The success of the movie “Miracle” is bringing to a new generation the excitement and emotion of what many call the greatest upset in the history of sport: the 1980 US Hockey team’s semifinal Olympic win over the Russians at Lake Placid.
A year later, squash’s own miracle match was staged at the British Open in Bromley, where Jahangir Khan and Geoff Hunt played a match that is still considered today to be one of the greatest in history.
Hunt was the reigning champion, but he was getting old for squash. He was 36, and the previous year he had tied the British Open record of seven titles held by Jahangir’s great uncle, Hashim, who was largely regarded as the best player ever to have held a racquet.
Hunt began the game because of his father, who was both a disciplinarian and a squash fanatic. When young Geoff started to show interest in the game, his father would not let him play a match until he was able to hit the ball to good length for an hour by himself.
From that early lesson, Hunt’s style of play was set. He was fast and competitive, and he became famous for running 30 quarter-mile wind sprints in an hour, three times a week. In his mid-twenties, he found himself at the top of the world rankings, and he soon found himself catching up quickly with the seemingly untouchable seven titles won by Hashim. This was a matter taken very seriously by Pakistan, by the Khan clan, and by Jahangir himself.
Jahangir, only 17 in 1981, already was a phenomenon. Pakistani players were known for having perhaps the most exquisite racquet control in the game, but also were known to be perhaps suspect in the fitness department – at least when faced with the likes of Hunt. Jahangir was gifted with his racquet, but with the sudden and surprising heart attack of his brother, Torsam (himself a talented player who looked as though he might be the next great Khan), Jahangir became the first Pakistani player to focus on fitness. He decided that not only would he become fitter than the great Hunt, but also more powerful.
Jahangir and his coach and cousin Rahmat Khan, felt that the combination of touch, power and fitness would make a nearly unbeatable combination, and they devised a five-year plan for Jahangir to become world champion. Jahangir, however, had plans of his own; even though this match was nearly three-and-a-half years ahead of schedule, Jahangir wanted to be the one to defend Hashim’s record seven titles by simultaneously preventing Hunt from having the record alone and winning his own first title.
All during the tournament, the likelihood of a Hunt-Khan final was the talk of two nations. And when each actually got there, the atmosphere was as charged as any squash match in history. Hunt was fully aware that he would be battling not only young Jahangir, but the pride of the entire Khan family. Jahangir, for his part, used thoughts of his brother, his uncle, his family and his country as fuel for motivation.
As the match started, the two played excruciatingly long rallies, and before the first game was over, it was clear that Hunt already was fatiguing. But Khan was nervous, and he made uncharacteristic errors at the end of long exchanges. The first game lasted nearly fifty minutes, but Hunt won it 9-7.
Despite fatigue, Hunt actually stepped up the pace in the second game, and though Khan’s errors diminished to nearly none, Hunt had the look of resolve that he was not going to be denied on that day. He took it 9-6.
In the third game, though, the energy Hunt had given in the first two finally took effect. Though only occasionally would his face show the pain he was feeling, Hunt’s play was definitively slowing down. When Khan won the third 9-4, and went up 6-1 in the fourth, the coronation of squash’s new champion seemed both inevitable and only minutes away.
But then something happened: Jahangir hit two drop shots into the tin, and Hunt, who had literally tripped over his feet only two points before, saw those two shots and took heart. Spectators could almost visibly see him revitalize as though he had suddenly found Superman’s cape. Hunt was back.
The end of that fourth game was some of the most riveting squash ever played, as one player gave his last hurrah on the world stage and the other learned a lesson that he would not forget for a very long time. Hunt the fourth game and his eighth title in overtime, 10-8. The brutal match was two hours and 12 minutes long.
Though it is unlikely that this match will ever be made into a movie as the US-USSR hockey game has been, it paved the way for two legends. Hunt will forever be remembered for his miraculous resuscitation, while Jahangir used that loss to motivate him to do the only thing that would make up for it: he didn’t again lose in the British until it was to another Khan, Jansher, ten years later.
