Comments on: Baset Ashfaq; Baltimore Heart Attack; Quaker Squash http://blog.jameszug.com/baset-ashfaq-baltimore-heart-attack-quaker-squash/ Stories on Squash Fri, 05 Dec 2008 07:35:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Rick Kagan http://blog.jameszug.com/baset-ashfaq-baltimore-heart-attack-quaker-squash/#comment-678 Rick Kagan Mon, 18 Jun 2007 14:47:48 +0000 http://blog.jameszug.com/baset-ashfaq-baltimore-heart-attack-quaker-squash/#comment-678 James - Your heart attack query reminded me of why (in my fifties, depite a variety orthopedic and circulatory insults) I am a lifelong squash player. BTW, after half an adult lifetime of dreaming about nationals I finally made it to New York so I could be one of those 330 amateurs roaming around at the TOC this past winter. As a young displaced New Yorker working as an investment professional in downtown Chicago almost thirty years ago, I started taking lessons again. Although my freshman roommate and I learned this unfamiliar, yet oddly addictive game from the great, and by then potbellied, John Skillman himself at Yale - we clearly in retrospect had no idea who he was and hadn't availed ourselves of many training opportunities despite the endless hours we committed to play - for fun, exercise and intramurals at best, I need not make clear. The pro at the University Club there, who was not a young man himself would tell the story of his immediate predecessor who died on the court playing in his eighties (I don't believe there were portable defibrillators back in the stone age). I don't remember either's name now, but the image always stuck with me. As an immortal twenty something this immediately went on my list of top three ways to die - most importantly having lasted into my eighties still able to play squash and such! The other two included riding a motorcycle into the Grand Canyon - soon to be dubbed doing a "Thelma and Louise" -and the last, not so unique according to these types of discussions, but probably not for publication in this forum. I still have the notion that this lifelong obsession with squash will keep me alive long enough for it to kill me. What a way to go! However, I did wonder how it might make your partner feel.... James -
Your heart attack query reminded me of why (in my fifties, depite a variety orthopedic and circulatory insults) I am a lifelong squash player. BTW, after half an adult lifetime of dreaming about nationals I finally made it to New York so I could be one of those 330 amateurs roaming around at the TOC this past winter.
As a young displaced New Yorker working as an investment professional in downtown Chicago almost thirty years ago, I started taking lessons again. Although my freshman roommate and I learned this unfamiliar, yet oddly addictive game from the great, and by then potbellied, John Skillman himself at Yale - we clearly in retrospect had no idea who he was and hadn’t availed ourselves of many training opportunities despite the endless hours we committed to play - for fun, exercise and intramurals at best, I need not make clear. The pro at the University Club there, who was not a young man himself would tell the story of his immediate predecessor who died on the court playing in his eighties (I don’t believe there were portable defibrillators back in the stone age). I don’t remember either’s name now, but the image always stuck with me.
As an immortal twenty something this immediately went on my list of top three ways to die - most importantly having lasted into my eighties still able to play squash and such! The other two included riding a motorcycle into the Grand Canyon - soon to be dubbed doing a “Thelma and Louise” -and the last, not so unique according to these types of discussions, but probably not for publication in this forum.
I still have the notion that this lifelong obsession with squash will keep me alive long enough for it to kill me. What a way to go! However, I did wonder how it might make your partner feel….

]]> By: Thomas http://blog.jameszug.com/baset-ashfaq-baltimore-heart-attack-quaker-squash/#comment-537 Thomas Thu, 24 May 2007 20:59:01 +0000 http://blog.jameszug.com/baset-ashfaq-baltimore-heart-attack-quaker-squash/#comment-537 Didn't Jahanghir Khan's brother die of a heart attack while playing a squash match ? Didn’t Jahanghir Khan’s brother die of a heart attack while playing a squash match ?

]]> By: guy cipriano http://blog.jameszug.com/baset-ashfaq-baltimore-heart-attack-quaker-squash/#comment-264 guy cipriano Fri, 30 Mar 2007 12:36:15 +0000 http://blog.jameszug.com/baset-ashfaq-baltimore-heart-attack-quaker-squash/#comment-264 Jimbo- well written articles. You are always entertaining and very informative. I think that Charlie Ufford would be a good source of information re other Quakers who play squash. To my knowledge, our two Quaker Presidents, Hoover and Nixon, did not play. I believe you are correct when you stated that no team has even won the Potter Trophy 9-0 before this year. I checked the yearbooks to verify that statistic and it's correct. Guy Cipriano Jimbo- well written articles. You are always entertaining and very informative. I think that Charlie Ufford would be a good source of information re other Quakers who play squash. To my knowledge, our two Quaker Presidents, Hoover and Nixon, did not play.

I believe you are correct when you stated that no team has even won the Potter Trophy 9-0 before this year. I checked the yearbooks to verify that statistic and it’s correct.

Guy Cipriano

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