Today’s New York Times reports the death of Vic Hershkowitz one of the great handball players of all time.

Competing from the early 1940s to the early 1960s, Mr. Hershkowitz captured 23 national amateur titles, including a record nine consecutive three-wall singles championships from 1950 to 1958. He swept the one-, three- and four-wall singles championships in 1952. He later won 12 Masters events and played recreationally in South Florida into his 80s.

The article doesn’t mention Judaism or Jewishness, but it still manages to conjure up a lost world of Jews — a times when guys named Hershkowitz became known for their feats on the playgrounds of Brooklyn.

Plus, you’ll get get a chuckle from the name of Hershkowitz’s close friend:

“Vic had two great hands,” Phil Collins, a winner of many national handball doubles championships and a longtime friend of Mr. Hershkowitz, said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “He could hit the ball with his left or right hand and it would look like he was a natural.”

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