Howard Head; Revamped Ski, Tennis Gear

Howard Head, who built ski and tennis equipment empires out of money borrowed from friends and $6,000 in poker winnings, died Sunday night. He was 76.

Head, who had homes in Baltimore and Vail, Colo., died of complications from heart surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

His innovations in the manufacturing of skis and tennis racquets helped introduce the sports to many.

“In both cases he took a sport that was a certain degree of difficulty and made it less difficult for the players. In skiing, he opened it up, literally, to millions of people,” said Hal Donofrio, a longtime friend.

“He did both these things because he wasn’t particularly good at either sport,” Donofrio said.

“He was intrigued literally with everything from why grass grows to why can’t I ski better. He pursued those things because, first he had the interest, then the God-given talent for inventing things or making things different from the way they were being made.”

Head founded the Head Ski Co. in 1948 after his first trip to the slopes left him frustrated with what he called “those clumsy, heavy wooden skis.”

The former aircraft engineer from Philadelphia wanted to make a ski out of lightweight aircraft materials.

After numerous experiments, Head successfully marketed an aluminum ski.

Head skis went on to win medals at the 1964 Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, and at the 1968 Olympics in Grenoble, France.

Although aluminum is no longer used primarily in ski manufacturing, Head’s invention got people in the industry thinking about different ways of making skis and cleared the path for other innovators, Donofrio said.

Head sold his company to AMF in 1971, retired and took up tennis, but was frustrated by his performance in that game as well because the racquet kept twisting in his hand.

He bought Prince Manufacturing Co., of Princeton, N. J., which at the time made only tennis ball practice machines. After two years of experiments, Head’s wider and longer tennis racquet was introduced.

The oversized racquet caught on quickly and is now widely used by tennis pros around the world.

Head retired again in 1982 when he sold Prince to Chesebrough-Pond’s.

In recent years, he was known for his philanthropy in the arts and sports medicine.

Head is survived by his wife, Martha; a daughter, Nancy Thode of Greenwich, Conn.; a sister, Jean Cooper of Boerne, Tex.; three stepdaughters, and five grandchildren.

Services are to be held in Baltimore later this week.