MikeMechanic
Rookie
What were the first 95 sq in racquets and when were they released? Must be in the 80s somewhere.
When and what were the first 95 sq in racquets?
- Thread starter MikeMechanic
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retrowagen
Hall of Fame
Probably the original Wilson Javelin, circa 1982.
Sanglier
Professional
I agree with Retro. "Javelin 95" was the first globally marketed racquet to explicitly use the '95' designation in reference to its head size.
However, Kuebler would argue that his 1977 "Plus 40" aluminum frame was the first (approximately) 95 in^2 production racquet in the world, just as he believes his 1976 "Plus 20" (roughly 80 in^2) should be considered the first midsize ever. In case anyone counters that 80 in^2 is a bit small for a bonafide midsize, he would point to his "Plus 30" from the same series, which came in at roughly 87 in^2. Since Howard Head's Prince patent was shot down in Germany, Kuebler was among the few manufacturers at the time who could market racquets with non-standard head sizes without paying Prince a dime or Pfennig, so long as those products were only sold in Germany.
Among the pre-Javelin-95 offerings, I would suggest the 1978/1979 BBC lineup came pretty close to inventing this head size category outside what Kuebler was doing in Germany. Several "oversize" models in this lineup had 97 in^2 heads. They were cleverly designed but often crudely produced, and were viewed with derision and contempt by the rest of the industry; which might be why they stuck around for only two years before disappearing into obscurity. However, one of these models, the "Big Ace", gave birth to multiple offsprings in the years that followed, with incremental improvements along the way as production shifted from the US to Taiwan. They include the Racquetech "Silver Fox", the Dunlop "Black Max Plus", the Tony Trabert "Big Bubba", the MatchMate "Graphite", the original Bard "King", the Estusa "XDH Turbo MP", and likely more. All of them kept the same head size and relatively open string pattern as the "Big Ace", which was quite ahead of its time in retrospect (it may be the only racquet made in the '70s that wouldn't look totally out of place on the court today, perhaps even more so than the venerable POG), and 'coulda been a contender' in its day had it been better made.
