WPH Press
The WPH has proudly presented the Race 4 Eight Sunday Stats since the start of the pandemic, highlighting the Race 4 Eight’s greatest champions, longest winning streaks, greatest accomplishments, tournament directors, nicknames, obscure stats, handball’s origins and history, and so much more. This Sunday we’ll discuss the Legend of Jimmy Jacobs.
Many of the greatest handball players and historians consider Jimmy Jacobs to be the greatest handball player of all time. According to the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame HERE, into which Jimmy Jacobs was inducted in 1979, Jacobs won every match in which he played between 1955-1969. Jacobs won the USHA 4-Wall national singles title in 1955, 1956, and 1957, and the USHA 4-Wall national doubles titles six times with Marty Decatur. Jacobs also won the USHA 3-Wall national singles title three times. Jacobs did not play in a number of the national events during his prime due to injuries and a lack of meaningful competition.
In a 1966 issue of Sports Illustrated, former MLB star turned author Jim Bouton wrote, “Jacobs might be the greatest athlete of his time in any sport.”
Jacobs was also a boxing manager, and with his partner Bill Cayton, owned the largest collection of fight films in the world with an excess of 16,000 fight films. Jacobs was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1993.
Information from this Sunday Stats found HERE
David Fink
WPH Historian