Having served the Virginian squash community for the last five decades, Theodore W. Price was honored with the 2015 President’s Cup last Saturday night at the annual Price-Bullington Invitational in Richmond.
The evening reception started with a tradition of Price calling on each competitor to stand with him as he speaks about the individual to the attendees. Then Ted’s son Winston asked US Squash President & CEO Kevin Klipstein to speak. Klipstein presented the President’s Cup to Price, noting his half-century commitment to organizing and promoting squash in Virginia.
The Price-Bullington Invitational, started as the Holt Bullington Invitational in 1970, was named in honor of Holt Bullington, a dear friend and Richmond squash player who died an untimely death. In 1994 the name was modified to include Ted Price’s to recognize his leadership at the event.
The PBI, headquartered at the Country Club of Virginia, is a highly regarded collegiate pre-season tournament featuring some of the best young men and women playing in America. A remarkable forty-six years since its founding, the event is a meaningful touchstone in the Virginian squash community, one that honors people and the traditions of the sport, while also changing with the times. Its past champions list is the who’s who of collegiate squash, and it remains the case today, now with ten nations represented among the twenty-four players in this year’s PBI.
Besides directing the PBI, Price has served in just about every other role in the area, including president of the Virginia Squash Racquets Association, reviving the organization when it was at risk of disappearing. The VSRA now organizes some of the most successful adult leagues in the country and has a robust junior and scholastic squash-playing population. Price was also a key leader behind the prestigious North American Open, a major PSA tournament that the VSRA—uniquely for a district association—ran five times. Price also helped found SquashRocks, the urban squash program hosted at the Richmond YMCA. Like the VSRA did with the North American Open, it oversees SquashRocks—another first in the country and another natural extension of Richmond squash’s sense of community.
Price’s legacy will most assuredly be in his dedication to perfection, the care and concern he shows for the details, his ability to bring the community together in the spirit of camaraderie and his deeply-held support for sportsmanship.
The President’s Cup is the highest individual award at US Squash. Inaugurated in 1966, the award is given to men and women who have made substantial contributions to the game of squash. Price is the forty-sixth recipient of the President’s Cup and the first from Virginia.
