The Pittsburgh Triangles were a charter franchise of

World Team Tennis World TeamTennis (WTT) was a mixed-gender professional tennis league played with a team format in the United States, which was founded in 1973. The league's season normally took place in the summer months. Players from the ATP and WTA would ...

(WTT). The Triangles won the

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

WTT Championship. The team folded after the 1976 season.

Team history

The Triangles were founded in 1973 as a charter member of WTT by Century Features, Inc. owner Charles "Chuck" Reichblum (later popularly known as "Dr. Knowledge"), industrialist John H. Hillman III, and lawyer William "Bill" Sutton. In 1972, the three

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

executives had previously founded the similar National Tennis League (NTL), a forerunner to WTT and Reichblum's brainchild, which was made redundant by the advent of WTT (founding members of which had been invited to join the NTL prior to formation of the competing WTT in 1973). The team began play in WTT's inaugural 1974 season. Just prior to the start of the Triangles' initial season, on May 1, 1974, Fox Chapel

insurance broker An insurance broker is an intermediary who sells, solicits, or negotiates insurance on behalf of a client for compensation. An insurance broker is distinct from an insurance agent in that a broker typically acts on behalf of a client by negoti ...

, sports promoter, and

financier An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital the investor usually purchases some species of property. Types of in ...

Frank B. Fuhrer purchased a controlling interest in the team. Fuhrer was elected the team's

chairman The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the gro ...

. Reichblum remained

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

and

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

. Sutton remained part of the ownership group and was re-elected as the team's secretary-treasurer and general counsel. The Triangles played their home matches at the Civic Arena in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. During their first season, the Triangles, clad in bright yellow and green uniforms, played in the WTT Eastern Division with teams from

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

, and Toronto-Buffalo. The Triangles folded following the 1976 season.

Coaching

The Australian tennis star Ken Rosewall coached the original Pittsburgh Triangles team in 1974. Rosewall's top players were Evonne Goolagong, who had already captured her first Wimbledon singles title in 1971, and young phenom Vitas Gerulaitis. Vitas, nicknamed the Lithuanian Lion, had recently won the West Penn Open in Mt. Lebanon and would go on to win the 1975 Wimbledon men's doubles crown (with Sandy Mayer) and the 1977 Australian Open men's singles title.

Players

Squad 1974

Evonne Goolagong was not allowed to participate in the 1974 French Open due to her association with WTT and the Triangles. *

Ken Rosewall Kenneth Robert Rosewall (born 2 November 1934) is an Australian former World number one male tennis player rankings, world No. 1 professional tennis player. Rosewall won 147 singles titles, including 23 majors: a record 15 Major professional te ...

, head coach *

Vitas Gerulaitis Vytautas "Vitas" Kevin Gerulaitis (July 26, 1954 – September 17, 1994) was an American professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 3 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in 1978. Gerulaitis won the men's si ...

Evonne Goolagong Evonne Fay Goolagong Cawley (née Goolagong; born 31 July 1951) is an Australian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), and was one of the world's leadi ...

* Peggy Michel * Harold Solomon * Laura duPont * Mona Schallau *

Jeff Borowiak Jeff Borowiak (born September 25, 1949) is a former professional tennis player from the United States, who won five singles and three doubles titles during his professional career, reaching a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals, ATP ...

Kathy Blake Kathleen Blake (born December 18, 1946) is an American former professional tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams ...

* Patrick DuPre * Jane Stratton * Tom Edlefsen * Gerald Battrick *

Brian Teacher Brian David Teacher (born December 23, 1954) is an American former professional tennis player. He reached career-high rankings of world No. 7 in singles and world No. 5 in doubles, both in 1981. Teacher is best remembered for being a major sing ...

* Isabel Fernández * Anand Amritraj *

Paolo Bertolucci Paolo Bertolucci (; born 3 August 1951) is an Italian former professional tennis player. He is currently working as a sport commentator for Italian SKY Italia, Sky TV. Bertolucci won the Davis Cup with Italy in 1976. His greatest success on ATP ...

Squad 1975

Two days after winning the WTT championship Fuhrer traded

Kim Warwick Kim Warwick (born 8 April 1952) is an Australian former professional male tennis player who competed on the ATP Tour from 1970 to 1987, reaching the singles final of the Australian Open in 1980. He defeated over 35 players ranked in the top t ...

and Rayni Fox to the Cleveland Nets for Sue Stap. * Vic Edwards, Head Coach * Mark Cox * Rayni Fox *

* Evonne Goolagong-Cawley * Peggy Michel * Kim Warwick

Squad 1976

With Goolagong-Cawley signed for the 1976 season, Mark Cox was elevated to the Triangles' player-coach. The Triangles also recruited college star

JoAnne Russell JoAnne Russell (born October 30, 1954) is an American former professional tennis player. Career With playing partner Helen Gourlay Cawley, she won the Wimbledon ladies' doubles title in 1977. They beat the team of Chris Evert and Rosie Casal ...

and

Bernard Mitton Bernard Mitton (9 November 1954 – 5 May 2017) was a professional tennis player from South Africa. Mitton reached his highest singles ranking of world No. 51 on 15 December 1975, and his highest doubles ranking of 20 on 25 June 1984. His car ...

. Midway through the 1976 season the recently acquired Sue Stap was traded for Nancy Gunter. * Mark Cox * Dan McGibben, Head Coach (2nd half) *

* Evonne Goolagong-Cawley * Nancy Gunter (mid-season) * Bernard Mitton – 1976 Davis Cup * JoAnne Russell * Sue Stap

Results

*1974: 30-14 Second in Central Section of Eastern Division—defeated Detroit 63-27 First Round—lost to Philadelphia 52-45 Eastern Division Final *1975: 36-8 First in Eastern Division—Bye in First Round—defeated Boston 2 games to 0 Eastern Division Final—defeated Golden Gaters (San Francisco) 2 games to 1 for WTT Championship *1976: 24-20 Second in Eastern Division—lost to New York 2 games to 1 Eastern Division Final *1977: Become Pennsylvania Keystones during off-season, intending to play home games in both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia; fold before season begins primarily due to financial reasons.

References

External links

World TeamTennis, official website

Love Triangles: Pittsburgh Adored its World Team Tennis Franchise by Rick Shrum (Post Gazette)

by Steve Dimitry {{Pennsylvania_Sports

Triangles A triangle is a polygon with three corners and three sides, one of the basic shapes in geometry. The corners, also called ''vertices'', are zero-dimensional points while the sides connecting them, also called ''edges'', are one-dimensiona ...

World TeamTennis teams Sports clubs and teams in Pennsylvania Tennis in Pennsylvania 1973 establishments in Pennsylvania 1976 disestablishments in Pennsylvania Sports clubs and teams established in 1973 Sports clubs and teams disestablished in 1976