Bruce Pontow

Born: Chicago, Illinois

Right-handed player

USA National Championships

Men's Doubles: 1976, '82, '84, and '86

Mixed Doubles: 1977, and '78

International Records:

Four-time Thomas Cup Team

USA Badminton "Walk of Fame" Inductee 1995

Bruce Pontow was born in Chicago in 1952. He attended Chicago public schools, and played a variety of sports including football, swimming, and track. He graduated with honors from Steinmetz High School and then attended Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Bruce has a Master's Degree in literature and has been teaching high school English for over thirty years. Bruce married Monica Malone in 1980 when he was 28 years old. He presently has three children, Brendan, Jessica, and Eric, and lives in Orland Park, Illinois, where he teaches at Oak Forest High School.

His parents introduced him to badminton at a young age because of a common illness that struck many young people in the early 50's, tuberculosis. Fortunately, antibiotics had just been discovered. After an operation to remove infected saliva glands and two years of "streptomyocin," Bruce began to recover and catch up in school.

Doctors advised Bruce's parents to keep him active since tuberculosis is not curable and has the ability to become active again in individuals with weak immune systems. Across the street from his Westside Chicago home was a park that had a badminton club. At six years old Bruce and his mother both began to play.

There were several active badminton clubs in Chicago and a strong contingent of local players. When it was clear that Bruce had talent for the game of badminton, the adults took notice. He was twelve years old when he raised fifty dollars to give to his mother so he could attend the Junior Nationals in Houston, Texas.

Many junior nationals followed. Bruce won the doubles and mixed doubles at every age division foreshadowing his future success in American badminton as a doubles specialist. He won the U.S. National Men's Doubles title four times and twice won the National Mixed Doubles title. His partners in the men's event were Don Paup and Matt Fogarty; in mixed, Pam Stockton Brady.

Bruce also was a four-time member of the U.S. Thomas Cup Team, and twice was a member of the Pam American Team. His first Thomas Cup was a dual match against Peru in 1967 and he was just 16 years old. Bruce also participated in a Thomas Cup in 1986, nearly twenty years later.

Bruce was most proud of his record in international play. He and Matt Fogarty, his partner in most of the Thomas Cup events, maintained a very high winning percentage-unusual for any American singles player or doubles team through the period of the 70's and 80's. His proudest moment was in 1984 when he played a Korean team, ranked number one in the world. They rested one of the members of the team, however, and replaced him with the number one mixed doubles player in the world, still a formidable combination. It took Bruce and Matt only two games to defeat them and shock the Koreans who expected the Americans to be walk-overs.

Bruce is a member of the USA Badminton Walk of Fame. He continues to play recreationally in the Midwest and assists with teaching badminton at the Eastern Illinois Badminton Camp.