Retired Firefighter, Handball Champion Dies

Retired Firefighter Vic Hershkowitz, known as the Department’s most accomplished athlete, died at a Florida hospital in late June at the age of 89.

Hershkowitz joined the FDNY in April 1950, assigned to Engine 327, after serving as a New York City police officer.

During his 23 years as an FDNY firefighter, he worked out of Engine Companies 9, 246 and 319. He also spent several years on Ambulance #2 and #3, a special transport unit that drove injured firefighters, before retiring in July 1973.

Yet even before joining the Department, Hershkowitz was a legendary handball player, with many describing him as the “Babe Ruth of handball.”

He learned the game on the playgrounds of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, often playing with the future Hall of Fame basketball coach Red Auerbach and boxing promoter Jimmy Jacobs. In 1994 he told a reporter from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel he began playing handball because it was the only sport he could afford - only needing a black Spalding ball, a pair of inside-out dress gloves and a concrete wall.

In his time off from the firehouse he went on to become a handball superstar.

He won 23 singles and doubles handball championships and 12 national Masters titles from 1942 to 1961, including a record nine consecutive three-wall singles championships from 1950 to 1958.

He was inducted into the United States Handball Association Hall of Fame in 1957.

Hershkowitz is survived by his wife, Jennie Tartaglia, two children and two step children, as well as many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.