The longest consecutive running handball tournament in the state of Illinois celebrated a golden anniversary this past November. The first tournament was hosted by the Town Club in Chicago in 1952 with 40 entries. Herb Bernstein was the first winner over Bill Stevenson in a 21-13, 21-19 victory (Ace 1/53).

Eligibility was restricted to those players who had never won a tournament sponsored by the AAU, USHA or YMCA except in club competition. Over the years the tournament went through a number of name changes. From 1952 to 1962 it was designated at the Illinois Novice Tournament. However, in 1963 USHA President Bob Kendler, "in an effort to find a more suitable name for this tournament, came up with The Central USHA Golden Gloves Tournament. The former "novice" name is not thought of too well, and now that the Golden Gloves Boxing Tournament has been discontinued, Kendler thought the name was apropos" (Ace 12/63). With the name change the USHA also provided the winner with a round trip ticket to the USHA Four-Wall Nationals. Jack McDonald has the distinction of being the only Golden Gloves winner, as the name lasted only one year.

In 1964 it was renamed The Central USHA Contenders. That year the tournament was hosted by the Northwest Suburban YMCA (later the Lattof YMCA) and Dennis Hofflander was the winner over a field of 70 entries (Ace 11/64).

In 1982 when the USHA headquarters moved to its current site in Tucson, the name of the tournament was changed once again the IHA Contenders (Handball 1/83). Beginning that year, the trip to the nationals was no longer provided for the winner.

With the passing away of USHA National Junior Chairman and long-time IHA officer, Joe Ardito, the IHA renamed the 1992 tournament in his honor to be continued in perpetuity.

This writer had the good fortune of spending a marvelous couple of hours with one of the original founders of the Illinois Handball Association, Wally Knorowski, who served as its secretary until the early 1990's. A 1935 graduate of Lane Tech in Chicago, Wally started playing at the Division Street YMCA. And like most members of his generation, his life was interrupted with the advent of World War II. A first class petty officer in the Sea Bee's, he saw duty in the South Pacific from Guadacanal (1943) to the invasion of Okinawa (1945). At the conclusion of the war he returned to Chicago, and within the next several years, along with Hally Gradman, Bill Binger, and Gerald Marozzi, founded the IHA and initiated the Novice/Contenders Tournament in 1952.

This year's winner, David Munson, a Lake Forest College sophomore, added his name to the list of illustrious champions. Munson had his hands full in the finals with the fast-improving Jamie Simon, A Don Quinlan (Lattof YMCA) protege. Simon won the first game 21-18. But the energy expended in a tie-breaker match in the quarterfinals and a tough 21-20, 21-19 semifinal match versus David's older brother, Mike, definitely fatigued Jamie. David responded with a 21-12, 11-2 victory. In the drop-down bracket Alex Martinez of Lake Forest defeated Tyler Stevens of Toledo, Ohio, 21-14, 21-17.
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