Sport: Handball Inducted: 1991 Country: United States Born: October 5, 1918
in Brooklyn, New York Died: June 23, 2008 in Florida
“As
immortals are recorded in the heroics
of handball, the towering figure of
Victor Hershkowitz will stand apart
and above all,” wrote the president of
the United States Handball Association
in November 1968.
Beginning in 1942, by winning the
Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) National
One-Wall Doubles Championship
with Moe Orenstein, Vic Hershkowitz
accumulated 40 national and international titles, including
9 straight
Three-Wall Singles Championships—
from 1950 to 1958—a feat no other player
has equaled.
In 1952, he captured handball’s
grandslam—the USHA’s Three- and
Four-Wall Singles crowns and the AAU
One-Wall Singles championship. “The
grandslam,” explains The Encyclopedia
of Jews in Sports, “is akin to a baseball
pitcher winning 25 games and the batting
championship during the same
year.” His Three-Wall victories from
1950 to 1955 are considered international
titles.
In 1954, Hershkowitz was the first
handball player to win a careerfifteenth
U.S. national title, and between
1947 and 1967, except for 1959, he won
at least one national championship each
year.
Jimmy Jacobs (see next page), who
shared dominance of the sport with
Hershkowitz beginning in 1955, called
his senior court rival “The Babe Ruth of
Handball”.
