Wednesday, September 9, 2009
An Inter-Sports Classic
Posted by John Branston on Wed, Sep 9, 2009 at 3:20 PM
Stafford has what he believes is possibly the only flier left from the event that matched two highly skilled athletes with very different personalities and, according to Sports Illustrated, drew more than $30,000 in on-site wagers.
Haber, the handball player, is the subject of a documentary in the works that calls him the greatest Jewish athlete of all time. Muehleisen, a California doctor, was the racquetball player. Stafford knew them both. He recalls Haber as phenomenally quick but also a smoker and beer drinker, even between games on the court. He was so competitive he would not pick up the ball when it wound up on his side of the court after a rally but would make his opponent expend the energy to walk over and get it. Muehleisen was a gentleman of the old school.
In their match, left-handed Muehleisen got to use a racquet but the ball was a handball, which is smaller, harder, and easier to spin than a racquetball. Remember, that racquets then were considerably smaller and less powerful than they are today, but it still seems amazing that Haber won the match. Muehleisen took a rematch seven months later.
It's the kind of half-goofy thing sports needs more of. There was period of a few years in the Seventies and early Eighties when a program called "The Super Stars" matched athletes in sports other than their specialties. We learned, among other things, that Memphis soccer pro Kyle Rote was good enough to win the thing twice, that Joe Frazier could barely swim a stroke, and that Bjorn Borg was not good at racquetball. Maybe if they'd played with a tennis ball he would have done better.
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shortly after the match i played handball against a racquet ball player. The speed of the ball took a while to adjust to being hit off a racquet but once you did the handball player is fine. The racquet hits the faster ball extremely hard but eventually it is easier to put away for the hand baller as the ball bounces more and seemed to always end up close to the center of the court. After being jumped badly I fought back to lead and then suffered a ball hit. Let me tell you, a handball hit off a racquet ball racquet behind the ear will make you want to call the match. an interesting challenge though.
newtiger: haber inspired a lot of cocky YMCA handballers to take on racquetballers. you're right, getting hit by a racquetball was a hematoma but a handball hit by a racquet could about go through you.
The documentary film on Paul Haber in production has a brief clip at Youtube.Go to Paul Haber Promo
i'm kind of wondering who "Haby Baby" user is on here, that left the comment before me. I am Stacy Haber, Paul Haber's daughter. Haby Baby was my dad's very well known screen name for everything; I'm wondering if you have a specific reason for using it as your own??
Hello Stacy:
I was a duffer compared to your father but I took a handball camp with him in the 70's. He was working with Mike Dau the coach for the Lake Forest handball team. I played out of Evanston Illinois and your dad would come periodically and take on all comers with his bravado and finesse. He was bigger than life. He would typically spot the club champ 20 points and have no trouble beating him. One time he took on the A champ at Evanston and for about 20 points he wouldn't move from the back of the court but let the opponent kill the ball in the front. Then after the guy killed the ball he ran to the front in a kind of comedy routine, like he forgot that he was playing. This pissed the opponent off badly and he was screaming at your father to take him seriously. The guy got about 18 points up and then as we all knew the shoe would drop. Your dad would start with the goofy serves that would hop all over the place and he would win the game. No one had a chance to score off him unless he wanted to give up a point. He was just a lot of fun to see.
To us average Jewish athletes he was a hero, because he was good at everything. Despite his celebrity and other worldly abilities he was a good teacher. Working with him at camp did improve my game.
Sorry if he may not have been the greatest father in the world, but you must know he was very special to all of us who knew him. He brought fun to the game and everyone wanted to hang around with him. We all lit up when he came to town. Try to learn as much as you can because to me despite his shortcomings he is royalty, and that means you are too.
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