Margaret Varner Bloss (born October 4, 1927) is a retired American athlete and professor of physical education from

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the ...

who excelled in three distinctly different racket sports:

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players p ...

, squash, and

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...

. She is the only person to have represented the US at the highest level of international competition in all three sports,Profile
usabadminton.org; accessed October 29, 2016. and is the only person to have won the U.S. national singles championships of both badminton and squash or to have been inducted into the respective U.S. halls of fame of both sports.2006 U.S. Nationals - Past Champions
ocbadmintonclub.com; accessed October 29, 2016.
, us-squash.org; accessed October 29, 2016.

Badminton career

Varner's most impressive accomplishments came in badminton, which she took up at

Texas Woman's University Texas Woman's University (TWU) is a public coeducational university in Denton, Texas, with two health science center-focused campuses in Dallas and Houston. While TWU has been fully co-educational since 1994, it is the largest state-support ...

in the late 1940s, having gained prominence in junior and collegiate tennis. In 1955 and 1956, she won consecutive women's singles titles at the All-England Championships, then the world's most prestigious badminton tournament for individual players. She was a runner-up in the All England singles in 1957, 1958 and 1960, and shared the doubles title in 1958. The fact that she won only one U.S. Singles title in badminton (1955) is largely attributable to the presence of two formidable contemporaries:

Ethel Marshall Ethel Marshall (May 6, 1924 - June 12, 2013) was an American badminton player noted for her mobility and shot-making prowess. Career An all-around athlete who also excelled in softball and tennis, Marshall won the US Women's Singles title on al ...

and Judy Devlin Hashman. Along with Varner, they formed a kind of "great triumvirate" of American women's badminton. Varner was a member of the world champion U.S.

Uber Cup The Uber Cup, sometimes called the World Women's Team Championships, is a major international badminton competition contested by women's national badminton teams. First held in 1956–1957 and contested at three year intervals, it has been contes ...

(Women's International Badminton) teams of 1957 and 1960. After helping to secure victory in the second of these triennial events, she retired from badminton competition. She was inducted into the U.S. Badminton Hall of Fame (now called the Walk of Fame) in 1965 and the

World Badminton Hall of Fame The Badminton Hall of Fame honors players who have shown exceptional skill at badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms ...

in 1999.

Squash career

Before her badminton career ended, Varner started to make her mark in squash by reaching the singles final of the U.S. championships in 1959. In 1960, she won the first of four consecutive national squash titles. She represented the U.S. against Great Britain in the Wolfe-Noel Cup matches (1959, 1963), and Philadelphia for five straight years in the Howe Cup. In 2000, she was inducted into the U.S. Squash Rackets Association Hall of Fame.

Tennis career

Varner's early racket sport triumphs came in tennis with victories in National Junior Girls Doubles (1944 and 1945) and in numerous Texas state and regional events.ITA - 1996 Inductee Margaret Varner Bloss profile
, wm.edu; accessed October 29, 2016. She eventually played the circuit of national and international tournaments which, in this amateur-only era, were generally held in the six-month span alternating with that of most badminton and squash tournaments. Although she never reached the relative heights in tennis that she did in badminton and squash, she was a strong enough player to reach the final of Wimbledon women's doubles in 1958, losing to

Althea Gibson Althea Neale Gibson (August 25, 1927September 28, 2003) was an American tennis player and professional golfer, and one of the first Black athletes to cross the color line of international tennis. In 1956, she became the first African American ...

and Maria Bueno. Her Wimbledon partner that year was Margaret Osborne duPont with whom she formed a friendship that became a life partnership following duPont's divorce. In 1961 and 1962, the duPont-Varner partnership won doubles matches for U.S. Wightman Cup teams that defeated Great Britain.

Horse breeding

After her career in racket sports ended, Varner gradually immersed herself in a different kind of sports venture. Her marriage to horse trainer Gerald Bloss in the late 1960s produced a son, Leigh (born 1971). It also piqued Varner's interest in the breeding and training of

thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are ...

racehorses. After her husband's death, she pursued this interest seriously with her life partner Margaret Osborne duPont. They formed the duPont-Bloss Stables near El Paso and often gave their horses names taken from the argot of tennis and other racket sports.Diane Hales. "A Sportswoman's Dream Career", ''Badminton USA'' (Spring 1992), pp. 23-24. In 1996, they were ranked as Top Twenty Racehorse Owners by ''Thoroughbred Times''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bloss, Margaret Varner American female badminton players American female tennis players American female squash players American racehorse owners and breeders Tennis people from Texas People from El Paso, Texas 1927 births Living people 21st-century American women