Hebard, Richard K.

Richard K. (“Dick”) Hebard was one of the outstanding players of the game, winning eight National Men’s Championships, and five National Mixed Doubles titles,. He continued to play competitively into his “senior” years, winning the National 50+. He was still winning National titles when he received the Honor Award. He served as APTA Secretary/Treasurer from 1950-1952, and President from 1953-1955, completing the latter term while also serving as President of Fox Meadow Tennis Club from 1954-55. (Fox Meadow Tennis Club)

Hebard was a long-time member of Fox Meadow Tennis Club, in Scarsdale, NY, where he excelled in both tennis and platform tennis. He won the National Boy’s Singles Championship at the age of fourteen. In both tennis and platform tennis, he was a relaxed, classic stylist, and he was highly respected by everyone, both partners and opponents.

“Dick Hebard rarely plays a poor game and is one of the most consistently good players platform tennis has produced. His service is exceptionally good and his other strokes are all first-rate. While he doesn’t use the drop volley as often or as effectively as, for example, Frank Guernsey or Fred Walker, Dick’s overheads are varied in pace and better placed in the corners than those of most of the other good players. His forehands and low volleys are among the best. His greatest asset as a player is an intangible one, but felt, nevertheless, by those who have been his partners: the ability to inspire confidence, to bring out the best in those with whom he plays. As a girl with whom he had won an important tournament expressed it to me: “Dick never looks worried or put out when I am playing badly. He takes it in stride as though he was sure that I’d soon get out of my slump. And, thanks to him, I find that I do get over it and am playing again as well as I know how.” In the national championships Dick has been on the winning team five times in men’s doubles and four times in mixed doubles, a record equaled only by that of Charley O’Hearn, and made against particularly strong competition.”

Hebard attended the Hill School in Pottstown, PA and Springfield College, MA where he also played football and was captain of the basketball team. After serving in the US Navy during WW II, he joined his father’s firm, R. W. Hebard & Co., Inc. in New York City doing business with clients in South America.

Sources: Fessenden S. Blanchard, Platform Paddle Tennis, 1959.