Stanton Hales
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It gives me great pleasure to have this opportunity to introduce the next recipient of the USA Badminton "Walk of Fame" award, Dr. Stanton Hales. Stan started playing badminton at the age of twelve under the watchful eyes of Loma and Hewlett Smith and Joe and Lois Alston, becoming an accomplished player in his late teens. In 1967, Stan was named to the Thomas Cup team which defeated Jamaica and Canada, and ultimately lost to Japan in Jakarta, Indonesia. He again played Thomas Cup in 1970, and won the U.S. national singles titles in 1970 and 1971. Stan's wife, Diane, also won the 1971 national singles title, making them husband and wife winners in the same year, a remarkable achievement. He and Diane have two children, Chris and Karen. Chris is in his last semester in law school, and Karen is a professor of biology at Davidson College. In 1990, Stan and his family moved from California to Wooster, Ohio, where he became the President of Wooster College, his current position. Stan and Diane coached both of their children and several other prominent juniors during their time in Ohio. Stan's excellent performance as a player is overshadowed only by his many contributions to U.S. badminton and to the sport in general. Stan served as President of the Pasadena Badminton Club from 1982-1985. He served on the U.S. Badminton Association Board of Directors from 1968-1974, and from 1978-1989. From 1983-1985, he was Vice-President of the USBA, and President of the association for four years, 1985-1988. During his tenure as President, Stan drove the entire process of the USBA's becoming, first a Class C, then Class A member of the U.S. Olympic Committee. He appeared at all membership hearings and continued to represent the Association at USOC executive board meetings for the next two years. Stan chaired or co-chaired three national junior championships: the 1964, 1971, and 1994 tournaments held at Pomona College, Claremont, CA; Manhattan Beach, CA; and The College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio, respectively. He served as U.S. Olympic Festival tournament director and official referee in Oklahoma in 1989, Los Angeles in 1991, and San Antonio in 1993. As the USBA delegate to the International Badminton Federation from 1985 to 1999, Stan served as Member of the Council for ten years, and chaired the Rules and Laws committee from 1997-1999. In addition to all of the above, he was a certified umpire from 1985-1995, and has been an accredited referee from 1989 until 2004. Stan has also served as official referee or tournament director for numerous other national regional events. Another project that Stan is extremely proud of is the worldwide publication of a statistical comparison of the Wimbledon tennis final between Boris Becker and Kevin Curran and the Canadian Open badminton final between Morten Frost and Han Jin. He feels that this publication has done much to help contribute to badminton's legitimacy. Stan is most proud of guiding the USBA into the Olympics, but he is equally enthusiastic about his ability to contribute to the sport at all levels over an extended period of time. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you my longtime friend, Dr. Stan Hales.
