Peter Briggs

Peter Briggs is the longtime Director of Squash of The Apawamis Club in Rye, New York, and a member of the U.S. Squash Hall of Fame. Early career Peter Sheffield Briggs, the son of English parents and a native of Greenwich, Connecticut, first learned squash at The Field Club in his home town. He continued to pursue racquet sports at Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts where he also excelled in soccer. Briggs played #1 on the tennis team for 3 years and served as its captain in 1968 and 1969. He was considered one of the Private School Tennis League's best players. In his senior year he claimed a victory in the Class A competition over David Talbott from Deerfield (the brother of his future doubles partner Mark Talbott) in the 1969 New England Squash Tournament. He also led Middlesex to the team title in squash. As a freshman at Harvard University, he secured the top seed spot on the varsity squash team and was ranked #1 in the country. An intercollegiate champion, Briggs became Captain of the Crimson squash team and Harvard won the NCAA title that year. His squash coach at Harvard was Jack Barnaby, considered by many to be the most successful coach in Harvard history; Barnaby also coached Briggs in tennis. In January 1973, Briggs would win the singles final at the 31st Apawamis Club Invitational, nearly 15 years before he would become the head pro there. He finished his senior year, receiving a BA in Classics. Immediately after graduation, Briggs was hired to co-coach the Radcliffe tennis and squash teams with a fellow squash teammate, Dan Gordon. That same year, he also co-founded a sports apparel business named Boast with a group of fellow Ivy League athletes. A lefthander, Briggs won the Apawamis Invitational again in 1975.