A couple months back, you know when we still had racquetball tournaments to discuss, I saw some discussion debating what is the longest running tournament in the sport.
I tried to compile some of the alternatives/candidates, but i figure the hive-break
Here’s some candidates:
National/International events
(Note: i use the future tense here in all cases, knowing that a lot of these have been cancelled. I’m hopeful maybe some will still be held.)
– 2020 will be the 53rd US Amateur National Singles, running continuously since 1968.
– 2020 will also be the 53rd US Amateur National Doubles tournament (though I believe the first couple iterations were held at the same event as singles).
– 2020 will be the 47th US Junior Nationals event.
– 2020 will be the 47th WOR 3-wall Outdoor Nationals in Southern California.
– 2020 will be the 46th Canada Amateur Nationals
– 2020 will be the 33rd Pan American Racquetball Championships, initially called the “Tournament of the Americas” and held nearly every year since 1986 at various spots around the North and South American continents.
I honestly don’t know how far back Mexican Nationals goes.
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What about known state organizations?
– Jan 2020 was the 51st Florida State Singles tournament: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=30962 . They’ve been going every year since 1970.
Are there any other states that go back this far? In the early days Rball was biggest in places like Missouri, Wisconsin, California; wondering if there’s this long a history in some of these early hotbeds of the sport.
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What about Pro events?
Here’s the longest current streaks of active pro events at the tier 1 level. This means, year over year this event hasn’t missed a year in being a top-tier sponsored event.
– 2020 US Open will be the 25th straight iteration of the sport’s marquee event, starting in 1996 in Memphis and moving to Minneapolis in 2010.
On the IRT side:
– The 2020 Florida Pro/Am will be the 13th straight year it has served as an IRT Tier 1 event.
– The Lewis Drug has been an IRT Tier 1 event now 7 years running.
– The Pelham Memorial/Tournament of Champions event in Portland has also been an IRT Tier 1 event now 7 years running.
The Lewis Drug Pro/Am is billed as the “Longest running Men’s Pro tournament,” in its 42nd year. Our site only tracks tier 1 events, and the Lewis Drug event hasn’t been a tier 1 for 42 straight years, but reportedly has been at least a satellite event all that time.
On the LPRT side:
– The Christmas Classic in the DC area (first in Arlington, VA, now in Laurel, MD) has been an LPRT event 12 years running.
– the Battle at the Alamo in San Antonio in April will be the 8th straight year
– the Paola Longoria Experience in San Luis Potosi has been running 6 straight years through 2019.
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How about long-running non-state/national events in general? some of these may have had pro events attached to them now or in the past, but here’s some candidates that have been mentioned:
– Northwest Open, Bellingham WA: 49th annual in 2020
– Tornado Alley Classic in Wichita Falls, TX: 46th year in 2020; claims to be the longest volunteer run sanctioned event in the US.
– Keystone Classic in Winnipeg, Manitoba; 46th Annual in 2020 as well.
Other long running events that I’ve seen:
– Shamrock Shootout in Chicago, IL: 35th annual in 2020
– Garden City Shootout in Garden City, KS: 30th in 2020
– Christmas Classic in Washington, DC area: 29th in 2020.
– Wintergreen in Laurel, MD: ?? but running since 1980s. Anyone from The Peak Racquetball have any idea?
Feel free to pipe up with other suggestions; any event that’s been running 30+ years I’d like to hear about.
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Happy quarantine Monday!
International Racquetball Tour
LPRT
International Racquetball Federation – IRF
Pan American Racquetball Confederation – PARC
USA Racquetball
Federación Mexicana de Raquetbol
Racquetball Canada