St. Joseph Valley Open Turns 50 by Brad Balmer “Nervously, I asked, “Hey Jason, why are you taking the back panel off your computer?” He responds, “We need more RAM, if we are to process the number of players coming.” Slightly shocked (and not knowing exactly what ram was) I reply, “So, with 3 days to go before the re-boot of the St. Joe Valley you decide to re-build the life blood of this event?” Oh, and by the way, have you ever done this before? Jason says, “well not really, but I’m sure I can get this to work!” This conversation took place at Jason’s home in March of 1993, on Country Knolls Dr, which we had designated as control central for our attempt to re-ignite the SJVO. This tournament originally ran from 19361963. The resulting event was enthusiastically covered by Larry Hodges in the 1993 USA TT Magazine: “A quick note about the running of the tournament itself before we get to the main events. I’ve been to many large tournaments, and seen many an experienced director fall apart and run a sloppy tournament. When I first arrived at the tournament site, I discovered that there really wasn’t an experienced tournament director at the desk, at least not experienced in running big tournaments. I was worried… It was fantastic to see that, on their first try, they ran it nearly flawlessly.” Jason relates that, “Upon walking into the Joyce ACC, I was in awe of what Phil and his crew had done to turn it into one of the finest TT Arenas I had ever seen. A sea of blue tables and barriers fresh out of their boxes and assembled. At that moment I knew that all the planning and organizational things that Brad had handled to this point had paid off and if my program did what it was supposed to do - the players were in for a treat.” Jason was right, his old, upgraded, HP 286 rang true. With the venue of the famous Notre Dame Athletic and Convocation Center (ACC), the fully time-scheduled St. Joe Valley Open was back. The South Bend TTC provided all 227 players with a tournament packet that included complete draw sheets, including times, table numbers and a complete set of instructions. Tradition also dictated we provide a tournament program, and an artistic poster, created by long time club member and artist, Paul George. This tournament had its origin as a South Bend Tribune sponsored event in 1936 at the old S.B. YMCA located at the corner of Main and Wayne Streets. Weldon B. Hester, the Y’s Boy’s Director, created the S.B. Club and this event. The next year help would be provided by legendary South Bend coach, and USTTA Hall of Fame member John Varga. There was no tardiness for a match, nor complaints, or controversy. Varga directed and often was heard shouting orders. The players responded,” yes sir and how high!” Needless to say the tournament always ran on time. In Weldon’s own words,“we sent players to Toledo and Chicago tournaments. I was determined to start a South Bend tourney, and called it the St. Joseph Valley Open. I arranged for an excellent set of trophies. Then I drove up to the Illinois State Open, in Chicago, to show them off, and arouse interest in our SJVO. I had made no arrangements, and just walked in the door, said I had the trophies and set them up on a table. Somehow they didn’t throw me out. That was my first Table Tennis tournament. (it wasn’t so hot!) I met Jimmy McClure, National Men’s Champion, from Indianapolis there. Our trophies were much larger than those of the Illinois Open and Jimmy was interested. He helped bring in many of those first year top players. We ended up with players from 7 states. Toledo sent their top players and after that attended all our affairs.” The SJVO continued from that first year until 1963. Winners included table tennis legends and U.S. Hall of Fame members Lhea Thall, William Holzrichter, Bernie Bukiet, Harry Hirshkowitz, Norbert Van de Walle, Mildred Shahian, Peggy Ishkoff and South Bend’s own, Betty Henry and Sherri Krizman. Early January dictated the SJVO was always the first major event of the season, with the weather sometimes making attendance an adventure. Tournament write-up in the 1953 Topics, “A total of 115 entries in all events, from Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, assembled here for the annual St. Joseph Valley Open on Jan 3-4. Old man winter again chose this time to make one of his vicious attacks, which are a trademark of the SJVO, strongly suggesting that the name of this tournament be changed to the annual, “Ice Bowl Open.”
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TABLE TENNIS
Club tournaments, such as this one, thrived due to conducting an event that was organized, competitive and timely. South Bend dialed in this formula from the very beginning. Varga was the driving force behind this success, however he needed a lot of help from club volunteers. These local tournament staff members were dedicated to this sport they called “Ping Pong.” Many were local players and attentive parents of the many South Bend junior members, who simply loved this game and the club. Many of the juniors also participated in hosting this very popular and legendary event. Enthusiasm, dedication, competency, and consistency are some of the needed ingredients to produce a successful tournament. You could also add a bit of intimidation, Varga style, in the mix to keep things running smoothly. 1994’s edition of the SJVO was coming up fast and tournament preparation was initiated long before the May start date. We had finally wised up to Northern Indiana blizzard potential in January. A crew that included Phil Schmucker, Jerry Goeller and Jim Lynch, had a year earlier, ventured to Escalade Sports manufacturing plant in Evansville Indiana for table assembly instruction. They spear headed the annual construction project, of the 50 Stiga, blue topped pro tables. Jerry’s Makita screw gun was glued to his right hand for virtually 3 days straight. The hundreds of parts were taken out of the box, with the knowledge that all must be returned back to their original place, after disassembly. Many helpers were wore out before the tourney even began. Jason’s paperwork was shooting rapid fire out of his printer continually for three days. I swear I witnessed smoke drifting from that well-worn machine. All events had round robin and single elimination draw sheets. A player who entered three events could expect at least 20 sheets that he/she would need to keep track of progress. Masters were posted on the wall and consistently updated. The packet paperwork assembly process acquired a legendary status at the club. Thirty two events included at least 100 stacks of individual sheets that were arranged on two large tables and a pool table, in a configuration as to allow a person to grab an envelope, with contestants event numbers labeled on the front. Then in a circle you would stroll, plucking the needed sheets for each player’s event, and stuffing them in. This year’s process became the beginning of “THE STORY.” The entire packet stuffing process normally took several volunteers and at least three hours to complete. Phil decided this was the perfect time to enlighten us on his cross country adventure with four college buddies in his 62’ Chevy (6-banger). The
SBTTC has always been about innovation and out of the box thinking to fund our club and juniors program. Poster artwork in 1993 which later became part of our T-Shirt designs, playing arena which illustrates the scope of the SJVO with television arena as well as a view of Paul’s figures. We were a computerized tournament in 1993 that was fully time scheduled with each player getting a player packet and in 1994 filmed a commercial to go along with the televised matches. Even more important is the teamwork that was displayed throughout the years. From an organizational standpoint through the massive group of volunteers that setup / tore down tables, assembled the barriers, checked in our players, posted the results and all the little things that make a tournament what it is. We were fortunate enough to have a group of diversely talented folks who had the drive to make SBTTC what it is. - Jason Denman