Patricia Stephens

ATHLETE-RIGHT HANDED

International Records:

All-England Mixed Doubles Champion 1949

National Records

1948 - U.S. National Mixed Doubles Champion

1962 - U.S. National Women's Doubles Champion

Patsey started playing badminton when she was eight years old. Her father introduced her to the game, along with Frank Devlin, in the Baltimore area. She entered her first tournament in New York, and lost in the second round to Helen Gibson, a 1959 Hall of Fame inductee and U.S. national champion. From then on, there was no looking back. She met Clint Stephens, her future husband, when she was nine. He was nineteen and had come to the Baltimore area to play in a local tournament. She began playing mixed doubles with Clint when she was sixteen, fell in love, and married him a year later. Clint and Patsey were a successful team and dominated mixed doubles for five years. After five successful years, she semi-retired from badminton and began raising a family of two children. During the time of her active retirement, she continued to run Saturday clinics in the local area for five years until the program out-grew the facility. The number of juniors grew from a few to as many as 125, and on only four courts. This was her way of giving back to badminton for all the fun and wonderful experiences she had received. Patsey's prize win was a feat very few U.S. players have ever accomplished--winning the 1949 All-England Mixed Doubles Championship with her husband Clint. This was a terrific win and established her and her husband, along with other U.S. players, as world-class players. During her competitive career, she competed with many of badminton's legends--Dave Freeman, Judy Devlin Hashman, and Ethel Marshall. In 1962, some thirteen years after her spectacular win at the All-England's, she partnered with Judy Devlin Hashman and won the U.S. National Women's Doubles Championship.