Wynn Rogers (1919-1996) was a doubles and mixed doubles specialist who
represented the United States on six Thomas Cup teams in his career.
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Stan Bischof.
Wynn Rogers was born in Burma in 1919, his parents being missionaries. He was sent to school in Granville, Ohio, at the age of 8, and excelled in tennis, track, and basketball in high school. He was such a good athlete that the University of the Redlands in California offered him an athletic scholarship in 1938. In his junior year of college, he entered a badminton tournament for collegiate players, and enjoyed it so much that he played as much badminton as tennis after that. He ended up playing Dave Freeman in tennis and badminton because Freeman was enrolled in nearby Pomona College. Dave would beat Wynn in tennis singles, but Wynn would beat Dave in badminton doubles.
Graduating in the early 1940’s, Wynn joined the U.S. Army and served in Europe during WWII. Stateside back in the U.S. with the Army, Wynn ended up in Louisville, Kentucky, where he met Evelyn Beyer whom he married in 1946. He became a Physical Education teacher at Arcadia High School in California, and they had two sons. Wynn returned to playing badminton, and was still playing Dave Freeman who had also graduated. Wynn won his first career XD title in 1947 with Virginia Hill, and was named to the first Thomas Cup team that same year. He played in Glasgow where the U.S. got to the semifinals, then went on to London where he was a finalist in both the MD and XD in the All-England Championships. He also played on the 1952 Thomas Cup, playing in Singapore; the 1955 Thomas Cup and 1958 Thomas Cup in Singapore; and the 1961 Thomas Cup in Jakarta, all five Thomas Cups in a span of twelve years. He served as the Thomas Cup coach in 1982.
Ranked #1 in MD in the U.S. for seventeen years (the last 14 seasons with Joe Alston), Wynn won 10 national MD titles and 8 XD titles:
Wynn won his last U.S. MD title at age 45 in 1964. He never had a coach, but being tall and lean, had an incessant attacking ability. He was an excellent strategist and daring tactician, a master at turning defense into attack. A great team player, he used careful shot selection. The Badminton Gazette of October 1952 called him the “world’s leading doubles player.” He was the author of “Advanced Badminton,” an excellent badminton instruction film. Wynn was inducted into the USA Badminton Hall of Fame in the inaugural group in 1956. He died of emphysema at age 76 in 1996. Wynn Rogers was a true badminton legend who loved the game and traveled the world to represent his country.
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