Sports

Citizen Athletes

The Michigan Jewish Sports Hall of Fame will honor four.

Jeffrey Deitch

Paul Groffsky

DAVID SACHS
Staff Writer

dinner is longtime Detroit news-
paper sports columnist Joe Falls,
who will receive the Alvin Foon
Memorial Award for career
achievement and community ser-
vice. Singled out as Jewish News
Jewish High School Athlete of
the Year, male and female, will be
former Cranbrook-Kingswood
High School quarterback Sloan
Eddleston and former
Farmington Harrison hockey star
Kim Spaulding.
But joining Detroit Tiger leg-
end Hank Greenberg and four
dozen others in the Michigan
Jewish Sports Hall of Fame will
be:
• Dr. Jeffrey Deitch, a family
physician and current statewide
squash champion,
• Paul Groffsky, an estate
planning lawyer and former
University of Michigan basket-
ball captain,
• Bernard Kahn, a writer of
television situation comedies and

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doctor, a lawyer and a
Hollywood screen-
writer — typical
Jewish professionals —
or so it would seem on the sur-
face.
But when plaques bearing the
likenesses of Jeff Deitch, Paul
Groffsky and Bernie Kahn go up
at the Michigan Jewish Sports
Hall of Fame in the West
Bloomfield Jewish Community
Center, their unique achieve-
ments in athletics will be immor-
talized.
The Michigan Jewish Sports
Foundation will induct the three
sports champions at its 16th
annual dinner 6 p.m. Monday,
Nov. 6, at Congregation Shaarey
Zedek in Southfield. Fox
Sports/Detroit Tiger telecaster
Josh Lewin will emcee.
Also being honored at the

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Bernard Kahn

movies and a former backstroke
swimming star at U-M.
All three athletes are very
proud of their Jewish and
Michigan roots, and all were
standouts at the Maccabiah
Games in Israel.

Jeffrey Deitch

Dr. Deitch, who has a family
medicine and geriatrics practice
in Sterling Heights and Troy, is a
squash fanatic and currently
holds four state titles.
Deitch, a 39-year-old from
West Bloomfield, is the Michigan
singles and doubles champion in
the most competitive "A" catego-
ry as well as singles and doubles
champ in the over-35 age group.
He competes in the U.S. nation-
als , every year.
It's a great stress reliever from
medical practice," said Deitch,
who plays four or five times a
week. "Pounding a ball definitely
takes some of the stress out of

Joe Falls

the day. Squash can afford, in
45-60 minutes, as good a work-
out as any other sport. There's a
lot of skill involved, as well as
cerebral dynamics."
Deitch, originally from
Southfield, was introduced to
squash as a 14-year-old towel boy
at the former Southfield Athletic
Club in the Travelers Tower.
"Leonard Karpeles [Hall of Fame
inductee, 1992] was the racquet
pro at the club and took some of
the younger guys under his
wina b " he said. "Another teen,
Michael Yellin [Hall of Fame
inductee, 1989], went on to be a
world champ in racquetball.
Leonard helped me out with the
strategy and was one of my men-
tors."
Squash uses a "deader" ball
than racquetball, requiring more
force to propel it. "I'm active in
trying to teach younger kids
squash and helping to organize
HALL OF FAME on page 108

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