Monday, July 20, 2009

Happy 55th Birthday Jerry Hilecher!

You were one of the original elite racquetball players. You first played on the pro tour in the 1973-74 season, and played in each of the next 14 seasons for a total of 131 tournament appearances, which places you 10th all time. The only player from the 70s who played in more tournaments is Marty Hogan (152).

You reached the finals 20 times and won five of them. You may have won more if not for Hogan's dominance during the period of your career. Nevertheless, those 5 tournament victories put you in 17th place overall.

Your career was during racquetball's glory days, although it wasn't always so good for you, as you were initially excluded from the National Racquetball Tour (sponsored by Catalina Sportswear and often referred to as the Catalina tour), and considered taking legal action about that. But victories on court - including at the 1981 CBC Classic in Winnipeg, Canada - led them to include you.

All in all you had a fine career. Happy birthday!

(note: statistics from the IRT Historical Data Archive)

Follow the bouncing ball....

2 comments:

burbankdc said...

is he a lefty from St Louis?

The Racquetball Blog said...

Yes and no. Yes, we believe he was originally from St Louis, although like many of the elite players in the 1970s moved to San Diego to develop his game. No, he was right handed, not left handed.

Follow the bouncing ball....

The Racquetball Blog