Landmark IRT Tour Event History

A note before you read: Racquetball's older Men's pro tour history is rife with politics. This is meant to be more of a historical document, not a judgment on the events that occurred during tour transitional phases. This Information is gleaned from MANY sources (some impartial, others biased).

12/9/23: Daniel De La Rosa secures his third straight year end title.

11/13/23: Jake Bredenbeck ascends to #1 ranking on tour for the first time with his finals appearance in Boston.

Sept 2023: Alex Landa announces that he'll be retiring from the tour effective the end of the 2023 season.

May 2023: the tour pivots back to its normal 365 day calendar ranking points, now that we're well past Covid and have a full slate of events

1/9/23: Moscoso rises to #1 on tour after his runner-up finish at the 2023 Longhorn open, combined with the expiration of 2021 US Open points. This is the first time a player from outside the Big-3 countries of the sport has achieved #1

11/6/22: #1 Daniel De la Rosa wins the Sarasota Dovetail Open and guarantees his #1 year end ranking for 2022. This is his second straight year end title.

10/30/22: Long-time IRT vet Alvaro Beltran dislocates and fractures his arm playing at 3WallBall in Vegas.

10/14/22: IRT CEO Mike Grisz steps down to take over as the Executive Director of USA Racquetball.

9/17/22: Long-time #1 Kane Waselenchuk tears his Achilles Heel and is out for months. He does not return to the court for nearly a year.

5/15/22: For only the 2nd time in tour history, a final is not played to its completion at the 2022 New York Open.

12/31/21 Pablo Fajre is officially named as the new Commissioner of the tour.

12/31/21: the 2021 season ends with Daniel De La Rosa on top. The first Mexican to win a year end title.

10/11/21: The 25th US Open ends, ending Doug Ganim's 25-year run of organizing the event. The organization will transition fully to the USAR, with Director of National Events Connor Shane taking over for all of Ganim's duties. Daniel De La Rosa wins his first US Open after Kane withdraws from the event due to a "disagreement" with the tour.

Mid 2021: a decision is made by the tour, given the lack of any events between May 2020 and January 2021, to move the tour to a calendar year schedule that runs from Jan 1st to Dec 31st, rather than the traditional fall-to-spring season crossing years.

1/5/21: the IRT returns to the court for its first tier 1 event since March 2020, a 9 month gap between events.

7/15/20: Doug Ganim announces in various forums that the 25th anniversary 2020 US Open will be postponed for one year due to the ongoing Covid19 crisis.

6/14/20: After having all its remaining events cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the IRT officially declares the season to be complete. Kane Waselenchuk wins his 14th pro tour title.

8/7/19: IRT names Pablo Fajre officially the Director of Streaming & Satellite Events and has been charged with expanding the IRT lower tier events in addition to his previous duties of owning Streaming. This move effectively ends the competing WRT, which had held events for several years.

7/7/19. Sportsnet Canada's Kristina Rutherford publishes an excellent long-read article on Kane Waslenchuk titled Tiger Woods doesn't have anything on me, which covers his career, the sport of racquetball, and follows along with Kane's year end win in Syosset in May.

5/19/19: Doug Ganim announces that he's retiring as Executive Director of the US Open after its 25th iteration in 2020.

April 22, 2019: Former CEO John Scott divests himself of all ownership shares of the tour, selling them in totality to Slemo & Charity Warigon. Acting CEO Mike Grisz is now officially the CEO and retains the Chairman of the Board title. Official announcement of this sale made on 5/7/19 on .

Feb 1, 2019: John Scott resigns as CEO of the IRT via an facebook post, which is then followed up by an official IRT Press Release here. Current IRT Chairman of the Board Mike Grisz will take on the role as acting-CEO effective immediately.

Aug 27, 2018: the IRT announces a new Logo for the new season. It still features a silhouette of Cliff Swain but changes up the colors a bit from the previous iteration. As far as we can tell, this is the 5th iteration of the IRT logo since the tour began in 1991. The new Logo is designed to allow for easy color alteration to create fast alternatives custom designed to the host country or state.

April 2018: Kane Waselenchuk announces his intent to retire from touring full time in a shock announcement just after the Sarasota event final. If Kane is indeed retired, here's a career wrap-up post on Facebook detailing his accomplishments. By the beginning of the next season though, its clear Kane has not retired, and he goes on to win the 2018-19 season ending title.

April 2018: Rocky Carson finishes #1 for the 2017-18 season, ending a run of 10 straight titles for Kane Waselenchuk. Kane injured his knee in early January and missed four tournaments, enough to put the title out of his reach upon his return for the final event of the season.

Jan 2018: IRT announces plans to create the Professional Racquetball Hall of Fame, with first inductees to be done one year subsequent in jan 2019.

Jan 2018: after a multiple-year hiatus, Gearbox racquetball and the IRT announce they are re-newing a partnership that was ended several years back right around the inception of the WRT.

Dec 2017: Announcement made on Facebook that the tour, effective immediately, is changing its scoring rules to match Amateur/International scoring rules (two games to 15, tiebreaker to 11, all games win by one). Also announced that line judges will be used on an "as needed basis" depending on the availability of camera angles. Instant replay will continue to be the primary appeal method. Official announcement here. In the first event afterwards, Scott hinted at more future changes, including the top 8 protection, exclusivity contracts and even protected seeding.

Dec 2017: Through a series of "official" and "unofficial" announcements, its now clear that the Rojas brothers have retired. Jose Rojas retires after finishing the 2016-17 tour ranked 5th, having finished his 7th straight season in the top 10 and with two career tournament victories. He leaves the tour to become a manager at Larue Communications (per linkedin page). Markie Rojas finished the 2016-17 season ranked 7th on tour and having four straight top 10 finishes. Marco had finished his education and took a full time job teaching, which precluded him from taking time off to travel/train. At the end of December, Reaching Your Dream Foundation published an interview/report on Marco Rojas' decision which basically said that Rojas quit due to money issues, and had detailed Earnings and Expense figures. This led to a "heated" reaction from John Scott (owner of the IRT), who disputed the story, disputed the figures and said the article was mis-leading.

Oct 2017: the tour announces official Doubles rankings and an intent to make doubles a standard event at every Tier 1 and Grand Slam. 10 events are picked from the past few seasons to use as starting points for rankings, and rankings are published.

July 2017: Former LPRT deputy commissioner Andy Kulbeck is named the to be the new commissioner of the IRT.

June 2017: Major news is announced on Facebook and other social networking platforms: the IRT tour has been sold to a group of investors led by IRT Network's owner John Scott. The new company (E.J. Productions) will package the tour and its broadcast network together, talks of new juniors programs and may also eventually include the LPRT. Current IRT President Jason Mannino moves into a "consultant" role while Scott assumes the IRT Presidency (with the title "CEO."). The investor group includes Cindy Tilbury and Rick Betts (Malibu, CA), Sal and Dee Perconte (St. Petersburg, FL), Robert Blumenshine (St. Louis, MO), Dean DeAngelo Bear (Long Island, NY). Eventually investors also include Rodney Southwood (Carver, MN), and Mike Grisz (Alexandria, VA)

May 2017: Kane Waselenchuk finishes the 2016-17 season Undefeated (29-0) but more importantly, he finishes the season without having lost a GAME (85-0 in the match database). Four times during the season he was stretched to a 12-10 game win, and had to mount a huge comeback in the semis of the final 2016-17 event (Jose Rojas was up 10-4 in game one of their semi finals) to set this record. Kane secures his 12th pro tour title in the process and does not look like he's slowing down anytime soon.

Mar 2015: #5 (at the time) Ben Croft forced to undergo Shoulder Surgery to repair a SLAP Lesion in his racquet hand. He misses the last few events of the season, costing him rankings points but not a top 8 protected ranking. He returns for the first event of the 2015-16 season in Overland Park but has to retire in his first match back.

Nov 2014: veteran Chris Crowther retires from the tour. Crowther reportedly lost his sponsorship and made the decision to no longer travel to tournaments. Crowther was active on the tour dating to 1996 and was a full time tour player dating to 2004. He retires with a 160-162 career IRT record, having made two finals, a handful of semi-finals, and twice finishing 5th for a season (in 2010-11 and 2012-13).

10/5/12: Ruben Gonzalez plays his last pro tournament, being eliminated in the Round of 32 at the 2012 US Open. His career spans an amazing 30+ years on tour, with Ruben first appearing in a pro tournament in 1981. Amazingly, he was already 29 when he first started playing pro racquetball, an age at which some players have already retired. He retires at the age of 60.

1/13/12: Shane Vanderson's planned retirement at the end of the 2011-12 season is broken by the website 40by20.com. Vanderson will finish his career with a string of 9 straight top10 finishes on the tour, having peaked at #5 on three separate occasions. Shane never won a Tier 1 event but did make two finals during his second season on tour full time. Since he's routinely made the semis of tournaments but was never able to break through the top 2-3 players on tour. Vanderson was present at the first 2012-13 event though, sparking questions about whether or not he's really retired.

5/24/11: Jack Huczek abruptly announces his retirement from the pro tour, one week prior to the end-of-season Grand Slam Ektelon Nationals. Huczek retires as the sports most decorated player, with over 40 National titles at various age groups. Huczek had one pro tour title but spent the majority of his career in the top 2. He also made the finals of half the tournaments he ever entered. In Jan 2018 new IRT owner mentions that Huczek retired due to "philisophical differenes" with the ownership of the tour at the time, perhaps a reason why the retirement was so abrupt.

3/11/11: Tour Legend Ruben Gonzalez signs a deal with Ektelon to return to the professional tour on a "farewell tour" with the goal of reaching the top 10 at the age of 60. He will play his final event at the 2012 US Open. This is probably a tall order, as a quick look at his match results from the past three years show that Gonzalez's main competition for a top 10 spot (the likes of the Herreras, Charlie Pratt, Moreno and Landa) will prove to be tough competition. Update May 2012: Ruben wasn't successful in his quest, finishing the year ranked #16 on the tour.

1/31/11: Regular touring pro Mitch Williams announces his retirement after failing to recover from a left shoulder injury. Mitch was perennially ranked in the top 10 for the past 5 seasons but struggled against the top competitors on tour. He had two of his biggest wins every this season (over Alvaro in Kansas City and over Rocky in Cali) but he decided to rehab and recover. Perhaps we havn't seen the last of Mitch on tour.

10/20/10: The US Open, in its 15th iteration as Racquetball's marquee event, moves out of Memphis and host facility The Racquet Club for the first time. The 2010 event is in Minneapolis, with the Target Center LA Fitness as the marquee/central club.

4/19/10: Kane Waselenchuk finishes the 2009-10 season undefeated, a first in the history of the pro racquetball tour. Kane won 9 of the 10 events on the season (he missed one event due to illness) and finished 34-0 for the year. More telling than his undefeated record was his "games" record, an astounding 102-3 for the season (in other words, he only dropped 3 games the entire year (two to Rocky in the finals of St. Louis and Sarasota's events and a third to Jack in the final of the opening Denver event). Not since Marty Hogan's epic runs during the late 70s has the tour seen this level of dominance.

4/18/10: Jason Mannino plays his final event as a full time tour player. Jason finishes his active playing career ranked 4th on the tour and having won the only tournament of the 2009-10 season NOT won by Kane. Jason was the year-end champion in 2003, Won two US Opens and one Pro Nationals title, had 22 career tour tournament victories and a career .700 winning percentage (placing him 10th in the history of pro players). His Longevity in the game is the stuff of legends, having competed well into his 30s and ranking only behind Swain and Ruben in career tour appearances. Mannino's legacy will be as perhaps the greatest retriever in the history of the game, as well as one of its best technicians (surviving and competing without the use of a power/drive serve game during the reigns of power players Cliff, Sudsy and Kane). He transitions to a new challenge in his racquetball career; taking over as the 8th commissioner of the IRT during a time where economic downturns have forced major sponsors out of the game and cancelled marquee events.

11/24/09: After taking over the tour and providing stability for 8 years of continued growth, Commissioner Dave Negrete (rather abruptly) steps down as commissioner of the tour. Tour Veteran Jason Mannino is immediately named his successor, and announces that he will retire from full-time competition to focus on tour Management.

4/23/09: After a 2 year suspension and a season's worth of qualifying and working his way back to the top, Kane Waselenchuk regains the #1 ranking on tour prior to the 2009 Allentown event. Kane is in the midst of perhaps the finest professional season ever, having only taken one loss during the season to date. Winning out in Allentown and Pro Nationals will also propel Kane to having the best career W/L percentage in database events. Additional results at this tournament (Huczek and Carson losses early) also guarantee Kane his 4th pro title. [ 5/11/09 Note: Kane did indeed win out the season and overtook Hogan for both the best season and highest career W/L). ]

9/18/08: IRT Qualifying hopefuls Anthony Herrera and Jansen Allen become the first competitors on the new all-Lucite glass court erected at Skyline Park at the 16th Street Mall for the 2008 Motorola World Championships (pictures coming online). Local news item is here.

Tournament also is the debut for multiple-junior olympic champion Jose Rojas at the age of 17, who qualifies for the main draw with wins over tour veterans Fillipini, De Los Rios, and Odegard before losing to Beltran 8,5,(1),11 in the round of 16. Is he the next Jack Huczek?

5/8/08: the IRT signs a deal to feature live streaming online video of all IRT events on espn360.com. Press release is here. This deal also includes tape-delayed broadcasts on ESPN Classic of grand slam matches, starting with the 2008 Pro Nationals.

3/31/08: A new all-Lucite court, funded by 2 chicago Businessmen, is completed after 3 years of work and will be showcased at the IRT Pro Nationals. It has all four glass walls (with a "twin view film" on the front wall for the players to be able to see the ball) and can be setup in any venue with seating on all four sides. The press release is here.

Mid 2007: Dave Negrete Announces new sponsorship deals with both Motorola and Verizon Wireless. Motorola will be the name sponsor of a third Major Championship to kick off the 2007-8 season in Colorado Springs.

Mid 2007: the IRT enters into a broadcasting agreement with the Tennis Channel to show matches from its major events. The Tennis Channel shows quarters, semis and finals from the Mens 2006 US Open, semis and finals of the womens draw from that same tournament, and continues to show productions done by Shawn Royster's company Royster Productions.

Early 2007: the Classic Pro Racquetball tour or CPRT is launched by Steve Lerner, Mike Coulter and Hank Marcus with Brian Pointelin as the initial commissioner. The tour is designed to showcase the players in the sandwich generation of 80s and 90s retired pros who played between the Legends Tour players and today's active players and to take over for the failed Legends tour. It features the likes of Ruben Gonzalez, Bret Harnett, Cliff Swain, Woody Clouse, Gerry Price, Steve Lerner, Mike Ray and Mike Ceresia.

November, 2006: Cliff Swain announces his retirement from active touring on the pro circuit to focus on his burgeoning restaurant/bar in Florida. This caps off an amazing career that included 6 year end titles (most of any player) and spanned from 1983 to 2006. Cliff was ranked #1 or #2 on tour continuously from 1992 to 2003 and stayed in the top10 for close to 20 consecutive seasons.

July, 2006: Sudsy Monchik un-retires and joins the tour full time again, but his comeback is plagued by injury and he stops playing the tour regularly at the end of the 2006-7 season.

May, 2006: Kane Waselenchuk, 3-time defending champion, tests positive for two banned substances after his win at the Canadian Nationals in may,2006. He is banned for 2-years from all Canadian events, and as a side effect, all IRT and USA Racquetball sponsored events. See this link for the official press release summarizing his suspension from the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES).

May 2006: For the second time in three seasons, the year end title comes down to the last tournament, and to the last match, as once again #1 Kane faces #2 Jack for the pro tour title in the season's final match. And once again, Kane downs Jack to take the title.

Aug 2005: Hurricane Katrina forces the cancellation of the season opening Summer Cooler event, the first time in tour history that an event had been started but not completed. New Orleans never again hosted a Tier 1 IRT event.

August, 2004: Sudsy Monchik announces his retirement from the tour, capping a career that included 5 #1 rankings in 6 years, but which was derailed by injuries the last three seasons. He retires inarguably as one of the top three players in history.

May 2004: The 2003-4 season comes down to the final event of the season in Dallas, and comes down to the final match of the season, as #1 Kane faces off against #2 Huczek in the final, with the winner also taking the year end title. Kane downs Jack in 4 games to win both and earn his first pro tour titie.

Summer 2002: points system is revamped with player input to avoid situations related to May 2002's situation. The new points system also incentivized player participation in all events, emphasizing attendance to help appease tournament directors who were upset by so many top player absences thanks to the flexibility the previous rankings system afforded players.

May 2002: Cliff Swain purposely skips the final event of the season to take advantage of an oddity in the points ranking system at the time: players were awarded points one round below their average finish over the previous 12 months for missed events. This guarantees him the 2001-2 crown over Jason Mannino without having to take the court.

March, 2002: Legends Tour created (www.legendstour.com), includes Hogan, Peck bros, Harnett initial members. Organized by Hirsch and Hogan. Ruben Gonzalez, Cliff Swain invited to join May, 2003. Brian Pointelin was the commissioner for a while, but was ousted in a Marty Hogan power struggle, and the tour ceased operations in the April 2006 timeframe.

Nov 2001: #1 player Sudsy Monchik suffers an injury just ahead of the US Open, which costs him most of the 2001-2 season and knocks him out of the top 10 by season's end. Swain takes advantage and cruises to the year end title, his 6th and last pro title. Monchik returns for the next season but never challenges for the title again.

October, 2001: Kane Waselenchuk becomes the first non-American to ever win a Professional Racquetball Tournament.

March, 2001: Player revolt (led by Derek Robinson and including several of the top 8 players), brief start of Racquetball World Tour (RWT), overthrow of Hank Marcus, Dave Negrete installed as commissioner, IRT becomes a 501(c)3 non-profit org. See this pdf of www.irt-tour.com's webpage from April 2001 for the "press release" announcing Marcus' outster and Negrete's appointment. After the fact though, the tour does not actually become a 501(c)3 organization and is instead sold.

Aug 1999: Seeding change: top 8 players given byes into round of 16, qualifying for others.

Aug 98: Executive Board of players created

Nov 1996: First US Open event held in Memphis; Sudsy Monchik defeats Andy Roberts in the final.

June 1996: with a Clif Swain semi-finals loss at the final points-counting event of the season at the Bay 101 World Championships in Milpitas/San jose, California, Sudsy Monchik secures the #1 title by winning the event and overtaking Cliff by just 10 points for the season ending title in one of the closest year-end races ever. All Cliff had to do was make the final of hte event to guarantee the year end title; instead he was upset by long-time nemesis Mike Ray in the semis. But Sudsy still had to win the event to take the title, and he did so, downing Ray in 4 games.

Mar 96: Plans announced for premier US Open, a joing AARA/IRT venture to Create a "Grand Slam" of Racquetball. Doug Ganim, head of Ohio racquetball and former touring pro, selected to be the tournament director. Also the premier of the "Portable Court," constructed by Randy Stafford. Promus Hotels signs on as title sponsor.

Jan 96: IRT joins forces with Womens Pro Tour, creating WIRT.

Oct 1995: former amateur national champ and periodic pro player Tim Sweeney downs #1 Cliff Swain in the round of 32 in Chicago, the earliest upset of a #1 seed in known pro tour history. This defeat comes back to haunt Swain, who loses the year end title by just 10 points.

Sept 95: the USPRA web site (Glenn Carlson) comes online, holding info about the Mens and Women's pro tours. (formerly http://metro.turnpike.net/C/cyberkid/uspra.html)

May 95: plans announced to put www.irt-tour.com online with tour rules, data.

Aug 94: IRT Satellite Tour is introduced, to bring touring pros to smaller cities.

Jul 93: Rball returns to TV on ESPN for first time since Catalina tour

Jun 1993: Swain wins the year end pro tour title, winning 6 events on teh season (twice as many as any other player) and kicking off a string of dominance.

Oct 92: IRT begins relationship with Fibromlyalgia Research. IRT Also signs on with Penn Racquetballs as the official tour Ball. Tour sponsored by Transcoastal.

Aug 92?: VW Credit, Inc (VCI) signs on for $100,000 to sponsor tour events. Relationship created because VCI's Director of Marketing was Mike Ray's Father.

Jun 92: Hogan announces retirement, capping a pro career with wins spanning 1975 to 1992.

Feb 1992: Cliff returns to the pro tour from Tennis.

Oct 91: Marcus signs VW Credit Inc to underwrite a 3 tourney series to be televised, TransCostal to sponsor 4 event "Grand Slam" of racquetball. Along with this comes "The Decision" where the top 10 players on the newly-named IRT agree to give up their Amateur Status and stop competing in AARA events.

Aug 1991: Hogan voted off the IRT Executive Board, an indication that players were rebelling against the control he continued to exert over tour despite Marcus's hiring.

Aug 1991: tour renamed to International Racquetball Tour (IRT).

Aug 1991: Killshot magazine launched, devoted solely to Pro Racquetball coverage.

Oct 1990, Cliff Swain, fresh off his first pro tour title, leaves the tour to attempt to play the pro tennis tour.

Aug 1989: Hank Marcus hired as Commissioner. (Marcus formerly the Oregon State president).

Apr 1989: Hogan revives Men's pro tour: forms Mens Professional Racquetball Association (MPRA). Official 88-89 tour only has two events, with Hogan being crowned winner.

Nov 1988: Hiser resigns under pressure from a coaliton of people, including Hogan, Yellen, Charlie Drake (former founder of the Catalina tour) and John Delaney. (CEO of VCI). Issue was over control of tour; Hogan led coalition wanted a return to invite-only tour (ala Catalina). Entire tour cancelled; only 2 of orig 10 events occur. Tour crumbles, no events held for months.

Aug 1988: Hiser forms new "World Professional Racquetball Tour." Name change coincides w/ new TV contract and 10 guaranteed stops. Finals were played USRA rules (2 games to 15, tiebreaker to 11, win by one) for TV length purposes. Financial backing from NYC club owner Tom Cavallaro.

May 1988: the pro tour title comes down to the season's final event; the CityFed Grand Nationals in Seattle. Any one of the top 5 players on tour, with a win, could have taken the title. The top 5 seeds heading into the event: #1 Harnett, #2 Swain, #3 Gonzalez, #4 Andrews and #5 Inoue. The quarters featured three of the top four seeds getting defeated, leaving the final between #3 Ruben and #5 Egan for the year end title. Ruben prevailed and won his first, and only, pro title.

1985: Stoddard resigns from RMA Tour. Jim Hiser takes over.

1984: Racquetball Manufacturer's Association (RMA) forms a new tour, with Drew Stoddard (who was the editor of International Racquetball Magazine) as first Commissioner.

Sept 83: Catalina tour ends, Pro events become open invite events again. Players form "PRO" (Professional Racquetball Organization) to help organize themselves.

June 1983: Mike Yellen wins his first pro title, taking all three "Majors" on the season and dominating the tour.

June 1983: At the NRC Nationals event in Atlanta, Dave Peck collides violently with Mike Yellen on the court in the final. Thinking he just had a charley horse, he played through the pain, but his leg swelled considerably after the match and he was hospitalized. He eventually had to have a large portion of his quad muscle removed as a result of the injury, hampering his mobility going forward. He retired after the 1988 season. Many observers from the day consider this a pivotal event in the tour history: the 82 champ was severely hampered just as the 83 champion took over, robbing the tour of a possible excellent rivalry for the entirety of the mid 1980s.

Nov 1982: Kendler, the leading figure in Racquetball's growth to this point, passes away.

June 1982: Dave Peck takes the year end title in the first season where a "tour" and total points earned throughout the season determines the winner. Marty Hogan won DP/Leach Nationals, which up to 1982 indicated the National champ, and was easily the prize money leader on the season, but finished behind Peck by total points.

May 1982: With demise of NRC, points awarded in 7 catalina events, dp and ektelon nat's and the Lone star classic.

May 21, 1982: NRC declares bankrupcy, Pro tour folds due to internal Politics and loss of revenue from Kendler's monopoly ball contract

1982: Drew Stoddard, Jason Holloman start Int'l Racquetball Magazine

Nov 1981: Kendler sells National Racquetball magazine in another revenue saving move.

Sept 81: Kendler fires most of NRC staff in cost-cutting move, retaining just one person to oversee the tour.

Summer 1981: Drake severs relationship with NRC and forms Catalina Pro tour; it was a closed tour of 12 players, US only, invite only. Strandemo and Hogan? championed a Players Union. Action forced Myers to return to Canada to form the Canadian Professional Racquetball Organization (CPRO), which ran til 1987. Tour disinvited top touring pro Davey Bledsoe and attempted to oust Jerry Hilecher, who filed suit and was re-invited, eventually finishing 3rd that season. 1981-2 year featured three Major Championships.

1980: Seamco's racquetball division is sold, ball royalty agrement ends; this was the primary revenue for the NRC, and lead to immediate financial difficulties for the organization.

1979: Kendler, USRA/NRC, Drake, Leach and Seamco are hit with anti-trust lawsuit, filed by Bud Muehleisen and Point West Industries.

1978; Hogan wins first year end title, breaking a duck of being clearly the best player in the sport for nearly 3 years running but not having a title to his name. Marty Hogan d Charlie Brumfield 12,20 in teh NRC final. Ther eis

1978: Hogan starts a run where he made 62 straight finals, winning 56 between 1978 and 1981. This includes both NRC "official" events and an number of local tournaments that were not on the NRC calendar (but which usually included the full slate of top pros).

1977: In the 1977 nationals, one of the biggest upsets the pro tour has ever seen, when Davey Bledsoe d Marty Hogan 20,19 to give Hogan his first and only loss in the pro season and to take the natioanl title. Despite Hogan having significantly more wins and prize money on the season, Bledsoe is the pro champ.

Fall 1977: the IRA ceases holding competing pro events, leaving the NRC as the "pro tour" officially.

1976: At nationals, Charlie Brumfield d Marty Hogan 8,(1),8. Note: Hilecher won IRA nationals, which was fading in importance and was not attended by Brumfield, Hogan, Serot, Bledsoe etc.

1975: In the first NRC Pro Nationals final Charlie Brumfield d Steve Serot (13),4,2. Brumfield also won IRA's pro national final, the first year with a dula national title.

1973: First year with a Pro tour: National Racquetball Club (NRC) formed when Kendler breaks away from IRA (resigns 4/73, forms NRC 6/73). Top 16 amateur players selected to start the tour? IRA also holds pro events til 1976 under the tour name "IPRO," nearly bankrupting organization.

1969-73: IRA Champ considered "national" champ

1968: International Racquetball Association (IRA) founded by Robert Kendler. IRA is (over the years) eventually renamed American Amateur Racquetball Association (AARA) and then United States Racquetball Association (USRA). Now it is known as USA-Racquetball.