Chicago defeated Minnesota in the first annual MuckLander Cup held at the University of Minnesota December 9 & 10. This event pit the top players from Chicago against the top players from Minnesota in a Ryder Cup style format that derived its name from the great handball players from the respective cities, Terry Muck and Dennis Hofflander. Six singles players were named by each side, ranked one thru six with each player playing two singles matches. #1 played matches against both #1 and #2 from the other squad with #3s and #4s hooking up and #5s and #6s duking it out. A total of three doubles matches were played as well, one by each doubles player. Points were assigned to each match with the higher ranked matches being worth more than the lower ranked matches.

Chicago used the same six players for both singles and doubles: Dane Szatkowski, Bill Mehilos, Dave Munson, Mike Munson, James Komsthoeft and Mark O'Leary. Minnesota, with the benefit of not having to travel, used more than six players. The first round of singles matches were played Friday night with the second round on Saturday morning. The three doubles matches were played Saturday afternoon. The Chicago players got off to a slow start after their long drive and lost four of the six singles matches on Friday night. They turned things around on Saturday morning taking five of the six singles matches in round two. This meant that the entire competition would come down to the three doubles matches on Saturday afternoon. The squad winning two of the three matches would be the champion. Chicago ended the analysis early by winning the first two matches and clinching the victory as Komsthoeft and O'Leary defeated Steve Johnson and Jeff Ryan in two games and Szatkowski and Mehilos did the same to Joe Hagen and Mike Gustafson. The final tally showed a Chicago victory with the point total of 87 to Minnesota's 72.

This event certainly added a new dimension to the standard handball tournament. The team aspect of the competition was certainly exciting and mirrored the excitement generated by the league playoff competition that we are so accustomed to in the Chicago area.

Next year's MuckLander Cup is scheduled to be played in the Chicago area in Fall '06 and promises to be just as successful.