It’s been more than 35 years since Ronald Reagan stated, during his first inaugural address, “Those who say that we’re in a time when there are no heroes, they just don’t know where to look.” We discovered heroes in every state, starting with the determined 69-year-old who won a match at an ITF Pro Circuit event earlier this year in the Alabama town of Pelham, and culminating with the coach who has overcome multiple sclerosis to build a winning program at the University of Wyoming. Their compelling stories of courage, perseverance and achievement demonstrate that the message delivered by our 40th President rings as true today as it did then.
In August 2008, just a few days before the U.S. Open was to kick off in Flushing Meadows, pro tennis was taking place in another Queens neighborhood. The West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills—the home of the Open from 1915 to 1917—was hosting a 16-player WTA tournament inside a dilapidated stadium with little fanfare and an air of desperation. The facility had fallen on hard times, its upkeep at considerable cost to its members. In the ensuing years, that membership was asked to vote on whether the iconic venue—where champions like Don Budge, Rod Laver, Billie Jean King and Chris Evert once hit forehands and lifted trophies—should make way for desirable real estate.
“They didn’t want to give away the club,” Bob Ingersole, tennis director at the West Side Tennis Club, told CBS New York earlier this year. “It’s a magical place.”
