Great piece on Tom and Hazel (Jones), really enjoyed reading it. Nice work. Special people and very special to the squash world. I remember early on they had this little award in their Squash News every month, the “Boodles Gin Player of the Month.” I was always anxious to hustle home from school to check the mail on the first Wednesday of every month to see who it would be. I remember two of them distinctly, one was Larry Sconzo dressed in a chefs apron, with a recipe for his favorite Italian dish, along with expressing his great enthusiasm and love of the game. The other was Alicia McConnell who had just returned home from Finland after winning the world junior softball championships, which was really something.
J.D. Cregan
“Keeping Up With the Joneses”—Congratulations! What a great tribute to a couple who truly loved, lived and worked hard to promote and grow the sport of squash. Has anyone or any group done more?
Their story was brilliantly written, as usual, by Jim Zug. However there was a period of Tom’s squash life that was overlooked.
For three seasons (1959, 60, 61) he was undefeated at No. 1 playing for The University of Rochester and coach Peter Lyman, who had just started his 40 year career. Tom was also on the tennis team and as a result of these achievements he was inducted into the U of R Sports Hall of Fame in 2002. FYI—the current coach, Martin Heath, has taken the U of R from No. 25 to No. 4 and he also played in the Squash News Grand Prix in the early ‘90s.
Tom had a string of the Genesee Valley Club Invitational championships until Tom Poor ended it. He won the Rochester Squash championship many times and the Genesee Valley Club Championship whenever he entered.
Mitchell Pierson, Jr.
