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By Bill Foley
of The
So long, ‘Gentleman Jim’
Great Falls handball legend
remembered fondly in Mining City
Jim Ritter
dominated the
“We had a trophy
one year to see who could get the most points off Ritter,” long-time
If Ritter, who died
March 17 at 83, doesn’t go down as the greatest handball player in the state,
he’ll certainly go down as the most decorated one.
The
Five of his titles
were won in The Mining City.
As the six-inch
consolation trophy indicates, Ritter also made it look easy.
“He didn’t waste
any time,” Cavanaugh, 76, says. “He beat me 21-2 and 21-1 a lot.”
Rocky Williams,
another long-time
He says that while
Ritter could have easily gave him a donut, he never did.
“Ritter always gave
me five or six points,” Williams, 71, says. “He was just a wonderful guy, and
he was the greatest player I’ve ever seen.”
Perhaps the best
thing that can be said about Ritter’s handball days is his nickname.
“He was known as
‘Gentleman Jim’ because he was a gentleman in the court and out of the court,”
Cavanaugh says.
Williams says
Ritter was a sportsman who should serve as an example for the players of today.
“Jim Ritter was a
wonderful person. He was a credit to the game,” Williams says. “He never argued
a call. He never questioned a double bounce — none of that stuff you see today.
“Of all the guys I
ever met playing handball, he was the top of the ladder.”
‘Like a cat in the
court’
The reason Ritter
is a legend in the handball court is his state titles. No player has won more.
Ritter could have
easily added to his state titles list, Cavanaugh says, but he rarely played
doubles at state. His 1947 doubles title with
Nobody knew more
about playing Ritter in championship match than Cavanaugh, who dropped the
chipper to “Gentleman Jim” six times.
“Ritter was like a
cat in the court,” Cavanaugh says. “He never hit a ceiling shot that I can
remember. They were all down low, and they were all rolling out.”
Ritter won his
first title in 1947 at the age of 25. His last came in 1969 when he was 47 and
beat a much younger Norm Gray, of
Tie-breakers to 11
weren’t commonplace until a few years later.
Gray, who won the
state title in 1968 and ’67 and
Ritter never played
in the open division after ’69, but he played in the masters and golden masters
divisions several times.
Ritter’s brother,
Jack, 79, who still plays a little handball in
Ritter also won
handfuls of
Peoples, 53, who is
battling knee problems in his quest to get back in the court, holds 15 state
open titles to go along with eight open doubles crowns and four
His last open title
came in 1999, and Peoples says his days in the open division are over.
Peoples arrived on
the scene just at the end of Ritter’s amazing run, and idolized the legendary
player.
In many ways,
Peoples says he mirrored Ritter’ style.
“Jim was not a
severe-and-shoot type,” Peoples says. “He was a control, get the guy out of
position type of player. He had great ball control.
“He played the
corners remarkably well. He wasn’t a straight-on shooter. That’s the way
handball should be played.”
Cavanaugh echoed
Peoples.
“Ritter was just
accurate,” Cavanaugh says. “His best shot was side wall-front wall, and with
either hand.”
‘He was feared’
Ritter, who
Cavanaugh says was about 5-foot-10, 180-pounds in his prime, never won a
national tournament like
But Cavanaugh said
the name Ritter was known outside
“We went to a few
Northwest tournaments,” Cavanaugh says. “I talked to some guys and they said
the first thing they looked at was where Ritter was. He was feared.”
While Cavanaugh
says Ritter displayed cat-like quickness, Peoples said his movement was
deceptive.
“Ritter wasn’t
extraordinary on his feet,” Peoples says. “He was bowlegged. But he had great
anticipation skills that gave him a jump to where the ball was.”
Another strength
Ritter possessed was a strong will to win, Peoples says.
“Jim was a fierce
competitor,” Peoples says. “If you beat him, you really had to beat him. Not
too many beat him.”
Jack Ritter says
hard work and tons of court time were big parts of his brother’s success.
“We played every
night, practically,” says Jack, who won a state doubles title with
So why didn’t
Ritter ever win a national title?
Williams says it
has something to do with the small YMCA courts where Ritter played.
Williams says the
old Great Falls YMCA courts were similar to the courts in the basement at the
old Butte Central, where many of
“Ritter was at a
real disadvantage going into the (regulation-size) courts,” Williams says.
In March 1954,
Ritter dropped a 21-10, 21-16 decision to eventual third-place finisher Jim
Jacobs in the first round of the national tournament in
After that
tournament, the chamber of commerce in
The letter, which
was written by top handball Robert W. Schoning and had parts of it printed in
the
The letter also
said Ritter arrived late in
“I had the
opportunity to chat with several of the top players regarding Jim’s play,” Schoning
wrote. “Some thought he would have beaten Jacobs if he had had the opportunity
to become familiar with the court.”
Ritter proved the
letter writer true by beating then-national champion Jacobs, 21-20, three years
later in an exhibition in
‘Unbelievable’
legacy
The fact that
Ritter never won a national tournament, however, doesn’t take anything away
from Ritter’s career, Williams says.
“He had shots that
were unbelievable,” Williams says of Ritter. “There isn’t anybody playing now,
in my opinion, that could beat him.”
For 23 remarkable
years, anyway, no
“Gentleman Jim”
gave the rest of the state very little hope of holding a trophy at the end of
any tournament.
Well, except for
that little one, that is.
“You wouldn’t get a
first-place trophy if Jim Ritter was in the tournament,” Cavanaugh says.
“That’s for sure.”