COWLES, Harry
[88] pp.
The Macmillan Company
1935
7 3/4″ x 5 1/4″
VG/ VG
Scroll Down for (11) Additional Scans:
Harry Lee Cowles, a small but exceedingly quick and racquet-sports-talented product of English parents who had grown up in Newport, Rhode Island, where as a youngster he was taught all the racquet sports — namely court tennis, squash racquets, squash tennis, lawn tennis and rackets — at the famed Newport Casino (home of the International Tennis Hall of Fame and Museum) by its legendary English-born head pro Tom Pettitt. The latter, who had held the world championship throughout the period from 1885 – 90 in court tennis, his favorite sport, imbued in his young protg an appreciation for the degree of cross-fertilization that exists among all the racquet games, especially those in which walls are involved. As one example, the heavy slice routinely utilized in stroking a court tennis ball (in order to cause the ball to drop straight down when it hits the back wall, makingit difficult to return) is very helpful as well in making a squash ball die. It is also useful in deception, allowing the player to swing in one direction yet allow the ball to slide off in a quite different direction.
Cowles is perhaps known best for both the number of U. S. Nationals champions he produced — his total of seven (Myles Baker 22, W. Palmer Dixon 25, Herb Rawlins 27, Larry Pool 28, his younger brother Beekman Pool 32, Willing Patterson 32 and Germain G. Glidden 36) far exceeds that of any other coach — and for the variety of their styles. This latter phenomenon is a testament to Cowless ability to make a total assessment of a given player and intuit how that particular player, with his particular temperament, physique, racquet skills, mental assets, potentialities and limitations, could maximize his game. Cowles was able to think originally and to analyze the most subtle situation with the patience, persistence, clarity, understanding and imagination that characterizes all great teachers. It is a telling expression if Cowless philosophy in this regard that when he wrote his book The Art Of Squash Racquets, published in 1935, the summarizing chapter is entitled The Best Game: Every Man To His Talent.
