BIOGRAPHY JAY ROWE

JAY ROWE was born in Richmond in 1940 and has been a lifelong resident of the city and state. At age 14 he learned to play handball with his dad at a club along the James River known as the Virginia Boat Club located at the 14th st bridge. This might explain Jay's penchant for wearing white low cut "deck shoes". Starting with a ball known as the "pinkie", really a racketball, with no gloves he batted it around with Gen Luck and Bill white. He attended UVA in the early 60's playing on non regulation courts and joined the Richmond central YMCA in 1965. He won his first city title in 1967 defeating then town champ Bill Gorman and the next year HOF nominee Preston Harrison. From there on it was no stopping this deceptive player. Teaming with Jerry Ferguson they won many a doubles championship into the early 1980's. The state tourney Old Dominion Jay s a rule tended tow in sometimes facing other nominee Mike Griffin. Between the two of them they "dominated" Richmond Handball. Jay also beat Don Konz (state HOF nominee) and Tom Blaikie (pro player from the 70's).

Don Matheson and Roger Berry (current national champion 3 & 4 wall) also fell victim to Jay's skills. Jay had an ability to lull an opponent into thinking "this guy is no sweat he hits it so easy" type of first game strategy. But Jay's game tactics almost always included a mandatory 3rd game as he really was a momentum player building steam later in the match. Not always in the best shape on the court he was known to get "beet red" in his tenacity to chase the ball down despite being winded. If a third game was required he also used tremendous amounts of off speed shots and side wall dying kills in the corner. He knew how to bait the power players, and never seemed to expel himself more then what was required to win. It was not unusual to see him win many a close game but it was never in doubt about the outcome. Jay always enjoyed a good match at the regional and national level as well never shying away from competition. At the NYAC in NYC he especially did well in the Open Doubles division. He played against pros of the time Ken Ginty, Fred Lewis and Joel Wisotsky. Against such tough matches he was inevitably a winner or runner up. Some of these players are now even in the USA National HOF.

Also he played against Virginia HOF nominee Claude Benham losing in 3 games 21-16, 10-21 and 21-16. The Cherry Blossom Festival of Metro DC saw him also barely lose to HOFer Irishman Pat Kirby in the 1979 tourney there. His game was well known by most along the east coast In a particular memorable game against Mike Griffin he won the battle of the city championship 10 years ago in 1992 his last singles entered in a near 3 hour battle captured on video. Also mentioned in the Griffin bio was his memorable win against the national 50 and over number one seed from California in 1993. Jay was a very confident player and used timeouts and other psychological strategies to his benefit. He won perhaps over 40 city, state and regional tournaments and is considered by many as the second best player to come for the Old Dominion. Although retired from our great game he always finds time to ski and enjoy an occasional party!