Column: At age 90, ‘Godfather of Aurora pickleball’ puts his own spin on favorite sport

Felix Yoffe has been many things in his 90 years of life – husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, Russian immigrant, Fermilab design engineer, woodworker extraordinaire.

But the one description that might “serve” Yoffe best these days is “godfather of Aurora pickleball.”

That’s the name many local players of this popular sport have bestowed upon the nonagenarian since he became an active part of the pickleball community a few years ago.

He plays with such a “wicked spin game,” notes fellow player Brian Tonner, that someone “called him out on his age,” even making Yoffe pull out his driver’s license to prove his date of birth.

May 10, 1934, it turns out.

Born and raised in Moscow, Yoffe worked as an engineer there until he and wife, Ina, who was a sound producer for the country’s sole and government-controlled television station, could no longer take the repression.

In 1981 the couple – he was 46, she 35 – left behind family, friends, careers and a comfortable life by their homeland’s standards, and made their way to America, first to Madison, Wisconsin, where a cousin working at the University of Wisconsin helped get them settled.

The Yoffes stayed only a couple years there, however, before taking the thousand dollars they managed to save and joining Russian compatriots in Los Angeles, California, where they bought a home and in 1987 became U.S. citizens.

But the West Coast was not their final destination. After Yoffe’s company went bankrupt in 1995 and there were few engineering jobs to be had, he landed a position with Fermilab. He and Ina, by now a computer programmer, settled in Batavia and lived there until six years ago, when they bought a spacious North Aurora ranch house now filled with the beautiful unique furnishings Felix designed and crafted in a basement woodworking shop any professional would envy.

Those skills with wood, by the way, were honed in his native country and put on a back burner until retirement. (He built three sailboats before immigrating to America and another five after his retirement). But the same was true of his athletic talents. Back in Russia, Yoffe was not only a skilled ping pong player, he excelled in volleyball, soccer, ice skating and sailing. And summers with his first wife and two small children were often spent kayaking in the wilderness.

But sports also took a back seat as Yoffe carved out a successful personal and professional life in his adopted country. By the time he retired after 11 years at Fermilab, he was 72 years old and hitting the scales at 210, not a good weight for a 5-foot 3-inch body that was already struggling with coronary issues, high blood pressure and bad knees.

According to Ina, her husband’s doctor warned him he had three months to dramatically change his lifestyle. And so Felix did, in large part by rediscovering the competitive athlete in himself.

Yoffe took up table tennis again with a vengeance. He won five gold and silver medals in the Senior Olympic Games sponsored by the Illinois Park and Recreation Association, says Ina. And when there were no longer players his age competing, he switched to pickleball in 2015, winning a silver two years later.

Using quick, calculating moves, “Felix is a trickster on the court,” says Tonner, who a few years ago began playing pickleball, which is one of the fastest growing sports in the country.

“He understands the strategy and not many people do,” agrees wife Ina, who does not play. “He sees every move coming and what can be done.”

Felix’s secret is his spin, and his goal is to throw opponents off their game and make them feel uncomfortable, adds player Michele Donovan, who met Yoffe five years ago on the Briarcliff Woods Park courts in Oswego.

“When you think it’s coming to you, it bounces and goes over five feet,” she says. “You have to get used to it.”

Yoffe plays the game five days a week. In the winter he’s at the Fox Valley Park District’s Vaughan Center in Aurora, and during the warmer months on the court at Briarcliff in Oswego or Hupp Park in Aurora.

“We were all so impressed with him. Everyone wanted to get to know him,” says Donovan, who hosted a 90th birthday party for her “charming” friend in May at Open Range Southwest Grill in Sugar Grove, where about 50 pickleball peers turned out to wish him well.

Yoffe was also named honorary chairman of the Kiwanis Pickleball Tournament held last weekend at Hupp Park. There, he made the honorary first point of the tournament, which raised $18,000 that will be split between the Aurora Kiwanis Club and Fox Valley Park Foundation, notes Tonner, the group’s immediate past president.

“You need to keep moving … both ways,” insists Yoffe in a heavy Russian accent as he points to his body first and then his head.

He and Ina both agree: It’s hard for Felix to sit. But that’s a good thing because his plan, he tells me, is to play pickleball as long as he can.

“Felix does not quit,” Ina insists, recalling a tournament when he was in his 80s, where he played 19 games for over six hours without taking a break.

“Oh yes, I was worried,” she admits, noting that other players decades younger wanted to stop but kept going because her husband would not give up.

“I enjoy the game,” Yoffe says with a shrug that’s quickly followed by a smile. “It is important to me.”

dcrosby@tribpub.com