Delaware Park Tennis Courts
Buffalo NY
July 2023
100 Years of Muny Tennis
1923 – 2023
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The 100th Muny Tournament in Review July 2023
By Stan Evans
The Rev. Bob Hetherington looked out over the eight tennis courts in Delaware Park on this fourth Sunday of July 2023 as cars whisked past on the Scajaquada Parkway. Joe Schafer and Tanner Bedrad were battling back and forth in a three-set singles finals, and the crowd cheered each one as they took turns making incredible winning shots on this sunny day. Hetherington’s mind, though, drifted back to an earlier time – the 1970s and ‘80s – when he dominated the Muny tournaments and the crowd cheered him as he won seven singles titles. The Rev. was 82 now, and living in Richmond, Va., where he had moved in 1984. But he returned to Buffalo this sunny summer day for the 100th Muny tournament. It was a celebration he did not want to miss. As he stood watching the court contest, he remembered the last time he played on these McMillan courts. It was 1983. And in his memories, he saw Gus and Wally Franczyk running the Muny tournaments all those years, and how some players took advantage of Wally’s inexperience while making up the draws until Wally caught on. He saw Charlie Garfinkel – his doubles partner – chattering away with one-line jokes but then turning serious after the matches and religiously reporting on tournament battles in his sports column in The Buffalo News. He saw Pat Lord dominating the women’s side of the tournaments, just as he had on the men’s side. This 100th Muny was a celebration he could not miss. It was a tribute to all those tennis players who had competed and sweated in Muny tournaments for a century.
Gordon Panek and Tim Sands, the current Muny organizers, wanted to make this centennial tournament a special occasion. After all, Buffalo was one of the original cities participating in the first national parks tournament back in 1923. The Muny no doubt is the oldest sporting tournament in Buffalo. Tens of thousands of people – from beginner to high level amateur tennis competitors – had participated in the tournament over those 100 years. Competition in the Buffalo Muny tournament has been cyclical over that span reflecting the public’s interest in tennis. In the early days, as many as 5,000 spectators showed up just to watch the tournament finals. In some later years, it was tough to get a draw of even 100 players. But in this 100th year, Panek and Sands attracted 278 players in eighteen divisional brackets – one of the biggest draws in several years. Tom LaPenna, one of the two honorary co-chairmen, served up the first ball in this in a ceremony Saturday July 1. He wore all white, raised a wooden racquet over his head and pounded a white tennis ball into the service box on the opposite side. The tournament was on. The first event was the Vintage Wooden Racquet Round Robin. Panek and Sands had secured a case of white balls for the this opener, and a dozen players, also all dressed in white, many digging out their Jack Kramer war clubs from their closets for the friendly competition. Mark Szafnicki showed up with a wooden racquet that probably was older than the Muny tournament – it had steel strings. LaPenna’s wooden racquet partner was Rich Abbott, the other honorary-chairman for the three-weekend celebration. The two had teamed up back in 1987 to save the Muny when the tournament was in danger of collapsing. On this Saturday, though, Szafnicki and Ed Skotnicki, were the winners of the round robin.
Wojtek Starakiewicz led the second day of the first weekend with a free tennis clinic for youngsters 10 and under. The local pro gave the young players advice formore than three hours. “The kickoff weekend turned out to be a nice opening for the 100th Muny tournament,” Panek said. The second weekend of the centennial Muny opened with adult doubles competition and a USTA sanctioned Level 5 Boys and Girls Junior tournament. Seventy junior players from across the country – from as far as California andFlorida – came to play at the Delaware Park courts. It wasn’t the first time Buffalo Muny attracted national players. Buffalo had hosted four National Public Parks Championships tournaments over the last century – 1929, 1963, 1971 and 1974. Adult doubles competition attracted 116 local players on the second weekend. The men’s doubles final featured a classic three-setter matchup Sunday July 9 between two Muny All Stars teams. Nick Zieziula and Randy Rocchio defeated Joe Schafer and David Yovanoff 6-3, 3-6, 7-5. On the women’s side, Julie Laspro and Kitsa Scime defeated Jenn Ickowski and Brittany Texter, 6-2, 6-2. “Both were doubles matches worth paying for and a good gallery in attendance appreciated the high level of competitive tennis,” Panek said. The third and final week of the centennial tournament brought out 93 singles players in xxxxx divisions. Joe Schafer won his fourth Muny singles open in three sets over Tanner Bedard,6-1, 6-7 (11), 6-0 while Julie Laspro beat Jaiden McKee 6-1, 7-6 for the women’stitle. Also entertaining was the exhibition tie breaker pro set match that pitted Wojtek Starakiewicz and Marcus Fuget against Joe Schafer and Simon Wibler. “A matchup of 110-120 mph serves from each of them dazzled the spectators, ”Panek said.
When the competition ended, players, fans and friends gathered at the nearby Parkside Lodge in Delaware Park for concluding ceremonies and buffet. As they entered the lodge, they saw several 12-foot murals lining the walls. The murals, put together by Panek, contained newspaper stories and photos that told the many stories and personalities covering Buffalo’s 100 years of public parks tennis and competitors. Hetherington, who won seven Muny open men’s singles titles and went on to win National Public Parks singles and doubles titles, and Pat Lord, winner of eight Muny open women’s singles Muny titles, received The Buffalo News’ “Lifetime Achievement Awards.” Walking into the lodge and seeing these murals, Lord remembered the young girl who pedaled to Delaware Park to get instructions from Lydia Kayser, a four-time Muny wones singles title holder, and Leo Kronman, who won five singles titles. “It all came back to me…and reminded me of a younger me,” she said. “I bicycled over to get my lessons from them.” In the early days of tennis, competition and play often were confined to private clubs and country clubs. The Muny tournament – the public parks tournament – that started in 1923 to make tennis available and appealing to kids like her – was special and an opportunity. “It was the people’s tournament,” she said. , the honorary chairman and a winner of several Muny mixed doubles titles, echoed that sentiment of the tournament ‘s accessibility as he reflected on the tournament’s history. “It was affordable. It brought out a lot of playground players, ” he said. “It was local and in the city. It brought people back to their roots. That’s a part that I really enjoy.” As for Hetherington, returning to Buffalo for the 100 th Muny enabled him to reconnect with old friends and competitors. “It was fun to see Tom LaPenna and Rich Abbott. Phil Celnicker was there. And Pat Lord, it nice to see her,” he said. “Ultimately, it is the relationships and the good and funny stories that come out over the years.” Hetherington also recalled the players who no longer were around but who had contributed to the Muny over the past century.
There was Martin Tressel, winner of the very first Bufalo Muny who later moved to Pittsburgh, where he started a youth tennis program that got Hetherington hooked on the game. Hetherington didn’t know that Tressel was the first Buffalo Muny champion until he learned about the Buffalo centennial celebration. “The thing, too, was that Martin Tressel, he became a mentor to me. It’s that kind of thing that happens. You find these really strange, wonderful connections,” he said. The celebration also reminded the Rev. of his doubles partner, Charlie Garfinkel. The two won the national Public Parks Doubles Championship in 1971. But that wasn’t Garfinkel’s biggest contribution to the Muny, Hetherington said. It was his promotion of the Muny and tennis in his Buffalo News column. “Charlie, his steady contribution of writing an article every week in The Buffalo News, that was a labor of love on his part. We have a huge debt to him,” he said. The 100th Muny was now in the books. But Panek and Sands’s created a legacy that remains for the 101st Muny tournament and the Muny tournaments of the future. They posted signs on each of the eight courts, naming them after people who put their marks on the tournament and contributed to its enduring story: Court 1- Martin Tressel; Court 2, Ethel Marshall; Court 3, Leo Kronman; Court 4, Charlie Garfinkel; Court 6, Gus and Wally Franczyk; Court 6, Al Litto; Court 7, the Rev. Bob Hetherington and Court 6, Lou Schaefer.
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