Haverford College had a national college squash champion who went on to international fame and the cover of Sports Illustrated three decades before it had a squash team.
The co-conspirators in this amazing feat were United States Squash Hall of Fame charter member G. Diehl Mateer ’50, who practiced at nearby Haverford School and other Main Line locations, and coach Norm Bramall, who guided the college's men's tennis teams for over 40 years but also knew more than a thing or two about squash.
Reminiscences of Mateer's rise to the top of the college squash stage with individual championships in 1948 and 1949, helped fuel keen alumni interest in starting squash when Haverford renovated its athletic facilities in 1983-84. The Sesquicentennial Squash Courts were built between Ryan Gym and Alumni Field House and a club program installed for men and women. By the early 1990’s, the programs, then under the guidance of another long-time men's tennis mentor, Albert Dillon, were clamoring for varsity status -- and earned it! Dillon, in recognition for coaching excellence, would later be inducted into the Women's College Squash Hall of Fame in 2002.
The varsity teams immediately began to threaten the lower echelon of the intercollegiate squash ladder and move up through the ranks. The men’s team has had the assistance of several Indian and Pakistani students while the women's team drew heavily from New England.
Hannah Todd ’95 and Rich Miller ’95 were among the players solidifying the team's improvement in the 1992-95 period. Sean Sloane became the coach of both programs--as well as of men's tennis -- in 1997. The men's squad captured Haverford's first College Squash Association team championship with a victory in the 2000 Conroy Cup Championship.
In 2002, captain Tim Saint ’02 was honored by the National Intercollegiate Squash Racket Association with the Skillman Award, presented annually to the outstanding player/sportsman in men's intercollegiate squash, as both the men's and women's teams equaled their highest national rankings ever. The men capped the 2002 season by once again winning the CSA Conroy Cup.
The addition of five new international courts in the Gardner ’83 Integrated Athletic Center in 2005 has helped the Haverford's squash teams enjoy continued success. In 2012, the men captured the CSA Serues Cup Championship with a 6-3 victory over the University of Virginia and senior Alex Spilliotes ’12 participated in the CSA individual Championship at Amherst College.
In 2013, the men's team was presented with the 2013 Barnaby Award, one of three distinguished national awards voted on by College Squash Association (CSA) coaches and teams, which recognized the varsity team that displayed the most improvement throughout the season.
The 2015-2016 campaign marked the winningest season for the Fords since the 2006-2007 season and the fifth straight year in which a Ford was sent to the CSA Individual Championship, with Nate Vestrich-Shade ’16 going for the third time in his collegiate career. The Fords then broke through in the 2016-17 season with a program-record 15 wins to capture the Chaffee Cup at the team national championships where Aaron Horwitz ’17 was named the Player of the Chaffee Cup.
Haverford has established itself as a top 30 team nationally and will seek a continued rise up the rankings in the years to come. The Fords continue to maintain a heavy travel schedule to meet the best small-college teams in the east, and some of the larger colleges and universities as well.