Fall Winter 2016/2017 | VOL 34 NO 3 THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE ILLINOIS STATE RACQUETBALL ASSOCIATION • US OPEN Coverage • WSMRA at Glass Court • Annual Awards Nominations ...and much more! Facebook: Illinois State Racquetball Association | www.illinoisracquetball.com | 1 2 | www.illinoisracquetball.com | Facebook: Illinois State Racquetball Association ILLINOIS STATE ISRA COURTSIDE RACQUETBALL Table of ASSOCIATION CONTENTS FALL WINTER 2016/2017 | VOL 34 NO 3 PRESIDENT Laurel Davis - Oak Brook From The President ............................................................................................... 4 VICE PRESIDENT 2016 ISRA Players of the Year ............................................................................ 5 Geoff Peters - Chicago SECRETARY 2017 Distinguished Service Award ................................................................. 6 Marla Cusano - Glen Ellyn What Racquetball Means to Me ....................................................................... 7 TREASURER Michelle Halverson - Lombard KILLSHOT Kids’ Corner ......................................................................................... 9 ZONE VICE PRESIDENTS Bill Roberts - Chicago (North) Illini Open ...............................................................................................................10 Doug Halverson - Lombard (West) Adam Mills - Germantown Hills (Central) 2016 Fall Brawl/IRT Tier 3 Pro Stop ................................................................11 John O’Donnell, Jr. - Champaign (South) Turkey Shoot Open 2016 ..................................................................................14 GOVERNING BOARD Todd Burris - Oswego 2016 UnitedHealthcare US OPEN Racquetball Championships .........17 Mike Davern - Naperville Jonelle Dubois - Naperville Pam Grace - Wheaton 28th Annual Women’s Senior/Masters Racquetball Association Cheryl Kirk - Naperville National Championships ..................................................................................22 John Puccio - Naperville Dolores Lamberson - LaGrange XXVIII IRF World Junior Racquetball Championships .............................28 Rick Seaberg - North Aurora Joe Silius - Mokena International Update -- Making a Difference ............................................31 AUXILIARY BOARD Marian Bala - Indian Head Park ISRA Calendar .......................................................................................................33 Jeff Grace - Wheaton Paul Jepsen - Hinsdale Challenge Courts .................................................................................................34 Kit Lawson - Naperville Dave Milazzo - Gurnee Liz Molitor - Glen Ellyn Advertising Rates/Deadlines ...........................................................................35 Vickie Onesti - Elmhurst Barbara Vagedes - Carol Stream USAR Membership Application ......................................................................35 ISRA eMAGAZINE STAFF Cheryl Kirk - Editor Joe Silius - Advertising Editor On the COVER The ISRA eMagazine is published quarterly, and is the official publication of the Illinois State Racquetball Association (ISRA). Illinois Women turned out impressively All rights reserved. Copyright 2017. for the WSMRA Annual Championships Reproduction in whole or in part of any text, photograph or illustration without written at Glass Court in January! permission from the ISRA is strictly prohibited. Letters to the Editor, photographs, and articles or editorial contributions should be sent to [email protected]. Design & Layout by: TypaGraphics Facebook: Illinois State Racquetball Association | www.illinoisracquetball.com | 3 From the PRESIDENT I was in Champaign for a meeting with the University of In 1958, he was off the coast of China, showing Illinois a few weeks ago. When I travel to Central Illinois cities, off Lockheed’s F-104 Starfighter, the “missile I make a habit of reading the local newspaper, especially in with a man in it” that could reach top speeds of Champaign. It gives me a needed dose of ILLINI news! On this Mach 2. particular day, I picked up the Champaign News-Gazette and “We didn’t know what was going to happen saw a friendly face smiling back at me. What a surprise! There next with China,” the colonel says. was ISRA Hall of Famer, John O’Donnell, Jr. On “profile missions” every 60 days, O’Donnell tested himself and The article printed in the paper appears below. the Starfighter, taking the jet to 100,000 feet, where the engine Those Who Served: ‘We’d come in ... failed – then falling back to 60,000 feet before he hit the start button and blow up the side of the hill’ to relight the engine. Monday, January 9, 2017 | Paul Wood At one point, he posed for a photograph with Mao’s nemesis, Chiang CHAMPAIGN — As an Air Force pilot, Col. Kai-shek, the dictator of Taiwan, next to an F-104. John O’Donnell flew at Mach 2 — more The pose was literally on the edge, given the jet’s aerodynamic than 1,300 miles per hour — and at 100,000 profile. feet in altitude, where his jet engines were “The F-104’s wings’ leading edges were so sharp they had to be extinguished by lack of oxygen. covered with foam rubber (safety measures) on the ground,” In 33 years in the military — first in the Navy, O’Donnell says. then in the Army Air Forces and finally in its In 1963, he commanded a squadron of F-100 pilots in Vietnam, successor, the Air Force — O’Donnell joined becoming a colonel. up just after World War II and outlasted the drawn-out Vietnam War. O’Donnell had Just after the war, O’Donnell was posted to Chanute Air Force Base, some of his most intense times in 1958, when now closed, in Rantoul, serving there from 1976 to 1980. he flew his F-104 at high speeds between While he was there, O’Donnell coached softball and basketball on China and Formosa (now Taiwan) to let Mao’s Chinese forces see the base. the might of the U.S. “Those flights were mostly political,” he says. That’s how he met the then-new Illini athletic director, Neale Stoner. O’Donnell, 87, is a Louisiana native — though he doesn’t have the accent to show for it — and went to college there, taking ROTC Stoner called O’Donnell in to offer him a job, and he was given an classes while majoring in physical education and math. expedited discharge from the Air Force by Gen. Norma Brown. He enlisted in the Naval Reserve in 1946, which meant working on In his second career, O’Donnell worked another 14 years. his tan in Jamaica the next year. His athleticism continued long past retirement, as a racquetball “Then, four of us decided to enlist in the Army Air Forces,” he says. champion at the Fitness Center in Champaign, and now coaching it on the University of Illinois campus. That same year, it became a separate branch, the Air Force. So he has honorable discharges from the Army, Navy and Air Force. He and wife Arlene have six children, 13 grandchildren and six great- grandchildren. O’Donnell returned to active duty in 1952 after finishing up his bachelor’s degree. That was during the Korean War — so he ...and ultimately he was inducted into the Illinois State Racquet- undertook accelerated training as a pilot, reaching Korea near ball Association Hall of Fame! (John is also a member of the ISRA the armistice, and flying his F-86 Sabre on “two or three ‘hot’ Board of Directors as South Zone VP.) missions” with live armaments. Wow! What a neat article. We have this impressive man in our The Air Force had a mission to improve morale for the soldiers at midst, and I bet many of us didn’t know what an incredible back- the demilitarized zone, O’Donnell remembers. ground he has, even if we were aware of his military career. “We’d pick a hill that didn’t have any personnel on it, then the In other ISRA news... The State Doubles and State Singles cham- ground crew set up a target, even if it was only a couple of bed pionships are coming up on the weekends of February 24 and sheets,” O’Donnell says. March 30, respectively. With our State Singles Championships also “Then we’d come in with live ordnance and blow up the side of comes our Annual Awards Ceremony and Hall of Fame Induction. the hill, to show the ground troops that they had our full support. I say this every year, and I will say it again – people can’t be As we turned back to the base, they all waved at us” in apprecia- inducted or awarded if they are not nominated! That applies to all tion. of the awards. If you have nominees, please provide the appropri- He then spent four years as an instructor in pilot training. ate documentation and submit it to ISRA Secretary Marla Cusano. Forms can be found at www.illinoisracquetball.com and on pages At Davis-Monthan Air Force Base near Tucson, Ariz., he trained 5 and 6 of this issue of ISRA Courtside. airmen on the SM-75 Thor, the first intermediate-range U.S. ballistic missile. We have many impressive Hall of Fame members including a Chicago Bears player (Revie Sorey) and a famous sports photog- O’Donnell traveled to the United Kingdom because the English rapher (Art Shay), just to name a few. I can’t wait to see whom we and the U.S. worked together on nuclear ordinance. induct next and to hear their back stories! “We could hit Russia from there,” he remembers. See you on the courts, His postings included training airmen, but also flying the world’s fastest aircraft of the time. 4 | www.illinoisracquetball.com | Facebook: Illinois State Racquetball Association 2016 ISRA Players of the Year Vote for your favorite Male and/or Davis, Ron Johnson (1991); Lola Markus, Watkins,