Peter Bostwick Jr. - still a legend at 86
Despite a fleeting skirmish with the obituary page in the 2019/20 T&RA Annual Report, I am delighted to report that Pete Bostwick Jr. is still very much alive.
In June 2019, G.H. Bostwick Jr., Pete to the world and Papa to his family, was in his Long Island home talking about a lifetime of being good at many sports and how good those sports have been to him.
Over the course of his illustrious lifetime, Pete has been a legend at Real Tennis, Rackets, Tennis, Golf, Squash and Ice Hockey. The secret of his success? If you have good hand-eye coordination, you can learn to play all those games, but you never play them as you would if you stuck to one sport, Pete
said at the time. I played four racquet games at a national level, but I think I could have played at a higher level if I stuck to one sport.
Pete and his younger brother, Jimmy, came from a family of athletes. Their father, Pete, a Hall of Fame polo player and jockey, was on six U.S. championship
polo teams and was America's leading steeplechase rider from 1928-31, during which he rode in three British Grand Nationals. Their mother, Laura Curtis
Bostwick, was a fine golfer. Great aunts, Harriot and Margaret Curtis, were champion amateur golfers who founded the Curtis Cup Matches, a biennial
competition between the best women amateurs from the U.S. and Great Britain & Ireland.
Throughout his life, Pete has been known as much for his character as for his athletic achievements. He never competed with aggression, but with relentless precision, perseverance, and a positive spirit, along with impeccable sportsmanship.
The full article, written by Bill Fields in The Met Golfer magazine is attached, with kind permission of the Bostwick family. The greater athlete you've never heard of - you have now!
There is also an excellent piece by Jim Zug which covers both Peter and Jimmy Bostwick.