Marty Hogan (racquetball player)

Marty Hogan (born January 22, 1958 in St. Louis, Missouri) is a former American racquetball player who won more than 100 international or national titles and six U.S. national championships during his 14-year career. Hogan was ranked either number one or number two in the world from 1976 to 1990.cite web | url = http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/MartyHogan.htm | title = Marty Hogan Biography | publisher = Jewishsports.net | accessdate = 2007-11-10]

Early years

He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and learned racquetball from his mother, Goldie. In 1975 Marty won the United States Racquetball Association Junior Racquetball Championship. Hogan relocated to pursue professional racquetball to San Diego, California, as a teen and attended San Diego State University. Hogan is credited with revolutionizing the game of racquetball, with a serve that drove the ball as fast as 142 miles an hour. He won the U.S. indoor professional racquetball national championship five consecutive times, between 1978 and 1982, and won again in 1986. In 1979 he also won the national outdoor (3-wall) championships.

Professional career and retirement

Hogan turned professional and won his his first professional racquetball title in Burlington, Vermont in 1975 and went on to become the first millionaire in the history of racquetball. Marty practiced a lot with doug thompson. Marty Hogan was so dominant that he lost only four matches in three years during his prime. He lost only one match in 1977, two matches in 1978 and one match in 1979. Hogan's greatest season was 1979, not only did he win the Pro Racquetball Nationals, but he also won the Outdoor Racquetball Nationals and the Paddleball Nationals. Marty is the only player in the history of the sport to win all three titles in one year. Marty also won a second Paddleball National Championship in 1987. He captured his final national racquetball championship in 1989, retiring the following year. Marty returned briefly and won his last professional racquetball title in 1991 sixteen years after he won his first professional tournament. After retiring from the professional game Marty competed in a hand full of national amateur events. Marty won three USRA National Doubles Championships, 1994 25+ with Jeff Conine, 1996 35+ with Steve Trent and 2001 40+ with Dave Peck. Hogan won the US Open 35+ Singles Championship in 1996. Marty was named the Professional Racquetball Player of the Year a record seven times in 1977,1978,1979,1980,1981,1982 and 1989. Ranked as the number one raquetball player of all time by "National Racquetball Magazine", Hogan was inducted into the USA Racquetball of Fame in 1997. In 2002 Marty Hogan founded The Legends Racquetball Tour. Marty was the winningest player on the Legends Tour, winning fourteen events. Hogan won the Legends Racquetball Nationals 35+ in 2002 and 2003. Marty Hogan won the Legends 45+ National Championship in 2005 and the 2004 US Open Legends Racquetball Championship. Marty also teamed with Cliff Swain to win the Legends National Doubles Championships in 2004 and 2005.cite web | url = http://www.hofmag.com/content/category/17/136/216/ | title = USA Racquetball Hall of Fame | publisher = Hofmag.com | accessdate = 2007-11-10]

References

* [http://usra.org/RecordBooks/USOpenChampions.aspx US Open Champions Classic Pros]
* [http://paddleball.org/pdf/singles.pdf NPA National Paddleball Champions]