HUMBLED AMBASSADOR

I was initially hesitant when a handful of my former players reached out to me about the idea of recognizing me at this year’s US Open for my contributions to college tennis. When they told me what they had in mind, I said, "No, I don't want to do that. I'm not interested in that.” I said, "That's a self-promotion thing. That's not in my nature.” But they persisted and told me to think of it another way–it’s not for you. It’s something for your family, for your kids, and for every college tennis coach.

Along with being able to see my players at the US Open, I began to view this opportunity in the spirit of representing the coaching profession for college tennis, because we have some great coaches in the college tennis ranks. They're behind the scenes, and they don't get the publicity of being on tour and being on TV. But they're the people who are developing these players and keeping that pathway from college tennis to the pros alive. It’s a very viable pathway, and it has been for a long time. Then, when the academies came in strong for about 20 years, it dropped off a little bit. The academies were telling people to go out on tour because that's their mainstay–getting guys out there and getting a name out there as a former academy player. But now it's spinning back a lot more to the impact college is having, which is nice.

I've been in contact with all of my former players pretty regularly since they were at Stanford. I supplied this organizing committee with email addresses, and they wrote notes to all of them telling them what they were trying to do and asking for their support. They explained to a few people at the US Open what they wanted to do, and US Open Tournament Director Eric Butorac said they would be happy to help.

In the meantime, my players had done a whole series of videos on different facets of my life relating to tennis–even things they hadn't known about, including different initiatives and proposals that I worked on beyond my role as their coach. They had hired a documentarian from New York who did a series of video interviews to be shown on social media. They arranged to have me do a bunch of interviews for different publications and one for the Tennis Channel while I was in New York. The final one was for USOpen.org and it was hosted by Elise Burgin, who was a good friend from her Stanford playing days, and that was a great surprise to me.

They had a party on Friday night and invited all my former players to attend a social gathering at a bar in Manhattan. One of the guys there was on my very first team at Stanford as a recruited freshman in 1966. Then, on Saturday night at the Open, a guy was there who hit the last ball from my coaching career in 2004 to win the NCAA doubles title for Stanford in the last match of the NCAA Championships. We had a box at the US Open filled with former players. More than filled, frankly. They almost got in trouble for it.

It was really beautiful for me to see all these different generations of players over a 40-year plus span. To see guys from my first team in ‘66 to my last team in 2004 meet and talk to each other–that was a real thrill for me. They all had the common bond of Stanford Tennis, and it was really, really special. It was like a Stanford tennis reunion. We took one picture, and I think there were six or seven NCAA champions in it from Stanford. Just to see all those guys again in person and together was really a thrill for me.   The US Open showed a video between sets of the match in Ashe Stadium on Saturday night that had tributes from Billie Jean King, Coach K, the Bryan Brothers, and others Then, the cameras showed the box with all the players in there. Once the match was over John McEnroe and Mary Joe Fernandez stopped by. Then, Patrick McEnroe came by.

A coach doesn't hit a ball, so it's all the people around a coach that makes things successful. And I had great people around me. They were great players, but also great people, and I'm so proud of what they've done. In this day and age of instant gratification in college sports, where NIL money is a big thing and you can transfer if you don’t like who you are playing behind or how much you are playing, it’s nice to see guys giving back in so many different fields. Whether it be in tennis or medicine or law or business–it's just really gratifying to see what they're doing and how many of them are giving back. To me, that is the enjoyment of coaching–what happens to these guys after they leave Stanford.

Although I was reluctant to have the spotlight on me at the US Open at the start, it meant a lot to me that my players wanted to do this. It was really gratifying, and very, very humbling.