A Tribute to Ron Adams

Our Minnesota handball fraternity mourns the loss of Ron Adams who passed away June 20th at age of 64 after a valiant 12-year battle with lymphatic cancer. Ron was one of the prime supporters of what he termed the "ultimate game" dating back to his college days (Hamline University) in the early 50s. He was a top A-class player, excelling as a doubles partner. In 1956 he, with several other Midway YMCA players, originated the St. Paul Winter Carnival Doubles, which continues to be a premier event of the Twin Cities handball scene. As one of the founders, he served as president of the Twin City Handball Association in 1970.

Ron retired as a marketing manager with the Burlington Northern Railroad in 1982. Soon after he moved to Fort Worth, Texas to be with his wife who had been transferred by the Burlington Northern Railroad. He returned to the Twin Cities frequently to play with old friends and keep track of local sports, especially high school basketball. Ron had a prodigious memory for sports at all levels, high school to professional, "with the exception of everything but hockey", he liked to say with a chuckle. When it came to handball, he was a virtual encyclopedia. HE remembered with unbelievable accuracy the participants and results of matches, both local and national, played back in the days before hinders entered the rule book. Ron attended most of the Nationals from the amateur period to its present professional format. In 1994 he covered the Golden Masters for Handball Magazine when the Nationals were held at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

As a lifelong competitor he was disheartened by the loss of playing skills but he persevered almost to the last months of his life. At his funeral, the Reverend Mickey Dobbins, a fellow handballer, likened Ron to Vince Lombardi, saying, "Ron believed in God, his family and handball. There could be no more fitting tribute. To all his friends who were there for him in his last days, Ron wrote, 'Handball has been my life.'" His friends and fellow players respond "Ron will always be a true representative of what the game of handball is all about." He is survived by his wife Lucille, Fort Worth, Texas; daughters Ginny and Sherri, and son Mark, all from St. Paul. There are six grandchildren.