Spark — who was initially inducted into the Victorian Squash and Racquetball Hall of Fame in 2016 — was elevated to Legend status last month.
Although the planned ceremony was unable to proceed due to the coronavirus pandemic, Spark was still happy to celebrate the recognition.
“I was pretty proud when I got inducted into the Hall of Fame, and this is another step which was a nice surprise,” Spark said.
“I think there's only 12 legends, so it's a small club.”
Looking back on his 49 years involved in the sport — which includes state and national representation and 52 titles at a Vic Country level or higher — Spark most enjoyed his battles in the Masters divisions.
Those included two world titles — in 1994 and 2001 — a pair of New Zealand gongs, a dozen Australian championships and 16 Victorian successes.
“Probably the World Masters titles (were my favourite achievements),” he said.
“Originally I'd never played the professional circuit — back in the day you got married, bought a house and kept your job instead of turning pro — and even now there's not much money in it.
“But back when I was an amateur I played against some of the professionals in the Australian Championships.
“When we all got up into the Masters though they were all back down on my level in terms of having to have a job and everything else and not just focusing on squash.
“It was a thrill for them to be on my level and play them on an even keel.”
After growing up in Ballarat Spark moved to Shepparton in 1983, and was one of the drivers behind the formation of Goulburn Valley Squash Club.
He is still heavily involved as a committee member and coach.
“We rekindled it somewhat (locally),” he said.
“I'm on the committee and coaching the up-and-coming kids, but any adults who are keen to pick it up as well, we branch out into a bit of racquetball as well.
“We've got a really positive and productive committee.”
Spark hopes he can continue to bring new players into the sport at a local level — with the club eyeing a move to Shepparton Sports Stadium in order to ramp-up its presence in the community.
“If we can get a new court built in the stadium we can get that exposure up and work together with basketball, table tennis, badminton and everyone else,” Spark said.
“It would be open a heap more hours at the stadium with a manager, at the moment it's just night times and Sundays when we can get people there to oversee it.
“A few high schools have come down, but no primary schools, so that's where we need to get in, at that grassroots level.”
And Spark also enjoys giving any newcomers a quick lesson in how great squash can be for fitness levels.
“It's a quite intense cardio workout, we have a few footballers and the like come down for fitness and we have them huffing and puffing by the end of it,” he said.
“You can have a lot of control on the court, so I quite enjoy just feeding the ball from one side and watching them chase it back and forth.”
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