My reference points for Racquet Club aren't great. I'm not one of those guys that thinks twenty-first century perfumes suck, or that perfumery died when oakmoss and animalic-resinous materials went out of style, so I was never mired for more than ten minutes in stuff from the sixties and seventies. Stuff like Monsieur Rochas (1969), N°19 (1971), Lacoste (1984), and the original Lacoste Eau de Sport by Jean Patou (1968), as well as Givenchy III (1970) and Old Spice Lime (1965) are what I use for comparison, and MEM's fragrance doesn't really align well with any of them, other than perhaps Monsieur Rochas and Lacoste Eau de Sport. Released in 1978, Racquet Club is an early iteration of a standard masculine pre-eighties sport scent, with the obvious reference to sport in its name, and a fresh, citrus-aromatic scent in its plain, working man's flacon.
This was drugstore fare in the late seventies, and my bottle probably cost between four and seven dollars in its release year (roughly between $18 and $30 adjusted for inflation). Not ridiculously expensive, but also not dirt cheap, either. The English Leather flagship of the Austrian MEM Company clearly served as the template for Racquet Club, as its burnished citrus is hinted at here, but the latter scent is brighter and fresher, with crisp lemon, lime, bergamot, lavender, and geranium, followed by clary sage and sweet coumarin with a hint of cured tobacco leaf in the base. What strikes me is the quality of materials, and how well they've held up -- this cologne dances and swirls upon application, its notes shimmering, its citrus and lavender as bright as the morning sun. Its mellow/sweet drydown is equally rich and natural in feel, making the entire wearing a true "vintage" experience. They don't make 'em like they used to.
My takeaway from it is that seventies sport frags were a gajillion miles away from what gets called "sport" in 2024, but I already knew that. Those who are just getting into fragrance and are interested in the sport genre would be well served to investigate things like Racquet Club, Pino Silvestre Sport, Claiborne Sport, and Adidas Sport Field, as well as Lacoste Eau de Sport, Sport de Paco Rabanne, Basix by Aramis, Jōvan Sport Scent, and Boss Sport. The world was very different, very different indeed.