Published by Scribner in September 2003, Squash has a foreword written by the late George Plimpton. The first history of the game in the United States, Squash incorporated every aspect of the popular sport. Invented by English schoolboys in the 1860s, squash first came to the United States in 1884 when St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire built four open-air courts. The game took hold in Philadelphia, where players founded the U.S. Squash Racquets Association in 1904, and became one of the primary pastimes of the nation’s elite. Squash launched a U.S. Open in 1954, but its present boom started in the 1970s when commercial squash clubs took the sport public. In the 1980s a pro tour sprung up to offer tournaments on portable glass courts in dramatic locales such as the Winter Garden at the World Trade Center. The book was a catalyst for the 2009 documentary Keep Eye on Ball: The Hashim Khan Story in which James Zug appears.
- Listen to James Zug talk about the book on NPR’s “It’s Only a Game” from 9/13/2003.
- Read reviews of Squash
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