My brother Corey and I started playing tennis about the same time we started playing golf and there were, at the time, three locations on Wilmington Island that we could play for free. Being left-handed, I enjoyed folks repeatedly serving into my forehand but after a set or two, they would catch on. We played a lot of tennis as well at Amelia Island Plantation and even got to attend the Virginia Slim Tennis Tournament when it was hosted there.
At West Point, it was easier to play racquetball and squash and so I did. My plebe year, I was on the intermural brigade championship team. We got in a bit of trouble for playing “We are the Champions” by Queen too loud as college age students do. I took racquetball as one of my physical education electives which I got a “B” in.
I would continue to play rackets in some form or another into my late 30s. I have not played pickleball yet but look forward to learning the game and playing some on our 2026 world cruise.
I really only have two notable racket stories:
- In my 2nd Army assignment, my platoon sergeant, SFC Edmonds, wanted to play me in racquetball. I beat him, barely, but his facial expressions suggested I had not. I asked him what was going on and he replied with a broad smile, “I am not left handed”. He proceeded to destroy me in the 2nd game. We would play many times over the years and I quickly determined that he was 15 years older than me and I could run him to the point of exhaustion and then have a 50-50 chance of beating him.
- I was driving in at 6 AM to play racquetball on November 18th at Texas A&M when I noted five helicopters circling the bonfire site. My son Greg and I had been there the previous night with his cub scout troop. The 1999 Aggie bonfire collapse killed 12 and injured 25.