ In 1977 Davey Bledsoe shocked the racquetball world by drubbing Marty Hogan at the San Diego Atlas Nationals. The 6’1” wiry athlete his fans called ‘The Golden Retriever’ for his curly blond hair and fiery footwork had inroads with Playboy too, and nearly eclipsed Brumfield’s spotlight. ‘We put together a bigger deal with Playboy than Century

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City. We signed the contracts with all parties for 10 pro stops at $50k per stop with one national championship at $100k. I wanted the girls in the stops, but the sponsors didn’t. Christy Hefner wouldn’t sign with no girls in, so the tour aborted.’ I was also in Charlie’s shadow during the racquetball sexual revolution, except one time. In 1973, Leach Industries wanted a cover shot for the annual catalog to really attract attention. Pro player and shutterbug, Mike Zeitman, was called to photograph it with his wife, who by his own admission had, ‘The best heinie to stop a racquetball match.’ One morning, I was summoned from the Leach factory to a local outdoor court for the shoot. Mike’s wife arrived, and stepped out of her underwear on the court, and into a small Leach T-shirt. She wrapped her arms tightly around and gave me a big hug, with her best asset toward the camera. At the click, Leach president Charlie Drake drove up in the company van and out jumped with his six-year old daughter. She skipped to the court and slipped out of her underpants where she hugged the pro holding a 3’ trophy in the other hand for the greatest rear end collision with a camera lens in history which became the most popular cover at the peak of the sport.

48 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 5: Glitz

In 1975, racquetball ‘went Hollywood,’ and the top four pros in order were: Brumfield, Keeley, Strandemo, and Serot. These four players were invited by Voit to act in racquetball’s first big time racquetball production for their new ball called the Rollout. The video opens in Hollywood with Brumfield answering a phone in an attorney’s office with a snappy, ‘Brumfield!’ ‘I’m busy.’ as he slammed the phone down. It was the only ad-lib of the movie. Later Serot forgot his lines in the shower, Strandemo kept fussing with his hair during our lunchtime doubles match, and I missed a behind-the- back shot right before the rolling camera. It took three days in different locations around LA to make

49 5: Glitz Brumfield: King of Racquetball the six minute film, with the director shouting during each from a high-chair, ‘Get the talent on the ball!’ It’s interesting to see the smaller racquets, slower balls, and the 70s clothing in the movie. At the end of the clip, as the credits roll, a rain of hundreds of Voit Rollout blues pours onto the court and players for their match point. Cut, it’s a take. The balls livened going into the late-70s, and Charlie’s chess-like strategy of pushing his opponent around the court like a pawn after the just-out-of- reach slow ball demanded a change… or else. It was all about the ball, he knew from long experience. His first schoolyard ball in Junior High in 1962 had been the ‘Pinkie’, or on the East coast called the ‘Spaldeen’ for Spalding in stickball and outdoor handball. His next ball was one of the first out-of- the-mold black pressurized Seamcos in the package with racquets that Muehleisen sent to MSU for the summer play of ’71. That ball hit like black mush until we ‘doctored’ it with 3cc of air via a veterinary needle and syringe. In the early 70s, tournament game balls were routinely baked before matches for twenty minutes in the saunas, or, lacking them, the tournament directors plunged them into scalding hot water for five minutes. Players, who enjoyed especially fast games, kept syringes in their gym bags to pump the balls on the sly, while those preferring slow ones secreted a razor blade in their shoe tongues to slice the balls while kneeling to tie their shoes during a timeout.

50 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 5: Glitz

In ‘74, it was the opposite, and the over-pressurized balls began to break at alarming rates. Hundreds of thousands prematurely bit the dust across the country and, if the Logo was still intact, Seamco replaced I saw the most perfect killshot ever hit when Bud them at great expense. Muehleisen wound up his Hard hitters (100mph) famous signature Ektelon Steve Serot and Mike forehand for a booming Zeitman split a record 10 shot that split the ball in balls in their three-game exact halves. Detroit match. In another instance over at the PPA, I saw the most perfect killshot ever hit when Bud Muehleisen wound up his famous signature Ektelon forehand for a booming shot that split the ball in exact halves, sailing over the service box, where each half rolled off in the respective front corners. Dr. Bud blew on his racquet handle and announced, ‘Two points, babe.’ Out of this a peculiar thing resulted. The early, lanky, string bean champs with sweeping broom strokes like Brumfield, Schmidtke, Muehleisen, and I began to grudgingly yield to the fireplugs with power swings like Hogan, Mike Yellen and Dave Peck. The incoming crew adapted by gripping longer racquets lower on the handles, contacting the ball deep in the stroke off the rear foot, and with a snap like Zorro. The 1975 season saw a fresh batch of thousands of the tour sponsor Seamco balls that were as out of round as the planet earth. The lopped balls were

51 5: Glitz Brumfield: King of Racquetball quickly blinked off that year when the first green superballs came bouncing out the cans. It was then that Marty Hogan’s scorching kills with the 18’’ small head racquet were clocked at 142 MPH before his Burlington first pro win. The slow game was definitely out, and Power Racquetball was soon seen and heard in every court across the nation. The Big Game, like tennis, was born with aces and kills in 2- 4 shot scrambling rallies that emphasized the physical and mitigated the mental. Charlie was still King, but his days were numbered… unless he adjusted. In the in mid-70s Challenge of the Racquets Charlie drew the cool Björn Borg, an odds-on favorite. John McEnroe and Jimmy Conners believed Björn had nerves of ice, nothing could rattle him. At four-four in their squash match, Björn hit a shot and took center court, unmoving. Brumfield wound up with one of the hardest hit forehands of his career into the crack, in the small of the back of Borg. Björn looked around in astonishment, and Charlie yelled, ‘Get the fuck out of the way! I’m here because I need the money, and I’m going to win!’ When that happened Borg couldn’t compete with Brumfield any more in squash, and then lost to him in badminton. Charlie also found secret solutions in laboratories like Dr. Frankenstein in a penchant for his ‘science experiments’ of racquetball. They can involve a novel way of gripping the racket, or a variation on footwork, or an unusual modification of a racquet,

52 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 5: Glitz and so forth. Each of these science experiments often takes weeks or months, but when he has learned what he wants from them he may go on to the next experiment and never look back at that variation again. Charlie also found secret solutions in Suddenly, he’d come out with a laboratories like new shot or variation that Dr. Frankenstein. mystified the field for a few months before they learned a counter, and then he’d sequester again for the next science experiment. This was a cycle I observed for years dating from our summer of ’71 together when he invented the ceiling game. In all the forty-five years, I’ve never seen him practice once; it was always in secret either in the early morning, at night, or at the private PPA. In 1974, he had not won a national singles or doubles indoor title for the first time in his career. In 1975, he emerged from his science chamber with a magic wand and a new wave to dominate us all again. The exact adaptations were an ingenious jam drive that reflected the lively ball off the side wall so sharply into the defenders unprepared backhand that he was forced to step back or get ‘handcuffed’ by the shot. When that happened, like a boxer following a forced opening, Brum went in for the kill. He began a relentless campaign back to the top of the ranks, and in 1975, captured the IRA/IPRO National Singles, NRC Pro National Singles, and IRA National Doubles Championship with Craig McCoy.

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He brought out that year a secret weapon that few saw until it was too late. This was the nefarious ingenuity of Charlie. He used it primarily against early round opponents on back courts while the other pros were involved in their own matches, or in the final, after all the pros except he and the other finalist had gone home. Even then, it was applied only to a crucial point so it wouldn’t be memorized and talked up. Then, suddenly, crack, it came out of nowhere to win the game. The famous Loveday Crack Ace! I was beating Charlie in the Miami stop final that year when he hit three Loveday crack aces in sequence to take the game, match, and tournament. It was the most embarrassing defeat of my career, and I would prefer to leave it at that. The Loveday crack ace is the only serve that is officially ‘good’, yet never really puts the ball into play. It rebounds off the front wall, and squeezes into the sidewall crack next to the floor just behind the short line, trickling out without a bounce. It is the Ego consumer, a serve that screams at opponents, ‘You are powerless!,’ and Chas had the sense to hit it at just the right moment. Brumfield had tailored the crack ace to the fitting angle and true spin to make it irretrievable unless one stood on top the service line. And he had practiced it to a perfection of 8:10, where one in ten yielded a weak return, and one other in ten equalized the players. There was another King in racquetball in the mid- 70s. Elvis walloped the ball around the court like he

54 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 5: Glitz was strumming a guitar for the fun of it. He looked like he was on stage except with the racquet, the moves in the court comparable to his moves on stage, and to work the audience with his physical performance. His guitar became more of a prop, and so did his racquet. Elvis Presley and his Memphis There was another King Racquetball Mafia loved the sport. in racquetball E’s main contenders at Graceland in the mid-70s: were touring pros Davey Bledsoe Elvis. (National Champion 1977), Randy Stafford (Intercollegiate Champion and touring pro), Steve Smith (Intercollegiate and Tennessee State Champion 1975), Mike Zeitman (Three-times National Doubles Champion with three different partners), David Fleetwood (National Collegiate Doubles Champion and never ranked out of the top 16), and Dr. Fred Lewerenz (Elvis’ sport physician and Michigan Racquetball Hall of Fame with two years on the pro Tour). Other members of the racquetball group were the bodyguards Red and Sonny West, actor Dave Hebler, harmony singer Charlie Hodge, and road manager Joe Esposito. Linda Thompson also played. Elvis was introduced to racquetball in 1968 by his physician, Dr. Frederick Nichopolos, who told me, ‘I started playing racquetball in 1955 at the Nashville JCC by sawing off the handle of a tennis racquet. That is just five years after Joe Sobek is credited with inventing racquetball in Connecticut. I showed

55 5: Glitz Brumfield: King of Racquetball

Paddle Rackets, as we called it, to young players with ambition and talent, and then in the mid-60s moved the game with my medical practice to Memphis, and was still looking for young talent to coach.’ Dr. Nick also taught his son Dean to play, who soon teamed with a young Marty Hogan in a Junior National Doubles. Dr. Nick began treating Presley in 1967 for ‘saddle pain’, and a year later prescribed racquetball. That blossomed into a lifelong friendship lasting thousands of racquetball games. Elvis wore white tennis shoes, shorts, and his safety goggles which were huge because Dr. Nick didn’t want anything to happen to his eyes. His headband was white and he always wore a glove. He played daily, or nightly before heading out into the darkened Memphis streets on motorcycles with the bodyguards and the Racquetball Mafia in sidecars to movies and nightclubs. ‘The week before going on music tour, E wore a tight rubber suit with tight wrists to sweat off five pounds per racquetball session to look good to Elvis wore white tennis shoes, shorts, and his the fans on tour,’ safety goggles which were describes Bledsoe. ‘He huge because Dr. Nick thought a quick weight didn’t want anything to loss would make him happen to his eyes. look better.’ He had a strong forehand as an extension of karate, a standard club backhand, and hit the gamut of serves. The sport was a workout and a release from the

56 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 5: Glitz pressures of being the King of Rock and Roll. ‘To be honest, Elvis wasn’t much of an athlete,’ Bledsoe recalls. ‘He was very rigid. He just wanted to move around, get him some exercise. He’d get in the David Fleetwood compares Elvis’ game to court and bang the ball his own singing voice. ‘It around. I’d try to teach was horrible! He was a him the rules or pro singer and I was a pro orchestrate a formal player. But E loved the sport and that’s what match, but he wasn’t muttered.’ (sic) much interested in that. He did like the game though, and wound up building a $250,000 racquetball court in back of Graceland.’ David Fleetwood compares Elvis’ game to his own singing voice. ‘It was horrible! He was a pro singer and I was a pro player. But E loved the sport and that’s what muttered.’ ‘He got a couple points most of the time,’ hints Bledsoe. ‘And once he got eight on me to 21.’ Fleetwood says, ‘I tried to give E the Donut (zero points), and sometimes did, but against Linda Thompson, who cares?’ Steve Smith chimes, Elvis loved the game like he loved gospel, just belted it out.’ Elvis didn’t attend any tournaments outside Graceland. ‘It would have been mayhem with the fans,’ tells Smith. ‘We didn’t throw any tournaments at Graceland either, just fierce competition among the entourage and visiting pros. The best player at Graceland after the pros went home was bodyguard Red West who fell just short of Open play. Dr. Lewerenz describes Red as a ‘great athlete who

57 5: Glitz Brumfield: King of Racquetball brought those talents to the court.’ Yet, if they wanted to, the pros could hold any Graceland bodyguard or musician to under five points, but didn’t because the purposes were exercise, coaching and fun. ‘I once challenged seven of E’s bodyguards to one game to 21 for $100 per man,’ relates Bledsoe. ‘It was against Red, Sonny, Dave Hebler, and others. I played with an antifreeze bottle and they used their racquets. I went home that morning with $700.’ Racquetball boomed across the nation from 1975-6 as Bledsoe and the others ‘ran’ with Elvis at Graceland, and riding the night streets of Memphis on motorcycles with sidecars. Memphis was the second racquetball capital (after San Diego) of America. Dr. Nick knew Jerry Lee Lewis and got his DC-3 14-seat plane to fly the Racquetball Mafia to the Atlanta Southern Regional. The group included Nick and his son Dean, Stafford, Bledsoe, Zeitman, Smith, Steve’s brother Stuart, Jack Fulton, Gary Stephans, Larry Lyles, IRA President Bill Tanner, and pros Sarah Green and Steve Strandemo. ‘Elvis didn’t go because he was mobbed wherever he went outside Graceland, and besides, the tough old geezer Colonel Parker wouldn’t let him out to play in tournaments,’ amends Fleetwood. Randy Stafford remembers, ‘Our plane was an old DC-3 with twin engines, and the interior had captain’s chairs and couches around. It sat about 14. Under the center table used for drinks was an 8-track tape player that was huge, and next to it a file of 8-track tapes. All of

58 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 5: Glitz them were Jerry Lee Lewis tapes, and we partied to his songs all the way to Atlanta.’ Zeitman agrees that it was a unique way to travel to a Regional, and that the old DC-3 could have been the same Jerry Lee Lewis 14-seat DC-3 that, in 1985, Ricky Nelson’s pilot radioed again, ‘Smoke in the cockpit!’ Then the plane disappeared from radar. The DC-3, previously owned by notorious widow-maker, Jerry Lee Lewis, crashed, killing Nelson and the entire band. The ‘star’ pro with the The DC-3, previously owned by notorious most access to Elvis widow-maker, Jerry Lee Presley was his wardrobe Lewis, crashed, killing manager and Tennessee [Ricky] Nelson and the State racquetball entire band. champion Steve Smith. Steve had grown up best friends and playing racquetball with Dr. Nick’s son Dean. Steve had seen me pull up to a Tanner IPro Memphis stop in 1975. ‘You were in an old van with a beat up bicycle strapped to the back that you rode to the tournament instead of driving like everyone else.’ I recall Steve as slight and as quick as a deer, always a threat to upset me by his pure athleticism. Brumfield too had played the smooth Southern mover ‘without a backhand.’ Following one of their matches, Brum quickly corrected the backhand, if not by Christian charity then by rubbing salt in the wound. ‘After the match,’ continues Smith, ‘Outside the court we made up and were surprised to find that each of us professed to be a golfer. ‘I don’t believe it,’ we said at nearly the same time. Then Brumfield told me,

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‘Steve, all your backhand needs is to swing like it’s a golf club. Keep your elbow close to your body, and you’ll get control. When the elbow is tight to the body the forearm and wrist don’t waver, and your control increases substantially.’ It worked, and later in the year he took #3 Steve Serot down the wire before losing by four in a 21-point tiebreaker. Charlie Brumfield in 1975, on the dual pro circuits, picked up multiple national titles including the NRC Pro Singles, IRA/IPRO Singles, IRA Doubles with Craig McCoy, and National Outdoor Racquetball Singles.. He toured with a dedicated contingent of shouting, drinking Brum’s Bums, even as Elvis maintained the equally rowdy Memphis Mafia of bodyguards, musicians, girlfriends, and pros. The associates were there for camaraderie and also filled practical roles. Brumfield had a designer of signs and monogrammed shirts, plus a wine fetcher, and E had his bodyguards, road and stage managers, and ‘floaters’ like Steve Smith who produced whatever was needed on the spot. In each case, after the tournaments and music gigs ended there were enough people to party deep into the night. Brumfield, the King of Racquetball, and Elvis, the King of Rock, surrounded themselves by these supporters who truly cared for them, and the Kings cared back. I was Brumfield’s popular nemesis and complimented that his Bums looked like the stinking winos I saw on skid rows. Colonel Parker said the

60 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 5: Glitz members of the Memphis Mafia (excluding the pros) looked ‘like a bunch of old men.’ The Colonel wouldn’t let the pros take pictures of Elvis, and tried to pen him up in six-star Graceland whenever there wasn’t a music tour. ‘Colonel Parker was sharp, shrewd, and merciless’ accuses Smith. ‘No, he didn’t play racquetball. If it didn’t pay, he didn’t play. Yet, Elvis owned Parker, not the opposite.’ In one deal reported by Bledsoe, ‘Dr. Nick, Elvis, his guitarist Joe Esposito and I were breaking ground on Presley Center Courts with plans to build an American chain of clubs starting in the Southeast. There were already a few clubs in Nashville and Memphis when Colonel Parker made us take E’s name off of it. He had all rights to Elvis’ name. Parker was a greedy old bastard!’ Memphis and San Diego were the two warring racquetball capitals during the Golden Decade, clear across a country of crazed Elvis, Disco, and racquetball fanatics. Racquetball was the fastest growing sport in the Memphis and San Diego world. Before the were the two warring Graceland court opened racquetball capitals during in 1975, the Memphis the Golden Decade, clear Racquetball Mafia across a country of crazed worked out at Memphis Elvis, Disco, and racquetball fanatics. State, the Memphis Athletic Club, and a single court facility that may have been the model, as well as the impetus, for the eventual construction of Elvis’ private court at Graceland. For there was another man about town

61 5: Glitz Brumfield: King of Racquetball who was as moneyed as Elvis, with nearly as much clout, and adored the sport of racquetball just as much. Bill Tanner in 1975 was called ‘the most prestigious man in Tennessee’ by the press that he controlled. He was one of Memphis’ most prominent businessmen and racquetball promoters who had a court on top of his 7th story office building on Union Avenue Extended. Elvis and his group played there often because it was private, and Tanner would open up at night. I was up there once on the outside running (18-laps to a mile) track around the outer perimeter of the top floor where the sliding glass doors of Tanner’s office opened to a panoramic view of Memphis, as joggers swept by. We had climbed, each by habit, the couple hundred stairs to the top track, and then Tanner swept his hand down across the city offering, ‘The key to the city is yours, Keeley, if you play ball with the Tanner team.’ William B. Tanner was the President of the International Racquetball Association (IRA), and had just started a competing IPro Tour that was taking the whack out of the National Racquetball Club (NRC) monopoly. Tanner brought me up here to play a game, and of racquetball, and then to make the proposition. I jumped out of the way of a jogger, returned to face Bill, and told him point blank that I was die-hard Leach, the opposing tour’s sponsor. ‘Come move to Memphis,’ he cajoled. ‘Play with Randy Stafford, Bledsoe, Zeitman, Fleetwood, and see the girls. There is nothing San Diego has that Memphis does not except an ocean, but San Diego

62 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 5: Glitz doesn’t have Elvis Presley.’ That wasn’t true; Marty Hogan was my present roommate in San Diego, and on seeing that I was squared away, Tanner went for Hogan. ‘Well, tell your boy Hogan that the same offer is open to him.’ So, I missed a chance to play Elvis, but between 1974-77 I visited Memphis five times to compete against members of the Memphis Racquetball Mafia in the Tanner ProAm, and to visit the Memphis media mogul Bill Tanner. Kicking back late one night after the matches at the Tanner Penthouse Suite, Elvis and the Racquetball Mafia sank into a circle of cushion chairs like tennis shoed capitalists in the large boardroom, and the King put his feet up on the boardroom table. Steve Smith who was there describes, ‘Elvis put his legs and tennis shoes up on the ornate table, and someone in the group mentioned that Tanner would not like that, and he’d better put them down. Elvis didn’t like rules, so he cursed a streak, and word got back to Tanner about this.’ E hadn’t been kicked out yet. ‘But then,’ rejoins Bledsoe, ‘Elvis had this three-foot flashlight that he used to flash at everybody… which actually blinded you where you stood. A few nights after the boardroom incident, Tanner was in his private shower when E walked in and started shining his 3' light into everyone's face. When he shined it into Tanner’s face, that was it. The irrepressible force of Elvis Presley met the irresistible object of William Tanner, and they glowered at each other. Bill’s face turned purple, and he kicked Elvis the

63 5: Glitz Brumfield: King of Racquetball hell out. Presley was banned from the building, and the Mafia loyally stayed away with him.’ Short one court, Nick persuaded Elvis to build one behind his house. Now, ‘Elvis had this three-foot in 1975, when a cry went flashlight that he used to up in the middle of the flash at everybody… night, ‘Everybody up! which actually blinded you Let’s play racquetball!’ where you stood.’ everyone just walked out the back door and to the Graceland court. Dr. Fred Lewerenz describes, ‘The racquetball building was posh. There was a viewing lounge behind the back wall glass, weightlifting gym on the same ground floor, and a dressing room and Jacuzzi upstairs. Elvis liked gold, and while the players’ dressing room had standard stainless steel showerheads, the one in the King’s private stall was with solid gold 360-degree swivel showerhead.’ The only one he would allow in his private dressing area was Linda Thompson. The pros admired that the facility cost $250,000 to build, and for the times, it was a premier court. Mike Zeitman describes, ‘Behind the glass wall was a sunken area with a monster curved leather couch at the wall where you could sit back and watch the games. Also in the viewing area was the biggest, most expensive stereo outfit money could buy. I'd never seen anything so cool.’ The action inside the four-walls was like any other club, with a lounge with a bar outside where people sat and drank, watched and kibitzed, until their turn to play came up. Some of them drank beers, but the focus was on racquetball. It was just a

64 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 5: Glitz small club with a select group of some of the best players and musicians in the country who all happened to know the owner, Elvis Presley.’ ‘A typical afternoon at Graceland went like this,’ takes up Steve Smith. ‘Everyone would be sitting around the house, and one of the group would want to motivate the rest to action, to get off our asses. Elvis or I would jump up and shout, Elvis or I ‘Everybody out here! We’re playing would jump up and racquetball.’ We’d play and play. shout, We’d play for two, three hours. Elvis ‘Everybody would laugh while he played and out here! have a good time just blasting the We’re playing ball. Then we’d shower up, and racquetball.’ someone would yell, ‘Hey, let’s go to We’d play the movies. We’d get on the and play. motorcycles and six or eight of us We’d play for two, would ride downtown to the three hours. Memphian or two other theaters that Elvis liked. It was crazy, night after night. One evening I sat between Eric Clapton and the King who he’d come to pay his respects to. That’s when the movies were still reel-to-reel.’ ‘How he played! He had a mind of his own. He had a big forehand and moved around the ball to hit with it. He liked the intensity of being in four walls for sport. He let go, and could have a blast,’ observes Smith. ‘In the early 70s, Elvis used the Ektelon Muehleisen racquet because it was the best at the time, and the connection was that Dr. Muehleisen

65 5: Glitz Brumfield: King of Racquetball had given Dean Nichopolos racquetball lessons. Elvis could hit with the Muehleisen model. It wasn’t until about 1974 that Charlie Drake at Leach sent him a green Leach Serot and a pair of sweats with Elvis’ name embroidered across the back, and from then on, he used the Serot model. He was in good shape, but got on the court in the Leach sweats or a rubber suit to sweat off about five pounds a workout for his fans on tour. Davey Bledsoe was the player rep for Leach at the time, and Drake had told him, ‘Anything Elvis wants, he gets.’ Elvis was playing his best racquetball from 1974-6 when the pros were stopping by, and he was enjoying the game nearly daily when we didn’t leave for two week music tours.’ On June 11, Davey Bledsoe shocked the racquetball world and especially Marty Hogan by defeating him in the final of the Leach/Seamco National Championship in San Diego by scores of 21-20, and 21-19. The day before he had edged by me in the quarters, and afterwards in the locker room, came over to console me, putting his thumb on my temple and uttering, “My Daddy did this when I was a young man, and he spoke, ‘One day you’re going to be a champion.’” The Bledsoe victory is recognized as one of the most unexpected results in racquetball history. Two weeks later, on June 26, 1977, Elvis gave his last concert at Market Square in Indianapolis, IN, for a crowd of 18,000. Back on the Graceland racquetball court, Elvis appeared pale, weak and overweight, but there was nothing to

66 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 5: Glitz suggest impending death. Indeed, there was nothing unusual in his verve once he took to the stage or court. ‘He looked gray in 1976, is all,‘ portrays Dave Fleetwood. What follows is the untold story of the death of Elvis Presley… and of the Racquetball Mafia. Graceland was shut down very quickly. The court wasn’t used again after the Mafia left, and it was converted to a trophy room. Hundreds of thousands of tourists per year travel to stand in the last place Elvis Presley stood in the Graceland court that is now the trophy room, with the walls of the court covered with platinum and gold records, and with the Steve Serot racquet on display under glass next to an old blue ball. Elvis died in the racquetball building, not the mansion upstairs bathroom. You probably know that Elvis loved gospel music, peanut butter and banana sandwiches and karate, but did you know The King loved racquetball to death! You will never, as far as I know, see another story about Elvis in racquetball, or about the Memphis Racquetball Mafia. This is because, although it was the time of glitz racquetball, when other Hollywood, rock, and political stars made the monthly covers of the only publication, National Racquetball, in the chess game for political control of the burgeoning players, the Chicago based NRC (and close tie with San Diego Leach) put an embargo on Elvis. NRC Executive Director Chuck Leve explains, ‘Elvis was Memphis and Memphis was Tanner and IRA, and

67 5: Glitz Brumfield: King of Racquetball well, you know the story...So we chose to pretty much ignore Elvis, although I thought whoever did the ‘damage control’ when he died on the court was brilliant. Elvis never was covered in the NRC magazine because the time when racquetball ‘went Hollywood’ Elvis would have been prime material for our magazine, however the National Racquetball Club owner Bob Kendler sensed Elvis was in the Tanner Memphis camp which was opposing our NRC pro tour with a tour of their own, so while Batman, Lana Wood, and Governor Thompson of Illinois got coverage, Elvis in racquetball remains a secret.’ Bobby Fischer also played racquetball. It is little known that the world-wide search for Bobby Fischer ended on a racquetball court. In 1971, Bobby had become the first official It is little known that the Chess Federation world-wide search for number-one rated chess Bobby Fischer ended on a player in world. He spent racquetball court. 54 total months at number one, and in 1972, he captured the World Championship from USSR’s Boris Spassky. In 1975, Fischer declined to defend his title when he could not reach agreement with FIDE over the conditions for the match. He became more reclusive during the man hunt and did not play competitive chess again until 1992. However, he played racquetball. There was a religious college affiliated with the World Church of God tucked in a three block square campus of very expensive property in the wealthiest

68 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 5: Glitz of districts in Pasadena. They had a beautiful, very private Racquetball complex of three courts with a plush upstairs lounge. ‘I was asked to come up, give a little clinic, play a little doubles with them, and then go to dinner,’ relates Dr. Bud Muehleisen. At the time, in the late 70s, Bobby Fischer was World Chess Champion and had ‘disappeared’ in the world. Here comes the 4th player, and they introduce me to Fischer as my partner. He was a total recluse at the time and holed up secretly at the college and had taken up racquetball. He was a C player, about like my chess game. After the match, everyone went upstairs to the lounge and started drinking tap beer and munching on pretzels around a gorgeous chess set on the table with the pretzels in between them. Fischer had a tiny portable chess set in the lapel pocket of his coat jacket. It was quite obvious that he was not there to take part in the conversation, be it racquetball or anything else, so I asked, ‘What’s that little portable chess set in your lapel pocket?’ Fischer took the time to take the chess set out, and mater of factly explain how it was played and utilized. His general countenance was what I would imagine sitting across from Albert Einstein who wouldn’t need to speak a word for his brilliance to show. There was a knock at the lounge door and it opened. There stood the LA player with the crazy helicopter swing in Opens. In those days he did a lot of racquetball promoting in the LA area. He sat and soon marveled at the gorgeous chess set on the table. ‘Do you play chess?’ I asked the newcomer, who

69 5: Glitz Brumfield: King of Racquetball replied, ‘Oh yes, I not only play, but I’m currently the faculty champion at UCLA.’ A hush, and a hustle was arranged. After a blitz loss for words, the red-faced learner was introduced to Bobby Fischer. As Fischer rose, he nodded back, and his lanky frame disappeared through the door, and again he was searched for, for many years to come.’

The mainstream pros of The mainstream pros of Small Head racquetball Small Head racquetball dipped into the New Age dipped into the New Age techniques of the 70s like techniques of the 70s like TM, floatation chambers, endless loop tapes, TM, floatation chambers, Ektelon and Leach sports endless loop tapes, psychologists… Ektelon and Leach sports psychologists, power of positive thinking, and at a few tournaments, you could see players silently mouth a mantra like ‘Mickey Mouse’ before a tough shot or serve. Brumfield favored the power of ‘ABC- Always Believe Carl.’ He always carried a Loveday autograph paddle or racquet, and the only time I ever saw him overly nervous at a match is when someone snooped in his gym bag and touched his Loveday model. It was always signed on the handle, even in Loveday’s death. The secret power lay dormant for hundreds of thousands of shots for months or years until a time, a time usually of rage in a losing situation, when Charlie calls a timeout, and reaches deep into the bag for the racquet. Slowly, he used to unwind the grip. As each letter appeared, he calmed, and read between the lines in his ABC’s a comeback

70 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 5: Glitz plot on the spot, and he rose barehanded on the handle often to recover and triumph. The age of glitz dead-ended into the decade of the 80s. The cheers for Brumfield rebounded against thousands of walls around the world, assuring he who was the King, with an IQ as high as Fischer’s, that he was the greatest show on earth.

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6: THE GOLDEN ERA

‘What was the best racquetball match of the 70s?’ someone asked. The answer: ‘Every match I saw Charlie Brumfield play in.’ The Golden Era of racquetball is defined as beginning with the 1971 National Singles Invitational that Charlie won, and lasting through his Killer Dog title match with Marty Hogan in 1978. It is also King Brumfield’s reign which coincided with the greatest number of millions of players, when the pro field was the crème de la crème, and even the regional tournaments ran deep and strong. Local tournament draw sheets lined the walls from lobbies to locker rooms with upward of a thousand entries. This is a rundown of a representative handful of the major and most interesting events of the Golden Era, aka Age of Small Heads, from 1971-1978, and they all involve Brumfield.

After winning the first I defeated him in the final 1971 National Singles at the first Gorham’s Invitational in San Christmas Classic wearing Diego, I defeated him in one red and one green Converse tennis shoe. the final at the first Gorham’s Christmas Classic wearing one red and one green Converse tennis shoe. I had the first apparel contract in the country, and part of the deal was to parade the ‘Chucks’ at various holiday tournaments; another pair was a brown and yellow at the Halloween Spook-out. When Charlie lost it, the standard retreat was into seclusion with coaches

72 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 6: The Golden Era

Muehleisen and Loveday. They tinkered with shots and formulated new strategies as the equipment evolved to help keep Brum on top. Soon after the Christmas loss, he blasted back into the court with an overhead killshot from the back wall—straight in, pinch, down-the-line or cross-court—to profit his ceiling barrage. No longer could a rival rest on his heels awaiting another ceiling shot; he had to study the stroke in motion that was cleverly disguised, and often being unable to guess correctly, was then forced to lean forward and backward at once. It was Loveday’s overhead shot, a gift from world class badminton, that Charlie drilled relentlessly before using prudently in the field. The Loveday overhead kill became a staple in the 1970s pro racquetball, and even today mouths go agape when a ball shot from 9’ feet above the floor trickles out one of the front corners. The following year in 1972, Charlie Brumfield captured his first IRA National Singles title, and with Bud Muehleisen won the IRA National Invitational Doubles. This Brumfield was the recipient of the Seamco Ring for winning the first 1972 Seamco National Racquetball Championship. Muehleisen, a southpaw with multiple singles and doubles titles in paddleball and racquetball before Brumfield’s game matured with his help, would remain his partner, rival and confidant throughout life. A trend of ‘shared championship phenomena’ of dual paddleball and racquetball titles was just starting that would continue throughout the decade.

73 6: The Golden Era Brumfield: King of Racquetball

The winners of the first ten national racquetball tournaments all started as paddleball players. The 1968 first Paddle Racket champion was Bill Schultz a Wisconsin paddleball player; 1969, Open Racquetball winner Bud Muehleisen a San Diego paddleball player; 1970, Craig Finger from Michigan paddleball; 1971, Bill Schmidtke of

74 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 6: The Golden Era

Wisconsin paddleball; 1972, Charlie Brumfield of San Diego paddleball; 1973, Brumfield again; 1974, Schmidtke; 1975, Brumfield; 1976 Brumfield; 1977, Davey Bledsoe of Knoxville paddleball. Also, the first two professional National Racquetball Runners- up started in paddleball with 1973, Steve Serot a St. Louis paddleball player; and 1974, Steve Keeley from Michigan paddleball. The conclusion is that not only was paddleball racquetball’s older ‘ugly sister’, but that if one starts, or at least cross-trained at paddleball, the championship racquetball courts draw nearer. 1972 was a great year for Charlie, and a good one for me, across the draw, often in the finals, and usually losing to him. The matches leading up to the final were better than byes to stay in shape, but then after them in the final, it was like running into a hard wall. This year, Charlie won nearly all the small purse tournaments that were popping up and down the California coast, and he took the National Singles Invitational. Our early battles of his ceiling rally concoction vs. my Z and Around-the-World recipe was studied by the gallery in two early mutually exploratory matches that decided in favor of his ceiling game, as he learned to step up and volley my favored return. I was forced to the ceiling with him. To prevail, this year I created the ‘Offensive Theory of Play’ that encouraged players to always take the most attacking shot. It forecast racquetball strategy as the ball enlivened to embrace it. In another theory, I expounded ‘Positional Shots’

75 6: The Golden Era Brumfield: King of Racquetball of repeating the same shots form invisible X’s on the court despite the opponent’s position. I felt and proved against all but Brumfield that a strong consistent attack in getting on and off the court as quickly as possible turns into more finals finishes. I became racquetball’s first freelance author in Racquetball and International Racquetball magazines with hundreds of tutorials, and Keeleyisms of racquetball vernacular that were actually mined from the Brumfield enormous wit. Yet on the court he dusted me in the 1972 National semi-finals, after I’d defeated two former champions at Memphis. 1973 was bigger and better for racquetball and for Brumfield than even the previous year. According to manufacturers’ estimates, there were 200,000 players in the US that year Charlie passed the

76 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 6: The Golden Era

California bar to practice law. The inaugural NRC professional tour commenced which drew him out of attorney work and me out of veterinary medicine. Brumfield prudently chose racquetball after strict cross-examination from his parents. ‘Why should I practice law?’ he replied, ‘when few attorneys make what I’m making.’ Most of his early income which came from promotions and endorsements could only go up. He won the 1973 IRA National Singles, IRA National Doubles with Steve Serot, and the IRA National Invitational Doubles with Bud Muehleisen. The 1973 Nationals in St. Louis are a hallmark in racquetball. Marty Hogan is proud to share a few moments he remembers as ‘The Holder’ strolls in his Leach sweats into The 1973 Nationals in St. Marty’s home JCC club Louis are a hallmark in when he was backhand- racquetball. Marty Hogan less at fifteen. is proud to share a few moments he remembers ‘He looked like a as ‘The Holder’ strolls in racquetball God straight his Leach sweats… out of Ace Magazine.’ Charlie appeared of less stature to me, but nonetheless defeated me for the championship. Brumfield considers, “After I advised you before the singles finals, ‘No one remembers second place,’ Serot and I followed by defeating Hilecher and Wong for the doubles crown. I am very proud of having won dual titles in paddleball and racquetball when the singles and doubles were conducted at the same time. It was very difficult to do in that time

77 6: The Golden Era Brumfield: King of Racquetball when my singles opponents are resting while I’m playing a number of doubles matches.” In 1973, he won the IRA National Singles, IRA National Doubles Champion with Steve Serot, and IRA National Invitational Doubles Champion with Bud Muehleisen. The inaugural pro tour kicked off in 1973 sponsored by Seamco and silently by Leach. Brumfield was a slow starter, and Steve Serot won the first event, and then at the second Long Beach ProAm I defeated Brum in the final. Charlie retreated, adjusted, and came out shooting in the second half of the season to finish #1 on the NRC tour with Serot #2 and me #3. I could see the players, and the key men in the factories, plus the tournament directors were growing dollar signs in their eyes. Something new was in the air about racquetball. Soon, in 1974, the announcement rang out, up and down the halls, and into the courts that a second pro tour was underway. The IRA organized its first professional tournament, a year behind the fledgling NRC. If there can be a second tour, we thought, perhaps a third will follow… and many of the pros intensified their practices with priority over jobs, alcohol and drugs, dates and their families. The new IRA tour did well, especially around racquetball boom town Memphis, but the prestigious NRC tour jammed every draw with the Leach stable while Seamco; the official ball, paid a dollar royalty to NRC for every dozen balls

78 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 6: The Golden Era sold, in exchange for advertising and being the official ball of the NRC and USRA. Leach Industries took a giant step in racquetball history this same year in sending president Charley Drake, the plant foreman Ray Bayer, and me with a 4-foot demo racquet, to Taiwan to meet Mr. Kunnan of Kunnan Industry, the largest manufacturer of squash and racquetball racquets in the world. This was oddly possible because Bob Drake, Charlie’s younger brother, was on LDS mission to Taiwan at the time, and was the only round table translator. In one day, and a long night at the nightclubs, Kunnan- Leach was forged, which later became Pro-Kennex. Back stateside this year, I won the Canadian Racquetball Singles Title and Doubles with Bud Muehleisen, and my third paddleball National Singles Championship. On another day that year, inside the Leach Kearny Villa bastion, Brumfield, Charley Drake and I organized and became part owners of National Racquetball Clinics (NRC to cloud the acronyms) to promote our instruction. Charlie continued his winning ways, and I, on the losing end, began running hundreds of clinics, camps, grand openings and exhibitions across the country and into Mexico, Central and South America, to eventually become the sport’s leading instructor. It was lucrative only for the times. There was always a full pocket exchange for lessons that ranged from waitress tips, to organic vegetables from the student’s garden, and at one time or another, I traded my racquetball secrets for medical,

79 6: The Golden Era Brumfield: King of Racquetball dental, ophthalmic, accounting, drum lessons, direct marketing company tours like Garden Way, a palate of cardboard boxes, 100 lbs. of granola, and about 500 lbs. of Purina Dog Chow for my Dobermans Corn and Flake. However, it was becoming more apparent year by year that the big money was in endorsements, which came hand in hand with finishing in the top three on the pro tour. At the end of this season, Brumfield ranked #1, Keeley #2, and Strandemo #3. In 1974, Sports Illustrated, for the first time sent a full contingent of reporters and photographers to the IRA Nationals in San Diego and covered it in a colorful feature titled ‘The Game plan is to avoid getting waffle faced.’ Brumfield in a fury, after speed reading a poem I’d written, ‘Charlie Mighty Brumfield’ after the fashion of ‘Mighty Casey’ who struck out, was about to face Schmidtke in the semis. Posted to draw the crowd’s attention away from him and psych out Brumfield in the locker rooms and along the halls next to the draw sheets, the poem became worryingly prophetic. Three hours into the grueling slugfest the score evened at 18-18 ‘With but two points more to play.’ Schmidtke scored three to win 21-19, one point off the ballad’s tiebreaker prediction. Yet, even from the cheap seats, racquetball was on the verge of a sport explosion like no other, and Brumfield rode it on the crest. Rising star David Fleetwood depicts, ‘I, like the next 1,000,000 players, immediately became hooked, and as a kid I could not wait to receive my IRA

80 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 6: The Golden Era magazine and read about the game in SI. I wanted to read what the true superstar of the sport was doing— Charlie Brumfield. There were other stars but there was only one Brum.’ We, the top three in the world were lambasted by the magazine: ‘Brumfield, a bearded, bespectacled, silver-tongued San Diego I drove my Chevy van that attorney whose belief it had become the Leach was that nobody would team bus with the 7’ beat him ‘unless they stuffed rabbit in the pull down my pants.’ passenger seat, with an invisible fishline attached ‘Steve Serot, the 18-year- to his hand waving down old wonder boy of the fans… game playing for,’ as he said, ‘all left-handed Jews everywhere.’ ‘Blond and beautiful Steve Keeley, a lapsed veterinarian who lives alternately in a garage with tie-dyed sheets for walls and in a van with ‘worse freaked-out grubs than me, by far.’ In the final, Serot took it to the wire vs. Bill Schmidtke who pulled it off in the tiebreaker and waved his Ektelon XL Schmidtke racquet and a painter’s hat, and said he would most likely, ‘get me a case of Coors and pass out.’ He had one more loss that year at my hand. I drove my Chevy van that had become the Leach team bus with the 7’ stuffed rabbit in the passenger seat, with an invisible fishline attached to his hand waving down fans to combat the obnoxious Brum’s Bums. The full bus and rabbit arrived in Dallas for the most bizarre racquetball event of the 20th century. It took

81 6: The Golden Era Brumfield: King of Racquetball place at the Ray and Clare Stern Health & Racquet Club. The Greatest Racquetball Show on Earth was a three-ring circus, and in first ring was Lana Wood. Lana was a famous American actress and producer, and is the younger sister of Natalie Wood. She appeared in the April 1971 Playboy issue, along with her poetry, and the publicity was a major reason for her being asked alongside other celebrities who played racquetball at the tournament. All I wanted out of the tournament was to be paired in doubles with Batman, the only hero without superpowers, certainly, but he became Brumfield’s Robin. Because of that, I won in vengeance the pro division by defeating Bill Schmidtke in quarters, Strandemo in semis, and won war with Serot in finals to win Dallas. Mighty Charlie was down but not out. Brumfield had won back-to-back national singles championships in 1972 and 1973 (winning 20 consecutive tournaments), and would again in 1975 and 1976. He continued playing world class racquetball for the next 10 years. However, the official ball became much faster in the latter part of the 70s, and this did not suit his game style. Brumfield's early contemporary, the later World Champion and Hall of Fame Jerry ‘The Shadow’ Hilecher, said, ‘With a slower ball, I don't think anyone in the world would have been able to compete at his level. With a fast ball, he would be one of many close to the top.' Despite not winning

82 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 6: The Golden Era the Nationals in 1974, Charlie finished #1 at the end of the NRC pro tour, and I was #2. When the 1975 season rolled around, I was living with Bud Muehleisen and sharing his old and my new secrets of the sport. The rumor of television coming to pro ball was in the air and, thinking it would mean a slow ball to my advantage, I trained with a daily six hour grind of games and practice, running, bicycling and weights. One night, Muehl arose in the only fit of temper that I’ve witnessed in the White Knights career to chew me out for banging barbells around in the back yard at 1am. He had to rise to go to his dental practice in four hours. ‘And now,’ he concluded, ‘I’m going to go back to bed and count backward from 10, 9… and before 5, I’ll be asleep.’ He had taught me patience, and how to teach racquetball, and had gotten me the first pro teaching job in the country at George Brown’s on 76th Street, San Diego. In return, he absorbed the lesson of the volley return of the serve from me. There was a money tournament somewhere nearly every weekend that year, and the sixteen pros, who more or less had their expenses picked up by Leach or Ektelon, traveled the country on the companies’ tab to ‘steal’ the purses in smaller prize tournaments from unsponsored players, who happily aspired to beat them and climb the ranks to better seeds. Throughout the 1975 season, Charlie Brumfield refined the enfant terrible protagonist while I the agnostic antagonist became the first recipient of the

83 6: The Golden Era Brumfield: King of Racquetball

Most Christian Player of the Year award presented by a player named Bobby Bible. Charlie became all the more dedicated to learning the sorcery behind the faster ball, as I became more free spirited. During his year I walked 40 miles from I rode a Peugeot PX-10 San Diego Gorham’s bicycle from San Diego to Sports Center to St. Louis to compete in Gorham’s Oceanside to the nationals, lost to Craig McCoy in the quarters, so teach a lesson. Charlie then got on the bike and estimated that I lost one continued a total of 2400 IQ point for every mile miles to Lansing, MI. that I ran daily on the beach from Crystal Pier for seven miles to the Ocean Beach jetty. I rode a Peugeot PX-10 bicycle from San Diego to St. Louis to compete in the nationals, lost to Craig McCoy in the quarters, so then got on the bike and continued a total of 2400 miles to Lansing, MI to visit my family. Marty Hogan, Leonard Baldori, the Debby ‘Bionic’ Ravens, Olympic wrestler Don Behm and I returned to San Diego in a ‘58 Caddie with a ‘suicide knob’ and red fins on a Jack Kerouac three-day fevered pitch, and abandoned the ailing vehicle on a cul de sac to walk away to train with the best in the nation. Charlie was the #1 player on tour for the third straight year, and I was third due to a prominent match in history that forever eclipsed everything else that occurred in 1975. Smokin’ Hogan got his name at the Burlington event going into the final never having made a previous

84 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 6: The Golden Era pro quarters. He was famous only among his first four fans in the red Caddy going across the country, where to this day, he claims that somewhere in the Corn Belt he was ‘born again’ a racquetball player just a few months before surprising everyone at Burlington. He entered the tournament glass aquarium court never having shaved, and spun like a tornado waving both hands at the packed bleachers. He slapped off a dozen jumping jacks in the service box, and raced around all four walls making clown faces at the amused spectators. He popped a dozen push-ups on the short line, rose, and sprinted to each corner, stopping, leaping in the air with a yell, 'Win!' ‘Win!’… I was warming up with kill shots in the center court. As he marked his territory around me, the gallery clapped hands to his struts. Through the glass, darkly, quarter final victim Charlie Brumfield gave a weak smile, and sitting next to him, semi- final victim Steve Serot, signaled thumbs up. Hogan had thrashed Brumfield, squeaked by Serot, and now eased by me in the final to launch power racquetball across the nation with a blazing career. By 1976, across the nation’s hardboard, the The sport exploded across game had advanced so the country with thousands of new courts that jam passes were and newcomers, with defused while everyone more tournaments and started holding ground draw sheets that with ESP (early swing wallpapered clubs from the entrances to the locker preparation) to volley the rooms. jam. Ceiling shot setups

85 6: The Golden Era Brumfield: King of Racquetball off the back wall were called ‘pumpkins’, and put away. One couldn’t rely on crack aces alone…or could he? The Big Game sneaked into the vernacular, and for a decade would, like tennis, be the only winning game in town. Jerry Hilecher introduced the camouflage drive serve that was copied coast to coast, alongside the Jeff Leon ‘walking screen’. The years 1976 and 1977 were the heyday for both manufacturers and players. The sport exploded across the country with thousands of new courts and newcomers, with more tournaments and draw sheets that wallpapered clubs from the entrances to the locker rooms. Brumfield, in 1976, bearded and likened by some to fellow Californian Charles Manson, had given up a law career to lead a cult of serial semi-crazed followers known as Brum's Bums. Along the way, he had won five national titles. The law career of Charlie Brumfield is long ago explained away in an interview from the Sunday, June 6, 1976 Eugene Register: ‘Even Charlie Brumfield is surprised. Lean and bearded, Brumfield is #1 player in what may be the fastest growing sport, racquetball. He also happens to be an attorney who doesn’t practice law because he can make $75,000 doing what he likes.’ On the day the interview came out, the day before the tournament started, Charlie and I were in a boat on the Willamette River with the court club owner. Charlie’s first forehand cast flew over my head, curled lazily, and hooked in the screaming owner’s

86 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 6: The Golden Era right nipple. Only the fish were safe that day, and the next. By this time, I had lived with a succession of intriguing characters in racquetball beginning with Brumfield, Charley Drake of Leach, Muehleisen, and then Hogan, who had Marty [Hogan] dumped all an incorrigible style off his worldly possessions in the court. Hogan moved the center of the floor, with in with Charley Drake a shout of joy, ‘Yah!’ over and me at a fashionable them. Over the ensuing months while living there, home on the La Jolla he picked from the pile a ‘Wish they all could be thing at a time, as needed, California girls’ shore. and he tossed items back One day, he struggled on the heap for reuse. into the La Jolla house from St. Louis under a huge gym bag balanced on his head, and entered his new room across the hall from mine. Marty dumped all his worldly possessions in the center of the floor, with a shout of joy, ‘Yah!’ over them. Over the ensuing months while living there, he picked from the pile a thing at a time, as needed, and he tossed items back on the heap for reuse. The routine mirrored his court methodology of taking every shot into the court and with knee jerk response in shot selection, hitting and saving what was beginning to prove valuable. Marty was the antithesis of Brumfield: He never drank, swore, smoked, and loved his family; he dated, little but frequented the Ocean Beach card rooms for pickup games of poker. Where Charlie was an attorney, Marty’s former

87 6: The Golden Era Brumfield: King of Racquetball work had been as a clown twisting balloons into animal forms for $5 an hour at Jacks or Better. Marty spent most of his time at Gorham’s Sports center which was still the center of the racquetball universe when he rolled from the 1974 St. Louis clown job into San Diego. There Charlie leaned heavily into the glass wall—the same one his father and Brum’s Bums had watched him win the 1971 Singles Invitational—and studied, and thought, and analyzed every projected situation in their sure to come matches. He must have recognized great potential because he immediately went to task to psychologically disable the rookie’s rocket serve and crushing backhand. He Where Charlie was an made fun of Marty’s jock attorney, Marty’s former size and outlandish work had been as a clown twisting balloons into backhand, always about animal forms for $5 an the backhand that started hour at Jacks or Better. with a treetop backswing, descending like a pendulum, and struck the ball a bullwhip out from the navel. We used to teach the stroke honing in on the target and then adding degrees of power, but Hogan was just the opposite. Over the months, as the muscular shots went from spraying all over to come closer and closer to the bottom board target, Brumfield admitted, ‘I have been inconvertibly mistaken about Hogan’s abilities.’ Marty was the first clocked on radar at over 100 mph with the small head racquet, while the rest of us maxed in the low 90s. Over the months, as Hogan’s power and

88 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 6: The Golden Era accuracy mounted, so did Brumfield’s backhand improve on that model, until they deadlocked for the top honors of the year 1976. Charlie finished #3 on the pro tour behind Hogan and Tennessee Wonder Davey Bledsoe, but he remained the national champion by capturing the 1976 NRC Pro National Singles and NRC Pro National Doubles Champion with Steve Serot. In 1977 Charlie was 30-years old and worked harder on conditioning for racquetball than any other player, except Steve Strandemo and his protégé Steve Mondry. Strandemo would literally run until he dropped, fall on his face and keep moving forward. His buddy Mondry had two long-legged Dobermans named Practice and Workout that he took wherever he went in an old VW Bug with the passenger seats removed, so they could look and see where he was going. Charlie trained with all four at one time or another, with a few unique twists. 'Exercise programs should simulate movements of the activity for which training is designed, wherever possible,’ wrote Gerge Dintiman in Sprinting Speed, about specificity in sport. A conditioning program must approach actions closely related to those in an actual game situation. In training for racquetball, running windsprints is better than striking a punching bag. Two drills Charlie did were Scurrying and the Pan Drills. In Scurrying you play a frantic game of no-bounce racquetball (i.e. no limit on ball bounces) for five minutes, or until one of you drops.

89 6: The Golden Era Brumfield: King of Racquetball

Then take a breather and do it again. In Pan Drills he placed six small objects—he used Frisbees stenciled with ‘ABC’—about five feet apart down the center line of the court from front to back walls. Slalom sprint in and out the pans until you feel a slight burning in the thigh muscles, and then run one more lap. Brumfield, the best court coverer of the Pioneer era, owes it all to these drills. He sustained, ‘The best training for racquetball is to play racquetball,’ and yet he and I invented countless variations to beat the boredom. A great conditioner is Touch and Go played by touching the short line after each hit with a partner trying just to keep the ball in play. How about a little Chinese Racquetball where the ball strikes the floor twice before a return. Side Walls Out is the best training for straight in kills, a la outdoor one-wall. Serve and Kill generate the Big Game of drive serve and kill return. At the end of the day, the best conditioner is Moving Racquetball in which the players must stay in motion even if it’s just a shuffle while awaiting service. You may play Singles Doubles with two balls at once, making it possible to score more than one point per rally. If ambidextrous, you may play against yourself, and try to win in the final. Partying as hard as he played, at the end of 1977 Charlie ranked second behind Marty on the NRC tour, and won the IRA/IPRO National Doubles Championship with Steve Serot. Charlie reflects, ‘My memory says that Jan Pasternak and her father

90 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 6: The Golden Era were from the Houston ‘J’. The dad was rich and got me a car to drive in a subsequent tourney in Houston. On the eve of the finals, I partied and was unable to remember how I got ‘home’ or the whereabouts of the car. I played Steve Serot in the finals the next morning and my training program again proved successful. I and a partner beat down Serot and Valier later that memorable day. Unknown if and when the car was recovered.’

There was a lot of court In 1977, I won the Dallas hustling going on in those and Houston NRC pro days, and we played stops, and a fifth handicap matches with 4’’ paddleball National head racquets, bleach bottles and even my Singles title. I began Complete Book of entering racquetball Racquetball… tournaments righty, and lefty under an alias, and once in Michigan came close to meeting myself in the finals but lost southpaw in the semis. There was a lot of court hustling going on in those days, and we played handicap matches with 4’’ head racquets, bleach bottles and even my Complete Book of Racquetball that had become the sport bible with 200,000 sold. I was the first player to defeat mano a racquet handball champs Paul Haber, Gordie Pfier and Fred Lewis in hands vs. racquets exhibitions. I organized with the first racquetball camp in the country with Steve Serot in San Diego, and opened the nation’s premier month long Steamboat Springs Racquetball Ranch. I lagged behind Brumfield in dollar earnings by a factor of about 10, but had fun,

91 6: The Golden Era Brumfield: King of Racquetball and this was my peak money year with a total of $25,000 including $5k prize money, equal in per diem, $3k endorsements, $6k book royalties, $10k clinics, and $1k betting. As I diverged wildly into racquetball escapades and tried to get Charlie to loosen up about the game, he became deeply serious. Charlie and I had a mutual psychiatrist friend in southern California named Joel Sheinbalm who didn’t necessarily shrink us, but tactfully and probably honestly, expressed that both of us were on our correct career paths. This year, I began a 40-state tour mainly by freight train, bus, the Chevy van, and thumb to clinics, tournaments and exhibitions, and sometimes arrived sensing the game needed the spice of various attire including a Bozo haircut or overalls like Farmer John, and I won the first Davidson, MI, ProAm wearing a clown suit and makeup which got hot inside in the tiebreaker final. I wrote and self-published two racquetball books in one day: It’s a Racquet and The Kill & Rekill Gang (Service Press). Finally, there was a 2500-hour study of ball spin in a Michigan garage and a SI Club a thirty minute bicycle ride away. Going into the Fall start of the 1978 NRC tour, Charlie Brumfield ranked second behind #1 Marty Hogan. Brum didn’t win the season openers and was fighting for position in the top four. The sport was a bit full of itself thinking old school slow ball was inferior to the new Big Game, and tickets to the 1978 nationals in Detroit cost up to $250 for the full eight

92 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 6: The Golden Era days, and as much as $50 for a single night's action. No wonder most of the fans were players and their friends. The irony can be found in today's competitive racquetball that is scarcely fit for anyone else's viewing. Racquetball’s surge through the ‘70s coincided with the disco era, Elvis, Fischer in hiding, celebrities like CBS newsman Bill Kurtis, Jim Thompson Illinois governor (1977-91), Adam ‘Batman’ West and many Hollywood stars, and I beat Miss World Runnerup with a shoe in a Sports Illustrated club exhibition. With an estimated 5 million players at the peak of popularity in 1978, there were eight trade magazines, a thriving pro circuit, a potent women’s tour. The top pros’ income topped six figures, and with Brumfield at #2 that made him surly. Hogan had taken to calling himself Killer Dog. Going into the nationals this year, Charlie was the four-time national singles champion and two time doubles. Hogan, the upstart, had won seven of the eight tournaments on the 1977-78 tour, and he had just been named co-winner (with Chris Evert) of Racquet Magazine's Athlete of the Year award. Sports Illustrated covered the event at Belleview, MI. The simple question was: could new power defeat old finesse for Marty Hogan’s first World Championship? Hogan came out shooting, and Brumfield controlling pace with lobs and stalls. ‘Marty can’t take the pressure,’ Hogan heard Brumfield say in a pre-game wire-up, and murmured it again into his ear like an echo. For the occasion,

93 6: The Golden Era Brumfield: King of Racquetball

Brumfield, middle-aged at 30 by racquetball standards, had outfitted his beer swilling, rabid fans in Brum’s Bums T shirts. As expected, Hogan came out biting with nine aces and hitting winners with increasing power. The first game went to Hogan 21- 12, but Brumfield had not lost a single point on a forced error. Hogan, still cruising at the Brumfield, middle- aged at 30 by psych artist’s rants, built up a racquetball 14-7 lead in the second game, standards, had before the strangest turnabout outfitted his beer of the tournament. Brumfield, swilling, rabid fans in Brum’s Bums T apparently stripped of his shirts. psyching tactics by Hogan's sheer power or fatigue, changed his mode of play. He slowed everything down, hitting soft serves and recalling Loveday’s adage. (‘Always change a losing game, Babe.’) Hogan unraveled. He lost his serve and his concentration crumbled. Brumfield, on top of Hogan's errors and setups, ran off five points to take a 20-16 lead. Hogan made it 17-20 on a backhand kill, a forehand kill from the Neiman painting made it 18-20. Finally, the best player never to win a nationals was serving at 20-20 for all. Why prolong it? He won the shot that made him famous, a kill from deep in the backcourt. Charlie, instead of sweeping his arms up in a victory salute to the crowd, for once raised Hogan’s arm.

94 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 6: The Golden Era

You got it all wrong… The ball, not Hogan beat the best. Thinking time was reduced to a fraction of a second in the match, and Charlie admitted, ‘My analytical prowess, and the ability to pinpoint my opponent's weaknesses have been neutralized by the raw power.’ Marty Hogan couldn’t agree more, saying, ‘Absolutely, Brumfield was the best with the slow ball, I couldn’t touch him on my best day.’ Brumfield and Hogan were the first players to have earned fame and large incomes from the sport, and their stature as professional athletes capable of earning endorsements outside the game has not been equaled by anyone who has since followed them. In 1978, the Leroy Neiman painting of Charlie Brumfield and Marty Hogan from the ‘78 Pro Nationals gained nationwide scrutiny, along with reflection on their big match. A photograph from the same match at a very similar moment appears on the cover of Marty Hogan's Power Racquetball. The painting in a splash of colors depicts the great rivalry of the late 1970s between Charlie Brumfield King of Racquetball and Marty ‘Killer Dog’ Hogan.

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7: ON COURT AND IN COURT

The golden era of racquetball belonged to Charlie. He was the #1 player on the men's professional racquetball tour for most of the 70s, winning four championships and dominating most of the tournaments he participated in. This was extraordinary at a time when racquetball was the fastest growing leisure activity in North America. Brumfield won two consecutive singles championships in 1972 and 1973, having won twenty consecutive tournaments, and then racked up two more consecutive titles again in 1975 and 1976. Throughout the decade, I was his competition, ranking second in ’73 and ’74, and then Serot uprooted me. I took my irritating second and third places in losing to Brum in the final or semis of countless tournaments in the mid-70s. Marty Hogan became Brumfield's primary rival in the late 70s, but I often beat Hogan only to stumble into Brum. He won 25% of the tournaments he ever entered. He made the finals of another 11 of his career 64 pro tournaments, meaning that he made the finals of 42% of the tournaments he ever entered. He's in the top 10, still in 2013, in terms of career tournament wins, despite not playing nearly as many tournaments as the players of today. Once the fast ball came around, only Hogan really had his number; Brumfield was 6-11 lifetime against Hogan, but it would have been 16-1 with the original slow ball. His last tournament win on tour was in January 1978, the only tournament that season that Hogan

96 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 7: On Court and In Court didn't win. Brumfield beat Hogan in the final in a tiebreaker. His final match on tour was a round of 32 loss to Scott Hawkins in the 1981 DP/Leach Nationals in Tempe. True to the end, Brumfield took him to a tiebreaker. He transitioned after that into a part-time law practice where his opponents find him even more obstreperous and dominating. He pushes his law career with the same obsessive passion for mastery. 'Frankly, the pressure to perform in law is far greater than in racquetball. In racquetball, the odds are always against me. I'm not gifted in any way as an athlete. In fact, I've always been the underdog THAT nobody expected to win. In law, however, the exact opposite is the case. I feel a great deal of pressure to perform at the levels others undoubtedly expect of me, which I expect of myself.'

97 7: On Court and In Court Brumfield: King of Racquetball

One magistrate balked at Charlie’s whacky disclosures, shouting, ‘Where did you learn this nonsense?’ Brumfield’s retort, ‘I saw it on Perry Mason.’ Another judge placed a blackboard between him and the jury before last summation so they could not witness his obscene gesticulations. Brumfield earned his Law degree while winning his back-to- back national singles titles on the court during 1972 and 1973. He once told me, ‘I love the theory and practice of law, and use the same techniques applied from racquetball to the court of law.’ Brad Kruger (aka Rip Mackenzie) was a Canadian three-sport (racquetball, handball, Another judge placed a swimming) national blackboard between him champion who, in 1980, and the jury before last traveled to San Diego for summation so they could degrees in politics and not witness his obscene gesticulations. journalism from USD. He took post graduate work in the fledgling law office of Charles Brumfield and Associates for one year doing due diligence, and they played racquetball on breaks. According to Rip, “On the court he was a menace, but in court he resembled John McEnroe only a lot smarter, and a lot funnier. His sense of outrage over even the slightest perception of injustice had no limits. And all that was before the night sessions: the hefty stack, the sports slumlord, society and its discontents, and the Voice of God ringing, ‘Get the racquets, we’re going to the PPA.’ I can’t remember how many times I was

98 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 7: On Court and In Court fired for bad shots an typos, but I know it was one less time than I was rehired and quit.” The legal stint coincided with the first Catalina Invitational Tour, a disruptive phase for racquetball from 1981-3. The tour omitted some of the top players, including Brumfield and me, for political reasons or because we were older and not suited for the Catalina line. Or, it could be for the reason that top seed Marty Hogan states, ‘Though the sponsor Catalina had allotted enough for the prize money, this was to be as much a touring Catalina fashion show as a racquetball circuit. Each player was required to wear Catalina apparel on and off the court during the events. Unlike normal racquetball attire, a full Catalina wardrobe cost $5,000 per player. The bill to outfit the twelve full-time and two alternate players was a whopping $70,000. To admit and dress other players would have cut the prize money and Charley Drake’s cut.’ Drake was Hogan’s and my earlier housemate in La Jolla, CA, a strong lefty doubles pro, and the first President of Leach Industries. Our tie went actually back earlier when Charley got his sociology PhD in record time at Michigan State, even as he and I played paddleball and racquetball. I introduced Drake to Brumfield and later to Bud Leach, and that’s how Leach got going. Charley Drake's new Catalina Tour was limited to a dozen players of his choosing. Brumfield was solidly in the top 10 the year of inception (with a slow ball he was likely in the upper three), and not only was he not invited to join, but

99 7: On Court and In Court Brumfield: King of Racquetball with all reasonable paths to qualifying for the tour, was virtually shut out. ‘This makes me ill,’ he complained, but it didn’t get him on tour. Drake, Hogan, and all the top players on the tour did The bottom line is always simply that when sport, well financially, and money, and politics collide while it wasn't the evil it's usually the fans who plot that some make it lose. out to be, the closed tour stunted the growth of the sport for two years. The bottom line is always simply that when sport, money, and politics collide is it's usually the fans who lose. Riding the crest of the sport boom in the late 70s, in the hotbeds at San Diego, St. Louis, Chicago, Memphis, and Michigan clubs had up to a thousand members that were ample for huge in-house tournaments. Maybe five players in each club read the magazines and traveled outside to play in sanctioned tournaments. I, among them, wherever I was traveling by airplane, bus, thumb or boxcar kept an eye peeled for a money tournament somewhere. Life was a tour of weekend stands across the country, and when the money was big, it brought the big cats sniffing. Such was the politically famous Chicago Cramp match. Charlie Brumfield and I were edging toward retirement in the fall of the decade, and Charlie pushed me over in Chicago. There were no holds barred between Brum and me, and so deep in the

100 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 7: On Court and In Court bowels of the Circle Campus, there were no sour grapes as he walked off the court while down in the second after I had won the first game. I had trained to a peak like Abraham Lincoln, ‘I will prepare and one day my chance will come.’ The game plan was to run him into the hardwood, and it was working. He cramped hard in both legs and leaned a free arm against the back wall, teetering and gazing bleakly up at the ref, and muttered, ‘Injury time out.’ He pulled himself out the door and into the labyrinth of steam tunnels and swimming pool portals inside the sports facility, where for an hour no one could find him. It was nigh past forfeit time when he reappeared through the court door. The gallery had emptied, and NRC commissioner Joe Ardito peeked over the balcony and intoned, ‘Play ball.’ By then, I was in cramps from searching for the fresh shirted Brumfield, and lost the match. I drove from Chicago to live on a lake in Michigan working on ball spin for a while, hopped freight trains to a few last exhibitions, invented boxcar handball and racquetball till my balls flew out the door, and slowly transitioned out of racquetball into a world of travel adventure. Brumfield, however, used the lapse in his schedule created by the 1981 Catalina Tour to go into another scientific sequester to search for new answers to slay the game. Brad Kruger helped him and for selfish reasons. He respected, was even fascinated by Charlie’s on and off court genius, and like thousands of other aspiring North American players had been

101 7: On Court and In Court Brumfield: King of Racquetball cut out of pro racquetball by Catalina. Brumfield called Catalina an ‘Invitational of newcomers and wannabes.’ He launched his legal practice as a smokescreen and to finance his comeback to become #1 in the world. Kruger describes their daily grind in ‘San Diego Mecca: California Dreaming’. ‘Charlie Brumfield looked like the Prince of Darkness, moved like Groucho Marx, and had the flawless arsenal of a platypus on steroids. Match after match covered in plastic bags for weight loss, SCUBA weight belts to add spring, and masking- tape goggles with only pin-pricks to see through to heighten focus. Then, repeat the analysis with sit-ups and deep-knee bends in a steam room until you vomit or collapse (but try not to collapse into your vomit). Nothing was taboo. Flashback: Brumfield, fetal, against the front wall, looking chubby in three gray cotton sweat suits—his anti-killshot armor—but in anguish, screaming at us again and again to hit him harder! Having been repeatedly pelted in an earlier tournament, Brumfield endured 15 minutes of high-velocity torture—whatever it took to exorcise the fear of ever being hit again. Flashback: Brumfield, fetal, against Brumfield's place six the front wall, looking months after arriving in chubby in three gray town. Loveday's there, cotton sweat suits—his Muehleisen too, and the anti-killshot armor—but in anguish… Super-8 projector's flashing images of Hogan’s brutalizing forehand. Fast rewind and analyze. Fast rewind and analyze. Twenty times at

102 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 7: On Court and In Court least. For a laugh, we rewind the film through the projector to watch Marty hitting in reverse... just for a laugh. But the jokes on us: Hogan hitting his forehand in reverse was a mirror image of his backhand in full form. Hogan gets the last laugh. And we call it a day. It was exhausting, but you got up early the next morning because you WERE DOING IT WITH THE GREATEST.’ Brad Kruger reveals privately for this biography, ’However, winning was only a part of it. His hunger was to dominate all fields on all levels, and he was greedy about it. In fact, his appetite for success was insatiable. And in the pursuit, he constantly shocked you by making the vastly impossible suddenly possible, even commonplace. Nowhere is this better demonstrated than in practice where, freed from the necessity of playing the percentages at a level of an astrophysicist, calculating the reductions of margins for error against what he felt was his lack of natural talent, he was able to play free and unencumbered by fear, uncertainty and doubt. ‘The big cat sprawls,’ he would drawl, executing a perfect reverse pinch as he rolled out of a dive that began it. Though he resembled more a sea lion with a flop, it isn’t worth mentioning because otherwise it was divine. ‘Uh, you forget something. Isn’t that your jockstrap I just blew off with that pass?’ There was pain and humiliation, but the humiliation never arrived, because the wonder of what you had just seen and heard was all-consuming. You were beaten back to where you belonged, as he picked himself up from

103 7: On Court and In Court Brumfield: King of Racquetball his most recent collapse, and barking, ‘Get back to the receiver's position where you belong.’ Over and over, shot after shot, scene of scene of nothing less than miracle balls. Charlie was the most tragic player, but I cannot recall him ever complaining or saying a discouraging word. He was one of the most encouraging people I had met when everything I lived was racquetball. And come to think about it, thirty years later, he still is.’

Brumfield has written a Brumfield has written a handful of books handful of books purportedly letting out purportedly letting out some of his secrets. All some of his secrets. All are incorrectly credited or don’t give him his due. are incorrectly credited or don’t give him his due. In 1972, Rollout Racquetball filled a void for instruction as the game took off, and was transcribed from Brumfield tapes. In September, 1978, Brumfield’s Off the Wall: Championship Racquetball written by Jeffery Barstow was a strange brew of instruction and insights into his peers’ play and minds. I peeped at my first line, ‘Keeley is an angular man who once spayed a chipmunk on the kitchen table,’ and dropped the book. In 1979, he was the ghostwriter of Marty Hogan’s Power Racquetball. The book production took place at poolside of the Steamboat Springs Racquet Club where I was running a one month camp. Tanned Hogan stood with a swim flipper demonstrating the power strokes. Brumfield seated with two fists of beers did an apt running

104 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 7: On Court and In Court commentary for three straight days, and the actual writer was Art Shay. It sold well as the first to explain Hogan’s power stroke that was sweeping the nation. The book also describes Brumfield as ‘the smartest player alive’. Charlie’s game has been self-described as a ‘finesse’ style, and he via the game hands of Loveday and Muehleisen is regarded as the best finesse player to have ever played racquetball. ‘Finesse is neither a control game nor a power game. The control player, usually exemplified by Steve Keeley, is able to execute each shot precisely and score repeatedly on that precise execution. The power player, portrayed by Marty Hogan, puts pace on the ball, using that pace to overwhelm the opponent. Brumfield's ‘finesse’ style has elements of both control and power, but is most characterized by impeccable shot selection and gamesmanship during play. Having appropriate measures of control and power, without requiring either to place the ball outside the opponent's reach, and the wit to outwait his faltering mind, this quality of play has allowed Brumfield to Brumfield's ‘finesse’ style has elements of both compete at an extremely control and power, but is high level all of his life... most characterized by A player never stops impeccable shot selection learning how to play the and gamesmanship during play. game,’ sums Charlie Brumfield.

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105

8: THE TRUE HISTORY

The true history of racquetball was declassified in early 2013 during a two-month long Email round-table discussion by most of the fifty living professionals and movers and shakers of the industry. Muted, dirty secrets as well as the genius decisions were presented that have contributed to the development of the game since it was named Racquetball at the 1969 National, and even before that at the ‘first’ 1968 Paddle-Racket National. One of the most interesting findings was the underlying reason for the most pivotal time in the sport from 1980-81 when the game went from boom to bust ‘overnight’. 1979 was the best year racquetball ever had, and it had been a great decade. During that year, it was the fastest growing sport in the US and the world. A top USRA/NRC official recalls, ‘By now Nielsen and other big-name research companies were agreeing, spouting 10 million players. ‘Court clubs’ were growing like crazy, with amazing 12-court, 16-court, even 32-court complexes. We had a few, mostly positive, television experiences. A portable glass court was a reality (if not financially feasible). It was a beautiful world.’ And then the recession of '81-82 hit and unless you're 50 years or older, you don't know what it was like. Out of control inflation, prime interest rates at 22%, unemployment abounding. People did what people always do when they're scared—they hunkered down. They cut out

106 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 8: The True History unnecessary spending. Racquetball, like so many other industries, was hit hard. That would have been reboundable, except panic set in. The central figure in racquetball, Bob Kendler was in poor health (he died in December '82), and even worse financial straits as most of his wealth was tied up in real estate, highly mortgaged. He couldn't pay. The mafia bombed his house because he owed them. Seamco, which had been playing both political sides for a decade, had lost the market share battle to Penn, so NRC/USRA and Kendler was bankrupt. Several other racquetball associations went bankrupt, and many racquetball courts were forced to close, with the racquet companies headed in the same direction. The Kendler top staff for ten solid years from 1970- 1979 left the Chicago office, and on return in 1982 for a quick two years last line defense, found the racquetball world had changed drastically in the two years while they were gone. ‘So two decisions were made in the corporate board room that sealed racquetball’s fate: 1) speed up the ball; 2) make larger racquets. Both were made as a means of generating new revenue to replace lost revenue. The competing organization IRA that in 1979 had changed its name to American Amateur Racquetball Association (AARA) did not have the old ‘balls’ sponsor to stand up to the sport’s major funders, so they went along with the plan, rewriting the rules that had to be re-written in order to make these two decisions legal. Essentially, the governing AARA nailed the committed players with the have-

107 8: The True History Brumfield: King of Racquetball to-purchase-new-equipment-or-you-won't-be-able- to-compete policy. Overnight, the game became faster and more dangerous—appealing to elite male athletes and that was about it. Quick profits Overnight, the game became faster and more almost never play well dangerous—appealing to over the long haul. Good elite male athletes and bye easy-to-learn. Good that was about it. bye to anybody-can-play. Good bye skill, finesse, and strategy. Good bye any semblance of looking to the sport's future. Hello, mine's bigger and faster. ‘We had our decade in the sun and then the fickle American sporting public moved on to the next thing. In 1979 the USRA/NRC ran 128-page magazines with nearly 50 pages of ads in each. In 1982 it barely could publish a 32-page magazine with 10 pages of ads, and half of them were fitness companies. Agree or disagree. It doesn't matter because we'll never know the roads not taken. Unless the ball is slowed, and small head racquets come back. I think common sense tells us the sport could not have remained on the growth train that we all experienced especially, after all the horrible economic problems passed, it’s simply not possible to have a club and make money. Club owners realized that they were not in the racquetball industry but in the fitness industry and had to provide as wide an array of fitness activities as possible to maintain their membership base even if it meant converting racquetball courts to new fitness

108 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 8: The True History areas. It's now an amenity for clubs, and it will be difficult to make it more.’ The stubborn Brumfield had conserved throughout his dynasty into the fall of racquetball in the early 1980s that his plan was to save the sport. ‘The most important things: there should be television coverage, produced by a slower and more consistent ball, maintain the head size, and a slower floor surface.’ It sounds like he was also trying to conserve his reign. Racquetball still during the 1980s was clamoring for television coverage. To get it, every other credible source than Brumfield offered these basic changes that must be made in the game: The players have to clean up their act. There should be strict rules of behavior, firmly enforced. It is a good sign that racquetball has begun to train and certify referees and lines people, and now, they must begin to oust troublemakers A point should be awarded after each rally. A way must be found to lengthen the rallies. There should be one serve instead of two, to cut out aces and stalling. Charlie, also defended his position that the sport needed glamour, not Square Jocks, who would sustain his unique, sometimes dangerous plays on the latter. Early racquetball was dirty fighting, in the politics, and definitely on court where not fighting dirty gave up about 8 points in a game to 21. In one match I saw four-time national champion, Charlie Brumfield, exhibit his signature middle finger sans the Seamco ring when the gallery didn’t please him.

109 8: The True History Brumfield: King of Racquetball

He has socked his opponents in the back with the ball, stalked them into a corner like a boxer, and then unveiled his underwear when a player retaliated in kind. Charlie, with the ref in hand after a bad call and the crowd support, once walked off the court and showered between points as a future lesson to the referee. For these transgressions, Brumfield normally went unpunished. IRA professional referee, Chuck Leve, recalls the 1979 Nationals in Lemontree, MI. ‘Brumfield was playing Don Thomas in the quarters. Don was handling the match well and had Brum down with a particular lob Z- serve. When it became apparent that Don was going to take the second game after winning the first, the Brum came up with a return that turned the match around. Here came the lob Z-serve, and here came Brumfield. He could have probably gone cross-court and gained the advantage. However, he was thinking bigger than gaining an advantage. He knew he had to eliminate that serve as a possibility. So, he drilled the return into the back of Don’s knee. Brum continued to return the serve into that knee until Don literally went to his knees in pain. Don then conceded the serve going to another one. Charlie won the match outright.’ Brumfield is often criticized for psychological play, including intimidation and delays during the game. ‘But they didn’t know the sport,’ laughs Marty Hogan. ‘Charlie cracked me in the elbow with his racquet between games at the water fountain at the 1976 NRC pro finals. It hurt, but it was a

110 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 8: The True History compliment. Brumfield did anything and everything to win, and almost always won.’ You’d think it couldn’t happen against a large, graceful opponent but it is cat and mouse to Mr. Brumfield. He is the omnipresent villain while pestering the foe, ramrodding the ref, and fomenting the crowd. I personally have leaped to his physical defense on two events. The reason is because he invented and refined the early rules of engagement on the racquetball court that others were duped into accepting before the fact. They were chaos, blind skips, pushing, punching, blocking, wet balls, stalling, and psychological warfare. I don’t see how anyone could have won without agreeing in his own mind to play by Charlie’s rules. Leve and Brumfield were battling again at a San Diego Atlas pro stop, where Brum had chewed off and spit out the thumb of fellow pro Rich Wagner. Wagner had to run for a … Brum had chewed off tetanus shot and forfeited and spit out the thumb of the match. Leve recalls in fellow pro Rich Wagner. another match at Atlas, ‘Probably the most well-known of my encounters with Brum was when I had to assess him a technical foul, a personal innovation to the rules that has given me pride, and use against him over time, before the match began. I don't think anybody has ever since had to announce, ‘Zero serving Negative One!’ Brum didn't have the physical ability of his contemporaries, but his strategy, guile, and guts were unsurpassed. Of course, the evolution of the

111 8: The True History Brumfield: King of Racquetball game to the faster, nondrinking rewarded physical ability—especially strength—and somewhat negated the mental approach, which was a shame.’ What’s it like to be on the court with Brumfield? Suddenly the court gets smaller. He darts about, always on the fringe of being in the way, and then, at the crucial second, IS in the way. The first rally moves the opponent a bit out of position on the first shot, possibly by an exaggerated swing or follow through that causes the opponent to duck the paddle and forces a slightly weak return and wobble to the next shot, then moving the opponent farther out of position on the second shot with a deception and forcing a somewhat He darts about, always on the fringe of being in the weaker return and slower way, and then, at the recovery, by holding the crucial second, IS in the opponent out of position way. with his body, and freezing the opponent by denying him a view of the ball, and then hitting a finishing shot or a pass which can be hit with minimal precision under these circumstances to end the rally. This style builds momentum as the rallies or match go on, and places the opponent under severe stress. The opponent becomes fatigued by trying to understand what Brumfield is going to do, and this prevents the opponent from playing his own game that he has practiced for years. Even players in better physical condition find themselves physically and emotionally drained after playing a match with Brumfield.

112 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 8: The True History

He once told me before an important final, ‘Everything I’ve done in my life since my first shot in 7th grade has been for racquetball.’ Our mutual friend and psychiatrist Joel Sheinbalm, who invented the cut-off ceiling shot return, once opined to Charlie, ‘I think you’ll have more trouble adjusting in retirement than Steve.’ Charlie protested. Joel shrugged, and served in our doubles match.

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113

9: THE LION IN WINTER

Addictions and recovery are part of Charlie’s life like the cover on a racquet. First it was racquetball, now law, and in between it was multiple-substances including alcoholism. Brumfield’s battle with addiction is discussed in detail in an article published in the San Diego Union Tribune, February 4, 1997, ‘Lawyers aid parolees in building new lives.’ Even at the height of his playing career, Brumfield disclosed that substance and alcohol abuse had probably shortened his professional playing career, and also that they had an impact on the early part of his new law career. He admitted himself to a recovery program and has remained active in recovery programs and recovery networks. Some of this work has involved using physical conditioning and sports as a bulwark against addiction. As a practicing attorney, Brumfield’s focus is in addicted lawyers and trying to get them to switch to racquetball. It begs a question which his former player and paralegal Brad Kurger answers—is Charlie better on court or in court? ‘In the beginning, he practiced multiple fields of civil law with the same sardonic sense of humor vs. the highbrow lawyers he was apt to encounter. One introduced himself as ‘Frederick Smith the Third, Hawvard.’ Charlie replied without missing a beat, ‘Charles Brumfield, USD... I wasn't aware Harvard had a cooking school.’ I was Charlie’s racquet fodder while doing due diligence in his attorney’s office on and in court. His level of accomplishment was nothing less than brilliant in both ‘offices’. A

114 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 9: The Lion in Winter level of brilliance that was blinding! His due diligence was nothing less than accomplished, demanding a level of reasoning and calculation beyond most at the top of their class in each field of accounting, economics and law. He was addicted to both. A few months ago the racquetball grapevine jiggled nervously…The Holder has 4+4 Gleason scale prostate cancer and ‘The outlook is dim.’ The racquetball community rallied with efforts from ‘Please get better’ to ‘Good luck in the Happy Court in the Sky.’ I was in the Peruvian Amazon catching butterflies and studying medicinal plants for a local green pharmacy pharmaceutical when the news touched me. One of the successful products was a natural blend of potent roots, leaves and a flower. I had studied the paperwork of many of the fifty test cases of prostatitis from Peru to America (where the product has not cleared FDA), and that all fifty showed remarkable shrunken prostates and reduced cancers. My dilemma was, should I reach out to the one who has cost me multiple titles and a million dollars? ‘You probably are thinking after all these years that I’m trying to poison you,’ I wrote Charlie. ‘But before chemo or the knife, try the conservative treatment of this product.’ In a similar case this year, a successor national champ has reduced a more serious 4.8 PSA to ‘normal’ value 3.2 in five weeks, and recently provided the supplier address to Charlie the strategist.

115 9: The Lion in Winter Brumfield: King of Racquetball

Director of the US Open, My dilemma was, should I Doug Ganim, emailed at reach out to the one who the same time, ‘I assume has cost me multiple titles you know Charlie is sick and a million dollars? and prognosis is not great. I have decided to dedicate this year’s US OPEN in his honor and have invited him to the event to do some TV commentating and receive a lifetime achievement award. (He does not know about the award.)’ Then, in a letter dated April 1st, 2013, Brumfield proffered his place on the Pioneer Hall of Fame nomination committee to former USRA and NRC director Chuck Leve with the following: ‘Chuck, due to my health, I would like you to take over for me on the Pioneer Committee of the HOF. There might be some issues as to ensuing nominations, and NO ONE is more respected and even-handed than you. And for most of the action, you were there. – Charlie’. Leve answered, ‘I'm inclined to accept your most generous offer, subject to your agreement to the following: 1 - that my appointment is temporary and that I will relinquish my seat upon your recovery; 2 - that the powers that be are identified and that they accept my appointment; 3 - that I am paid twice what they paid you. – Chuck.’ Charlie expresses a deep belief in the relationship between self-respect and recovery, and uses continuous physical activities including golf, weight lifting, and racket sports, as a means of building self- respect for recovering addicts. After leaving the

116 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 9: The Lion in Winter racquetball circuit, Brumfield returned to paddleball where he is a perennial force to be reckoned with. The slower ball once again favors his game style and natural abilities. He has won numerous National Paddleball (NPA) age group titles both in singles and doubles. In March 2012, he won his most recent national singles title by defeating Andrew Mitchell in the Golden Masters (55 and older) age group. In April 2009, at age 60, Brumfield with partner Jamie Lawson won the Men’s Masters national doubles title. Succeeding Brumfield by ten years, Jamie also started with Pensky Pink handball in junior high, quickly added a paddle to his quiver, and won the San Diego City Schools handball and paddleball tournaments three times each, and racquetball once. ‘The names changed, but the scores remained the same,’ reflects Charlie. Then, as a high school senior, Jamie opened a copy of my Complete Book of Racquetball and the pages fell open to an Art Shay photo of Brumfield hitting his juggernaut overhead. Jamie describes, ’The fingers of his free hand signaled ‘V’ for victory before the ball left his racquet. I blew this picture up as much as I could with the copy machine in the high school library and pinned it to my wall at home. I learned to execute that overhead as well as anyone and probably execute it as well as Brumfield today.’ Brumfield has won several Golden Masters (55 and older) doubles titles with Eric Campbell (another former racquetball pro), and Eric thought it an honor to play with ‘The best doubles partner I ever saw.

117 9: The Lion in Winter Brumfield: King of Racquetball

His great ability was to hold the center court and keep his man out of play. He handled any shot at any score with a purposeful return. His intensity was the best part of his game though—always focused in every point from 1-21.’ At age 55, Brumfield won the 2004 Senior's (35 and older) national paddleball doubles title with Mike Wisniewski, giving nearly 20 years to some of his younger opponents in that age group. Down 15-17 in the 2003 final against RoboCop and Mike Schafer, Charlie leaned against the wall in pain due to a back injury. Wiz says, ‘He screamed at me, ‘I want to see some f@:/can production! Take over!’ I was jump-started and did, and we won the championship.’ Brumfield is also a member of the NPA Board of Directors, and is the founder of Paddleball Nation, a group of paddleball players in Southern California. Members of Paddleball Nation have won more than half of the paddleball national championships since its inception in 2003. The dominance of Paddleball Nation in national competition was the subject of the lead story, entitled ‘Racquetball and Brum get credit for success of Paddleball Nation,’ in the NPA fall 2009 newsletter. He still works dual courts, and at present is the in- house counsel of Pure Bioscience in a San Diego suburb, El Cajon, CA. At his home club in Sorrento Valley Racquet and Fitness hangs the widely distributed poster by Leonard Neiman signed by both players. In 2003, he was the color commentator for the Racquetball Legends Pro Tour, and in a

118 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 9: The Lion in Winter parallel Hybrid Racquetball event (wood paddle and racquetball) involving the Legends he played with Chris ‘The Giant’ Crowther but lost a close tiebreaker to Hogan and Lerner in final. He ‘donkey kicked’ the Legends around the court, cursed the refs, fomented a new crowd of clean and sober Brum’s Bums, and in the final, pointed at his blood stained knees and hands from fifty years of scrambles, and screamed, ‘Finally, the stigmata!’ A torrid marriage of racquetball and paddleball took place in 2003 with the first ever Hybrid Racquetball Tour featuring the paddleball champs and racquetball Legends on the same court hitting for I was co-inventor in a long-shot wish to find money. I was co-inventor common ground between in a long-shot wish to a sport that is too slow for find common ground the masses and another between a sport that is too fast for its own good. too slow for the masses and another too fast for its own good. The matrimonial rule was to use wood paddles and a racquetball. Every former national paddleball champ had his way paid to coast-to-coast stops. When the last shots echoed off the walls, the Hybrid Game winners were the top racquetball champs, but from third place down the paddleball champs took the depth. Brumfield excelled at the Hybrid game, but after the season ended, both parties racquetball and paddleball preferred their pure sports. Earlier this year, in 2013, Charlie read a text on his cell phone, ‘Hey, There’s one thing we haven’t done

119 9: The Lion in Winter Brumfield: King of Racquetball together. Let’s enter the 45+ doubles for our first win.—Marty Hogan’ Brumfield replied, ‘When the lion is young it hunts. When the lion is old it rests in winter.’ The Lion in Winter, I explained to Marty, is a play based on the life of aging Henry II, King of England, and how he comes to terms with his affection and gamesmanship after losing the throne. A few months later, the racquetball community was embarrassed and confused that Charlie Brumfield was not in the Outdoor Hall of Fame. He was quickly nominated by the World Outdoor Racquetball (WOR) H of F, and Brumfield responded typically as the only player in outdoor history with double inductions into the Hall. ‘On the issue of dates of induction into the HOF, a review of the old magazines should disclose that I was inducted in 1974. The policies changed later so that applicants could not be considered so early in their careers. I like the ‘new’ rule, and will bring myself to be inducted a ‘second time’. That by virtue of winning both singles and doubles championships at the first outdoor national championship, his place in the not yet conceived Hall was assured in 1974. In other words, he earned it on the over-sized concrete courts that weekend thirty nine years ago, and the rest today is a formality. At 3 a.m. on May 7, 2013, this flash arrived in all the racquetball community inboxes. ‘None will be surprised to learn that the Holder has been inducted by unanimous fiat into the fledgling Outdoor

120 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 9: The Lion in Winter

Racquetball Hall of Fame. The joyous confirmatory ceremony itself is to be held at the outdoor nationals in Huntington Beach on July 13th at 1:30. Out of respect, all tournament play stops during the fateful proceeding. The Holder should be introduced to the throng by a dignitary of equal standing in the sport. Mega-Shoes to fill. A coherent three-minute speech of introduction would also be required. That latter requirement may be too high a hurdle. – Charles Brumfield’ Brumfield still draws large and boisterous audiences when he competes and remains popular amongst fans. He is the ‘Holder of All Titles.’ The Holder was a multiple national champion in racquetball, paddleball and outdoors in both singles and doubles. Also beat Bjorn Borg in badminton and squash. He was the first of two players in history, along with Marty Hogan, to capture the elusive Triple Crown. The goal of the top competitors in the early days of the sport was to one day become ‘the Holder of All Titles’—no player had never won national racquetball singles, paddleball singles, and outdoor racquetball singles championships. Similar accomplishments in other sports have turned athletes into legends, such as Secretariat winning at various distances on all three different racetracks, or Rod Laver winning four majors on three surfaces in one year to capture The Grand Slam of Tennis. In no sport has this mastery of all competitions been tougher than in racquetball. Charlie Brumfield was the first to achieve this herculean racquets-paddle

121 9: The Lion in Winter Brumfield: King of Racquetball feat and still quickly answers to his nickname, ‘The Holder.’

He was the first of two Brumfield alone is the players in history, along only player ever to hold a with Marty Hogan, to career Triple Crown in capture the elusive Triple Crown. both singles and doubles. He first captured the 1968 and 1969 Paddleball National Doubles titles with partner Dr. Bud Muehleisen, and added the 1969 and 1970 Paddleball National Singles Titles. He won his first official IRA National Singles Championship in 1972 and first official IRA National Doubles Championship in 1973 teamed with Steve Serot. Brumfield later added four more National IRA and NRC Singles Championships and two more National Doubles Championships on the indoor racquetball courts. To complete his Triple Crown, The Holder won the singles titles at the 1974 and 1975 Outdoor Racquetball Nationals, and doubles in 1974 teaming with trusted partner Muehleisen. Brumfield would never again play the outdoor events leaving him undefeated under the sun, and the holder of career Triple Crowns in both singles and doubles and a second Triple Crown in singles—an accomplishment unlikely ever to be matched. When the racquetball day is done, the question is who is the All-Time Best Player ever. Charlie is a consensual finalist among Kane, Hogan, Swain, Sudsy, and Yellen. Yet, few historians of any sport

122 Brumfield: King of Racquetball 9: The Lion in Winter endure long enough to actually see in live action the legendary competitors they write about. The problem in making this determination is an inconvertible truth that the fifty-five year old game since the first 1968 Nationals has evolved so much that it's next to impossible to compare one era to the next. The racquets have grown to double head size, much lighter and better made. The strings are strung with 400% more tension than when I hit the court. The doubly faster ball moves like a hummingbird instead of a sponge, the scoring system today is different with shorter games, and many rules changes have obliterated early strategies and given rise to new ones. The sport was and is called racquetball, but the greatest players throughout the four eras really played different games. What I can objectively deliver is the best of the eras. Each with its own version of the game, personalities, strategies, equipment, rules, and one great champion. The Pioneers competed from the first National event until the mid-seventies. The players of the Golden Era vied from the mid-seventies through the eighties. The Modern Era of the sport consisted of the nineties to the mid-two thousands. The Current Era is the last five years through the present 2013 US Open. The Pioneers of championship racquetball were more often described as Docs than Jocks! We played sweaty chess, a slow strategic contests won by the smarter player and not the best athlete. We played with an extremely slow ball with wood frame and new-fangled medal racquets strung at less than

123 9: The Lion in Winter Brumfield: King of Racquetball fifteen pounds tension in two out of three games to twenty-one point marathons. The ball only moved 90 mph and typical rallies went six or eight shots before a point ended. How The doubly faster ball accurate was the Doc moves like a hummingbird moniker? Well, five of instead of a sponge. the top ten of the era and numerous contenders just off the list had doctoral level degrees in medicine, dentistry, law, psychology, and in my case veterinary medicine. The Champion of the Pioneer Era was Charlie Brumfield. It is fairly said that the King rules best when the subjects are most plentiful and splendid, and for this Charlie Brumfield is the undisputed King of Racquetball of all time. What’s it like to know Charlie Brumfield? From that first step towards the gym, dragging an overstuffed bag of racquets, gloves and balls, your drive begins to build. The echoes of his legend blast down the hall as you enter the door. The gate of lights, smell of a new ball, and suddenly the court becomes smaller as he comes closer. Who has been with your game since day one, trained harder, practiced more, and will keep driving as though he’s fresh in the tiebreaker. Charlie Brumfield, King of Racquetball.

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124

APPENDIX A: CHARLIE BRUMFIELD’S STATS

Charlie Brumfield: King of Racquetball Dynasty

1968 National Paddleball Doubles Champion w/ Bud Muehleisen 1969 National Paddleball Singles Champion 1969 National Paddleball Doubles Champion w/ Bud Muehleisen 1970 National Paddleball Singles Champion 1971 Winner of IRA National Invitational Singles Championship (First time in history top sixteen players in one event) 1972 IRA National Singles Champion 1972 IRA National Invitational Doubles Champ w/ Bud Muehleisen 1973 IRA National Singles Champion 1973 IRA National Doubles Champion with Steve Serot 1973 IRA National Invitational Doubles Champion w/ Bud Muehleisen 1974 National Outdoor Racquetball Singles Champion 1974 National Outdoor Racquetball Doubles Champion w/ Bud Muehleisen 1974 IRA National Invitational Doubles Champion with Steve Serot 1974 Inducted into Racquetball Hall of Fame, youngest inductee ever 1975 NRC Pro National Singles Champion 1975 IRA/IPRO National Singles Champion 1975 IRA National Doubles Champion with Craig McCoy 1975 National Outdoor Racquetball Singles Champion 1976 NRC Pro National Singles Champion 1976 NRC Pro National Doubles Champion with Steve Serot 1977 IRA/IPRO National Doubles Champion with Steve Serot 1978 IRA/IPRO National Doubles Champion with Steve Serot 2004 Awarded Early Riskey Trophy for Lifetime Achievement in Paddleball 2013 Inducted into World Outdoor Racquetball Hall of Fame

125 Appendix A: Stats Brumfield: King of Racquetball

Even in retirement Brumfield remains the Holder of All Titles as the only player inducted in both the USAR indoor and WOR Outdoor racquetball halls of fame and awarded the NPA Earl Riskey Trophy, paddleball's top honor.

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126

APPENDIX B: BRUMFIELD’S GREATEST QUOTES

Nobody remembers second place.

I started playing pink ball in 7th grade while in junior high at Mar Vista in 1960. I played my first paddles after dislocating my finger in early ’64. Then, in 1965 in the eleventh grade, I won the San Diego City Schools pink ball doubles championship with DC Charleston.

For the record, I prefer the Sportcraft wooden Clunker, and the 17-year spot Bud gave me at the IRA 1969 Nationals final.

Someone in the 1969 gallery muttered within my earshot, ‘For your first National Champion would you rather have Dr. Bud or THAT.’ My feelings were hurt. So please never talk to me about the meaning of ‘homered’ (home conditions, referee or crowd favorites).

Stick a fork in him, he’s done! (To Keeley at 1971 paddleball National final)

I am very proud of having won dual titles in paddleball and racquetball when the singles and doubles were conducted at the same time. It was very difficult to do in that time when my singles opponents are resting while I’m playing a number of doubles matches. (In 1973 he won the IRA National Singles, IRA National Doubles Champion with Steve Serot, and the paddleball Nationals, and IRA National Invitational Doubles Champion with Bud Muehleisen.)

Respect for Muehleisen runs so deep in the West that when Dr. Bud shifts sports, many follow, myself included.

The best doubles team in racquetball is Brumfield and whoever my lefty partner is.

127 B: Brumfield’s Greatest Quotes King of Racquetball

The only New Age technique I used was ABC- Always Believe Carl (Loveday).

You aren’t smart enough to beat me. Remember that. (To Marty Hogan in 1976)

I have been inconvertibly mistaken about Hogan’s abilities.

In those days, I played very close and when an opponent jacked me with a pass, I pushed off aggressively with my left arm to go back and make the opponent pay for the temerity.

Oops … guess I haven’t played in a while.

I fully understand as well a robust reluctance by my contemporaries to ever consider me as a victim. But to be sure, the calls and the pranks did not always go in my favor.

My memory says that Jan Pasternak and her father were from the Houston ‘J’. The dad was rich and got me a car to drive in a subsequent tourney in Houston. On the eve of the finals, I partied and was unable to remember how I got ‘home’ or the whereabouts of the car. I played Steve Serot in the finals the next morning and my training program again proved successful. I and a partner beat down Serot and Valier later that memorable day. Unknown if and when the car was recovered.

Everything I’ve done in my life since my first shot in 7th grade has been for racquetball.

I AM the People’s Champion!

Another day, Another win.

I have always believed the best training for racquetball is to play racquetball.

128 King of Racquetball B: Brumfield’s Greatest Quotes

My opponents often played without shirts to try to stay cool. I was accurate and willing enough to take advantage of that fault.

He gave me no choice. It was either hit him or hold up.

You never see a BIG SHOT like that in a SMALL TOWN LIKE THIS!

The three wall god was Barry Wallace. He was kind enough to schedule the pros when the sun was cresting the cement front wall. Then came the blizzard of lobs and three-wall up and outs—Three Blind Mice.

Hear comes the Heavenly Donut Truck. (At 20-0).

Get the fuck out of the way! I’m here because I need the money, and I’m going to win!’ When that happened Borg couldn’t compete with Brumfield any more in squash and lost to him in badminton at the Challenge of the Racquets.

That’s as confusing as Father’s Fay in Harlem. (NYC live interview)

I’ve dropped down from the clear favorite into an upset position. That means other racquetball players will be in a position to upset me.

The most important things: There should be television coverage, produced by be a slower and more consistent ball, maintain the head size, and a slower floor surface.

My analytical prowess and the ability to pinpoint my opponent's weaknesses have been neutralized by the raw power.

129 B: Brumfield’s Greatest Quotes King of Racquetball

Why should I practice law, when few attorneys make what I’m making?

‘Charles Brumfield, USD ... I wasn't aware Harvard had a cooking school.’ (To attorney Frederick Smith the Third, Hawvard)

Frankly, the pressure to perform in law is far greater than in racquetball. In racquetball, the odds are always against me. I'm not gifted in any way as an athlete. In fact, I've always been the underdog THAT nobody expected to win. In law, however, the exact opposite is the case. I feel a great deal of pressure to perform at the levels others undoubtedly expect of me, which I expect of myself.

When the lion is young it hunts. When the lion is old it rests in winter.

Finally, the stigmata! (2003 Legends Tour)

None will be surprised to learn that the Holder has been inducted by unanimous fiat into the fledgling Outdoor Racquetball Hall of Fame. The joyous confirmatory ceremony itself is to be held at the outdoor nationals in Huntington Beach on July 13th at 1:30. Out of respect, all tournament play stops during the fateful proceeding. The Holder should be introduced to the throng by a dignitary of equal standing in the sport. Mega-Shoes to fill. A coherent three-minute speech of introduction would also be required. That latter requirement may be too high a hurdle.

I assume you know Charlie is sick and prognosis is not great. I have decided to dedicate this year’s 2013 US OPEN in his honor. – (Doug Ganim, US Open Director)

130 King of Racquetball B: Brumfield’s Greatest Quotes

I saw you win that last match. Six months after I die have them dig me up. I'll still spot you 15 points.

You probably are thinking after all these years I’m trying to poison you. – (Steve bo Keeley)

A player never stops learning how to play the game.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Steve bo Keeley is the author of the best-selling Complete Book of Racquetball, It’s a Racquet, The Kill & Rekill Gang, and hundreds of articles from racquetball’s inception to the present. He was Charlie Brumfield’s primary nemesis throughout the Golden Era of the sport in the 70s, and lived with Brumfield as the game began to grow in Michigan and California. He has won five National paddleball singles titles, one US National Racquetball runner-up, Canadian National Champ, three Pro titles, and was ranked 2nd or 3rd behind Brumfield throughout the sport heyday. He was the first equipment-sponsored player, the first apparel sponsored, the first club pro, ran the first clinic and camps, and was the sport’s foremost early instructor. Steve bo Keeley opened up Central and South America to racquetball, and the remainder of his adventures in life to this point make his Wikipedia page read like Indiana Jones.

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LINKS

Find more information by entering the following into your Web browser.

Charlie Brumfield: King of Racquetball Facebook

Charlie Brumfield Wikipedia

Steve bo Keeley Wikipedia

Steve bo Keeley Facebook

RacquetballMuseum US Facebook

US Racquetball Museum Website

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PHOTO CREDITS

Cover photo of the 1975 Las Vegas Tropicana Nationals Charlie Brumfield vs. Craig McCoy by Davey Bledsoe. The PPA shot is courtesy of Bud Muehleisen. ‘Mighty Brumfield’ cartoon by Jan Campbell Mathews. ‘Brumfield Victory Urge’ by John Foust. The other photos are courtesy of Art Shay, John Foust, and the US Racquetball Museum.

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