Jack Purcell

John Edward Purcell (December 24, 1903 – June 10, 1991) was a Canadian world champion badminton player.

He was declared world champion in 1933 based on his beating the top Canadian, American and British badminton players.

[1] In 1950, the Canadian Press named Purcell as Canada’s Outstanding Athlete of the 20th Century in the miscellaneous sports category.

[citation needed] Unlike basketball sneakers (running shoes hadn't been invented yet), Jack Purcell sneakers had perfectly flat soles, unmarred by grooves that could tear up clay or grass and skew the elasticity of tennis ball bounces.

Classic Purcell tennis sneakers are unchanged in appearance from their heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, when they were first nicknamed "Blue Tips" and "Smilies", but they have risen in price from about $20 in 1965 to as much as $150 or more today.