(February 6, 2006) - The College Squash Association has announced their 2006 Hall of Fame class, and among those inductees is Fordham Squash coach
Bob Hawthorn. The Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place on Saturday, February 18th.
Each year, the CSA Hall of Fame inducts players, coaches or friends that have had a major impact on the sport, which is exactly what Hawthorn has done over the span of his career at Fordham.
"This is a prestigious award with challenging criterion, and is long overdue for an amazing man, such as Bob," said Paul Assiaiante, one of the Men's CSA Executive Board members.
Hawthorn has single-handedly kept Fordham Squash on the map, since taking over the coaching reins in the fall of 1956, back when the squash team had to travel daily to the New York Athletic Club to practice and play its matches. He is currently in his 51st season as the head squash and men's tennis coach, the longest tenure of any Fordham coach in school history.
A 1953 graduate of Fordham University, Hawthorn was a standout in both tennis and squash and was inducted into the Fordham Athletic Hall of Fame in 1977. Hawthorn gained Eastern ranking prominence as a player in the 1950s in both tennis and squash. Following his graduation, Hawthorn enrolled in the graduate school at Rose Hill, (eventually earning a Master of Science degree in Education in 1960), and took over the squash coaching reins in 1956. By 1958, Hawthorn was coaching the men's tennis team and teaching at Fordham Prep, a position which he just recently retired from in 2005.
From a coaching standpoint, Hawthorn is one of three coaches to be a three-time winner of the "Iron Major" Award (1976, 1984, and 1985), given to Fordham's top coach each year. In 1998, he was the recipient of the National Intercollegiate Squash Racquets Association (NISRA) Lifetime Achievement Award, and just one year later, the renovated outdoor tennis courts at Fordham were renamed the Hawthorn-Rooney Courts, a dual honor for Hawthorn and former women's coach, John Rooney.
He and his wife of 45 years, Eileen, reside in New Rochelle. The Hawthorns have eight children, all of whom have attended Fordham and either played or served as managers of the tennis team under their father, to go along with 12 grandchildren.
