Thomas Wrightson

Thomas Wrightson was the first national squash leader from the West: he was the person who made US Squash a national organization. President of the association in 1979 to 1980, Wrightson was the first president from west of the Mississippi. During his tenure he hosted the first national championship in the West, the 1979 National Singles in his hometown of Portland. A natural leader, Wrightson was a longtime US Squash board member who served on numerous committees and chaired the nominating committee. Besides the seminal 1979 National Singles, he also ran the 1974 Lapham-Grants and 1991 National Doubles. He was president of the Pacific Coast SRA in 1970-71, then secretary from 1973-79, leading that association into its golden age. For decades Wrightson, playing at the Multanomah Athletic Club, was a central leader in promoting doubles out west. He championed the game after the first court was built on the West Coast in 1964, and he founded the Oregon State Doubles in 1966 and the Pacific Coast Doubles Championships in 1972, hosting the first five years of the latter event, now named after him, in Portland. In recognition of his essential role in uniting squash in America, Wrightson was awarded both the President’s Cup in 1983 and the Stewart Brauns in 1991—joining only two others who have been honored with both of US Squash’s highest individual awards.