Joseph Cameron Alston (December 20, 1926 – April 16, 2008) was an American

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

player who won major titles between 1951 and 1967.

Career

Despite a career in the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

which sometimes interfered with his

avocation An avocation is an activity that someone engages in as a hobby outside their main occupation. There are many examples of people whose professions were the ways that they made their livings, but for whom their activities outside their workplaces w ...

, Alston is the only male player to win each of the sport's three basic events, singles, doubles, and mixed doubles, at both the U.S. National Badminton Championships (closed to foreign competition) and the

U.S. Open Badminton Championships The U.S. Open Badminton Championships is an annual badminton tournament first held in 1954. During the 1950s and 1960s it often attracted the world's top players. The 2015 Yonex Suffolk County Community College US Open Championships, held in Bren ...

(open to foreign competition). He and long-time partner

Wynn Rogers Thomas Wynn Rogers (1919–1998) was an American badminton player who won numerous U.S. national titles from the late 1940s to the mid-1960s. Career Primarily a doubles player, the tall, rangy Rogers swept all available doubles events (Men’s ...

were ranked number one nationally in men's doubles for fourteen consecutive years (1951–1964). In 1957, Alston won the Men's Doubles at the prestigious All-England Championships with Malaya's Johnny Heah and remains the only American to share this title. Noted for his speed and crisp shotmaking, Alston was a member of seven consecutive U.S.

Thomas Cup The Thomas Cup, sometimes referred as World Men's Team Championships, is an international badminton competition among teams representing member nations of the Badminton World Federation (BWF), the sport's global governing body. The championships h ...

(Men's International) teams between 1952 and 1970 and played in four inter-zone Thomas Cup campaigns. He was featured on the cover of

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

on March 7, 1955. His wife, the former Lois Smedley, was an outstanding badminton competitor in her own right and played on 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) team of 1957.USA Badminton Walk of Fame Plaza: THE LADIES' INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TROPHY
/ref> Both are members of the U.S. Badminton Hall of Fame, now called the Walk of Fame. One of their sons, Tony Alston, was a leading U.S. player in the 1980s.

Major Achievements

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alston, Joseph Cameron American male badminton players 1926 births 2008 deaths San Diego High School alumni 20th-century American sportsmen